Start here

 

The Massachusetts Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Massachusetts Office of Small Business and Entrepreneurship will
hold its annual celebration of Young Entrepreneurs honoring exceptional
Massachusetts companies on February 25th from 6-8 at the UMass Boston
Venture Development Center and in partnership Cambridge Innovation
Center will launch their Entrepreneur Speaker Tour Series to state and
community colleges, a program to introduce more college graduates in
massachusetts to the idea of pursuing entrepreneurship as a career path.

MORE

 

Mass Technology Leadership Council, Inc.

Formed by the powerful combination of Mass Software Council
and New England Business and Technology Association, Inc., the
organization is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and promoting
the success of companies that develop and deploy technology across
industry sectors.

MORE

---

 

Mass Econ

Looking to locate or expand your business here? Mass Econ is the
Commonwealth's central source of available property information in
Massachusetts. Mass Econ's Site Finder Service paired with its Research
and Information Service and Ambassadors program, ensure their ability to
provide decision-support to companies evaluating Massachusetts as a
location for their business

MORE

 

 

SPECIFIC INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS AND INITIATIVES

Click on one of the links below to discover support, associations and opportunities in each industry.

Clean Energy

Creative Industries

Defense Technology

Information Techology

Life Sciences

Manufacturing

Trade and Investment

 

 

Ongoing Venture Capital Support:

In addition to the upcoming open office hours, several local venture-captial companies have programs to help young entrepreneurs: Spark Capital's start@Spark, and Polaris' Dogpatch Labs. For more information on Dogpatch Labs click here.

 

 

Great news outlets/blogs to find out what’s going on in Massachusetts’ IT Cluster

 

Mass High Tech

Xconomy

Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy Blog

MIT Technology Review

Mass Innovation Blog

BostInnovation

POPSignal

VentureFizz

 

 

Regional EDCs

Regional organizations that provide resources and information to
businesses operating in or entering various area of the Commonwealth by
aiding in expansion, relocation and networking.

Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council

Berkshire Economic Development Corporation

Cape Cod Economic Development Council

North Shore Alliance for Economic Development

SouthCoast Development Partnership

495/MetroWest Partnership

North Central Economic Development Council

Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts

Startup Weekend

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers,
business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists
and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and
projects.The participants that attend a Startup Weekend decide what they
want to tackle over the weekend and come out at the end with several
developed companies or projects. Attendees are responsible for bringing
the same desire and passion to the project and walk out of the room with
the task at hand, in a short 54 hours. Sound intense? It is.

MORE

 

OPEN HOUSE SERIES

 

A number of innovative entrepreneurial massachusetts companies will
host open house receptions for the innovation industry state
legislators, students and more all over the state. These receptions will
include representatives from the extended company teams such as venture
capitalists, counsel, accountants, universities and corporate
partnerships.

 

Women and Entrepreneurship

Do women think, plan and grow companies differently?

Is Massachusetts a friendly environment for women CEOs?

We're assembling a great panel of successful women who will give you their take on
women and entrepreneurship featuring Sheila Marcelo, Founder and CEO of
Care.com and the evening's host Ellen Rubin, Founder & VP of
Products, Cloudswitch. For date and time click HERE.

HubSpot

HubSpot transforms a relatively
static website into a modern marketing machine that produces the right
leads and helps convert a higher percentage of them into qualified
opportunities. For date and time click HERE.

MORE

 

Vivox

Vivox is the leading provider of voice
chat services for online games and virtual worlds. Supporting over 15
million users in more than 180 countries and delivering over 2 billion
minutes of voice chat a month, the Vivox Network is the world’s largest
voice network for gamers. The Vivox voice chat solution is available on
multiple platforms – PC, web based and for the PlayStation3® console.
For date and time click HERE

MORE

 

RatePoint

Founded in 2006, RatePoint, Inc., provides small to medium-sized
businesses with an easy and affordable web-based communication solution
to build successful, lasting customer relationships, increase consumer
confidence and manage their online reputation. With RatePoint,
businesses can harness the power of credible customer feedback and
automatically promote it online to leverage customer reviews into a
sales, marketing and customer service asset. For date and time click HERE.

HELP FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

MedTech IGNITE

MedTech IGNITE, an initiative of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC),
provides free mentoring to medical device entrepreneurs at the early
stages of their company's conceptualization, formation and development

MORE

 

TechStars Boston

TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund. Each year
they run a summer-long program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

MORE

Web Innovators Group

The Web Innovators Group (WebInno) is comprised of people engaged in
internet and mobile innovation in the Boston area. They aim to support
entrepreneurs, visionaries, and creative thinkers in the field by
holding events which foster community interaction.

MORE

OpenCoffee

The OpenCoffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers
and investors to organize real-world informal meetups to chat, network
and grow. They gather every Wednesday morning in Central Square,
Cambridge.

MORE

Dart Boston

DartBoston is a community of entrepreneurs, students and professionals under 30 helping one another start businesses.

MORE

 

Check out these past DartBoston events:

Pokin' Holes Pre-Show

Pokin' Holes

Startup Job Panel

Drink Up Link Up

Capitalize Pre-Show

 

Betahouse

Betahouse provides coworking for entrepreneurs, technologists and creatives.

MORE

Awesome Foundation

Awesome Foundation awards $1000 grant to awesome ideas.

MORE

Mass Innovation Nights

Mass Innovation Nights connect Massachusetts-based innovators with the
marketplace using social media. Held at the Charles River Museum of
Industry & Innovation, the monthly Launch Parties are free for
everyone — companies and guests alike.

MORE

Hubspot.tv and Permission TV are two local companies doing live online TV shows on helping entrepreneurs with social media techniques.

The MIT Enterprise Forum

The MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge is
a volunteer, non-profit organization based at MIT whose mission is to
promote and strengthen the process of starting and growing innovative
and technology-oriented companies by providing services and programs
that educate, inform, and support the entrepreneurial community.

MORE

Silver Lining

Silver Lining is a
technology-focused group in New England that gathers to discuss issues
and opportunities which include innovation, standardization, security,
privacy, cloud computing, tech investment and other trends that arise.
They currently focus on cloud computing.

MORE

Social Media Breakfast

The Social Media Breakfast was founded
as an event where social media experts and newbies alike come together
to eat, meet, share, and learn. Marketers, PR pros, entrepreneurs,
bloggers, podcasters, new-media fanatics, and online social networkers
are all welcome to attend.

MORE

 

Greenhorn Connect

Greenhorn Connect is a Web portal Boston
region entrepreneurs, connecting them with the most comprehensive
resource listing and events calendar in the region, as well as other
relevant and original content. Greenhorn Connect is focused on fostering
community, as anyone can add a resource or an event to their calendar
and regularly invites guest bloggers from the region to share their
knowledge and experience.

MORE

 

The Capital Network

The Capital Network is a community for
entrepreneurs seeking between $50k and $4M who are building fundable
businesses towards an exit strategy.

MORE