What Makes The Boston Startup Scene Special? Jeff Bussgang Tells All.

Boston author, professor, and venture capitalist Jeff Bussgang is perhaps our greatest proponent of the Boston startup scene. “Every fall, I deliver a presentation at Harvard's iLab, open to the community, on what makes the Boston startup scene so special” says Bussgang. “It has become a nice opportunity to step back and appreciate all the rich resources entrepreneurs have at their fingertips in the Boston community. Here is this year's version (which I'm delivering this month), complete with a lot of updated content and data on our local tech hub:” 

Jeff's insights include the realization that those who compare Boston to California sometimes ignore the  fact that California is geographically, population wise, and economically much much larger than either Boston or New England.  But Bostonians try harder, averaging $4.3K/per person in venture capital, compared with $3.7K in California.

Jeff’s investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, e-commerce, education, financial, marketplace, mobile and SaaS start-ups. He is a General Partner at Flybridge Venture Capital. He also serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and teaches a class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called Launching Technology Ventures.  In this capacity, he has co-authored twelve HBS cases and notes regarding startup management and entrepreneurship.

Jeff also describes himself as a former entrepreneur turned VC, HBS Senior Lecturer, author, dad of three, husband of one, civic leader, Cross Fitter and fan of all Boston sports.

 

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Mark Heesen, NVCA President, friend to angels, retires

Mark Heesen, the hard working and frequent travelling head of the National Venture Capital Association for 14 years, and a good friend to the Angel Capital Association, announced on Thursday his intention to retire from his role as the nation’s top lobbyist for the venture capital industry.

“Mark Heesen and NVCA have been great resources for the Angel Capital Association,” says Marianne Hudson, Executive Director of the ACA.  “Early on in ACA’s development and even now, Mark and his team took the time to answer our questions and let us learn from their experience in growing an association of investors.  We’ve worked together on some public policy issues, notably Dodd-Frank and the definition of accredited investor, and have had a few of our conferences overlap so VCs and angels could network.  I have admired his leadership and will particularly miss him on the road.  I don’t have a million frequent flyer points like he does, but I have been in some of the same places, on the same podium.”

“After working for the NVCA for more than two decades and serving as President since 1999, I recently informed the board of directors of my intention to retire as head of the Association,” says Heesen.  “I  have planned this departure for some time. And the timing is right in my life, and in the life of NVCA, to begin that transition.

“Words cannot express what a privilege it has been to lead and advocate for the venture capital industry for the past 22 years. It has been an incredible ride, one that has seen tremendous progress and change in our industry and in Washington D.C. And personally, I have deposited well over a million frequent flyer points in my account, a milestone that has me looking forward to more time at home with my wife Stacy and my daughters Claudia and Amelia.”

Always pleasant, Heesen helped steer the venture capital industry through difficult times following the burst of the Internet bubble and the consolidation in the VC industry that followed. On his watch, Congress passed the Jobs Act, clearing the road a young company can follow to a public stock offering.

Many of his efforts came at a time when the NVCA’s membership was under great stress. The number of venture capital firms actively investing fell from 1,053 in 2000 to 522 last year, according to NVCA statistics.

 “After 22 years of leading the NVCA, Mark Heesen deserves a round of applause,” tweets Jeff Bussgang ‏@bussgang of Flybridge Capital.

Mark Heesen

Angel Tweets To Keep You Au Courant

Scads of valuable updates on angel activities and seed stage investing appear early on Twitter, but many angels are uncomfortable with the medium, either because they are unfamiliar with the syntax or they are drowned in a flood of irrelevant items. To use Twitter effectively it is necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff, then to recognize which one to discard.

As an experiment, we thought we would try doing this selection for you, at least this one time. Below are twenty tweets, pulled carefully from a haystack of thousands. You may recognize many of the tweeters. To access their wisdom, simply click any url posted in a tweet.

Were you on Twitter, to follow future tweets from a source you would use their identifier, which is preceded by the “@” symbol. For example, to follow Angel Investing News on Twitter you would follow @GeorgeMcQuilken.

If you would like to view additional tweets from any of the Twitterati shown below, just click on their photograph.

Enough explanation, try looking at a few tweets. Let us know if you find them valuable. We could easily publish an occasional dedicated post such as this one or we could add a few tweets at the end of our regular posts.

  Katie Rae ‏@ktrae Amazing piece. If, Why, and How Founders Should Hire a “Professional” CEO | Reid Hoffman - ... http://tmi.me/HLOgV 

 cmirabile Launchpad 2012 Year In Review http://scratchpaperblog.com/2013/01/launchpad-2012-year-in-review/ … via @cmirabil

  Joe Wallin ‏@joewallin Should Startups Announce Their Funding? (via @hackernodeapp) http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/01/26/should-startups-announce-their-funding/ …

  john frankel ‏@john_frankelA Closer Look At The Quality Of Angel Returns Data http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/26/a-closer-look-at-the-quality-of-angel-returns-data/ … via @techcrunch by @dteten 

  MassChallenge ‏@MassChallengeStudent #entrepreneurs join us for a night of panels, Q&A, networking @MassChallenge 1/30 http://bit.ly/14hXPtR  

  Marc Sedam ‏@UNHinnovationHow Lean Startup went from idiotic to overhyped http://zite.to/XFHsRi  as an avowed #leanstartup guy, I found this cool. Trust your gut works

   Kevin Steger ‏@StartupReportSome Venture Capitalists Aren't Worth Taking Money From - Techvibes (blog) http://bit.ly/Y5TC8a 

   Jeff Bussgang ‏@bussgangFun to see all the renewed energy around e-commerce in Boston. Next week's MITX event promises to be an excellent one…http://lnkd.in/wBtV_R  

  Kyle Alspach ‏@KyleAlspachCambridge Innovation Center (@cicnow) picks Kendall Square building for expansion, adding 52K square feet http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2013/01/cambridge-innovation-center-expansion.html 

• Jean Hammond ‏@jeanhammondexcited to see #EdGrowth Summit in NYC and next week http://learnlaunch.org  conference to add educators to the conversation 
• Wade Roush ‏@wroush
• A new funding source for women-led startups: Astia Angel, announced today by SF- and NY-based @AstiaGlobal http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2013/01/22/astia-forms-new-angel-group-to-invest-in-women-led-tech-companies/ … 
• Matthew Benson ‏@matt_benson
• RT @JMRaczka: Fast-growing high-tech firm @DynInc doubles Manchester Mill space | New Hampshire NEWS02 http://shar.es/CWdHQ  via @sharethis
•   Matthew Benson ‏@matt_benson
• I'll be presenting on #crowdfunding and university innovation at #UNH on Jan 24 http://bit.ly/U64p2f  @UNHInnovation @ideagreenhousnh
• Angel Capital Assn ‏@ACAAngelCapital
• The Year of the Angel Investors: ACA member @Techcoastangels plans to increase investments by 50 percent http://bit.ly/V78SAR 
•   Dharmesh Shah ‏@dharmesh
• Does It Pay to Become an Entrepreneur? - Forbes http://dharme.sh/VfmPR6 
•   Scott Kirsner ‏@ScottKirsner
• Today's Globe column: Restaurants are a tough sell for tech start-ups:http://b.globe.com/XNneal  via @BostonGlobe
•   MassChallenge ‏@MassChallenge
• Who applies to MC? #Infographics on applicant stats by @analoguestudio & 2013 tips on the blog http://tinyurl.com/ae9sfsb 
•   Don Dodge ‏@DonDodge
• @Bill_Gross If you can't convince anyone else to join you in your startup, you don't have a company or a vision. Co-founders = validation
• John Landry ‏@leaddog99
• Excellent review of FB's Graph Search feature coming to a device near you... It's a BFD!! @Xconomy http://www.xconomy.com/national/2013/01/18/facebook-used-to-be-fun-graph-search-makes-it-useful/?single_page=true … 
• cmirabile ‏@cmirabile
• Crowdfunding Efforts Draw Suspicion http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323783704578247380848394600.html?mod=djemTEW_h …

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