One of the hardest parts of navigating Boston’s startup ecosystem isn’t a lack of resources, it’s figuring out where the heck to find them. There are accelerators for early-stage founders. Lab space for biotech companies. Programs for AI startups. Communities for operators. Mentors who will sit down and help you work through a challenge. Government resources. Investor networks. Manufacturing support. Robotics infrastructure. And organizations built specifically to help founde

Most people I know under 30 aren’t avoiding homeownership because they don’t want it. They’re blocked by it. Down payments. Credit. Student debt. Interest rates that make a 30-year mortgage feel like a trap instead of a ladder. For a generation, “rent forever” stopped being a punchline and became the default. I’m 23, from Vergennes, Vermont, and I co-founded Fluid Equity Holdings with Peter Stevens because we got tired of watching that default harden. Our bet is simple: if so

What if you could bring one of the problems keeping you up at night to someone who has already helped solve it? That's the idea behind Founder Office Hours at Startup Boston Week 2026. On Wednesday, September 16 from 11:30am–1:30pm, we're bringing experienced founders, operators, executives, investors, advisors, and subject-matter experts together at Boston University to help startup founders work through real challenges. Maybe you're struggling to turn founder-led sales into

September is officially conference season in Boston—and this year, the startup calendar is especially packed. Across Greater Boston and New England, founders, investors, operators, students, researchers, and ecosystem builders have nearly nonstop opportunities to learn, meet new people, and plug into the innovation community. From Startup Boston Week and Boston Fintech Week to Boston AI Week, Rhode Island Startup Week, investor summits, demo days, and industry-specific gather

Living a life in service has always been a goal for Matthew McCurdy. His career has taken him to various roles in public health, both in the private and public sectors. It led him to co-found BLKHLTH, whose mission is to advance health equity through education, advocacy, research, and programs for Black community members. Along with his work in BLKHLTH, Matthew is also pursuing a Doctorate in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Matthew will be spea

Sometimes your startup needs senior-level expertise. It just doesn’t need (or isn’t ready for) that person to be a full-time employee. That’s exactly why we created the Fractional Fair for this year’s Startup Boston Week on Tuesday, September 15 at Boston University. The Fractional Fair is your chance to meet experienced fractional leaders and consultants across HR, finance, marketing, sales, operations, technology, product development, data, and more….all in one place. Wheth

What’s the one thing keeping you up at night as a founder? Maybe you’re struggling to find product-market fit. Maybe fundraising has stalled. Maybe you know you need a better sales process, but you’re not sure where to start. Or maybe the biggest challenge is simply figuring out what deserves your attention next. On Friday, September 18, during Startup Boston Week, we’re bringing founders together for Mentor Groups: small-group conversations designed to help you dig into the

“My long-term goal was always to build a mission-driven brand of my own. I trusted that when the right idea came along, I'd know it.” For Deanna DeFelice, that goal became Ovease, a company that provides wearable, discreet products for chronic period pain and menstrual relief. Discouraged by the lack of pain management solutions available, Deanna decided to turn her pain into purpose and build what she couldn’t find on the market. Deanna will be part of the panel, “Preserve,

Strong beliefs and growing awareness can be the cornerstone and vision of a new company. Jose LaSalle, Alex Nichols, and Joe Hastry (all UMass Amherst alums) brought that passion and experience together to found florrent. The clean energy company is working on ways to improve electrical grid resilience through the next generation of high-energy density supercapacitors. Startup Boston caught up with Jose to discuss florrent’s beginnings, the value of being a founder, lesson

What does an “unbiased interview” mean? What does it take to put one together? Jason Wu plans on tackling this topic during his panel, "Your Interviews Are Running on Vibes: Designing Unbiased Interviews," at the 10th Annual Startup Boston Week. Jason, who’s a people and operations leader, has hired across both startups and global organizations. Before making his third appearance at Startup Boston Week, Jason sat down with us to chat about his career path, advice for employ

Cara Hogan has always been passionate about science, the outdoors, and storytelling - a combination that’s shaped her career. The avid rock climber and surfer found her calling in climate tech. Cara started out as a journalist for The Boston Globe, eventually transitioning into marketing roles for various tech companies. After a career inflection point, Cara moved into the role of fractional CMO in the climate tech space. Cara is speaking on a panel titled “Positioning, Mes

Every company says culture matters, but the real test happens during the hiring process. Over the past two years, I’ve been building this leadership team, and hiring into it, first as COO, then as President, and now as CEO. In that time we’ve more than doubled our revenue and our customer base, moved into a new office in Boston, and gone from a small team to something that actually looks like a company. If there’s one thing I’d tell any founder or operator who’s about to sc

Every week, I meet researchers who have spent years, sometimes decades, solving incredibly difficult scientific problems. Many have published in the world's leading journals. Some have developed technologies that could fundamentally change how healthcare is delivered. Yet despite their groundbreaking discoveries, very few of these innovations ever become products that improve patients' lives. After working on the commercialization of more than 350 healthcare technologies and

Gastrointestinal issues are incredibly prevalent in the United States, with some surveys suggesting that up to two-thirds of Americans experience some sort of digestive symptoms. Moreover, millions suffer from chronic issues that stem from Celiac Disease, IBS, etc. The road to diagnosis is often long and complex, and most diagnostic sampling of the digestive tract relies on the end of the colon. This limitation leaves other parts of the GI tract unexplored for answers, such a

A founder’s story about the problem hiding in plain sight - and why AI finally makes it solvable. Last summer, my son graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and landed a finance rotation program at a major bank. We were thrilled. What we weren’t prepared for was the apartment hunt. For three weeks, my kitchen table became mission control for the most disorganized operation of my career - and I’ve been a software engineer for over two decades. We had 40 browser tabs ope

Everyone is talking about AI applications. Fewer people are talking about the infrastructure making the next generation of AI possible. On this episode of Cents Check, Startup Boston's podcast, host Shriya Jonnalagadda sat down with Jack O'Brien, founder and CEO of Subconscious, to discuss why agentic AI requires an entirely different approach to infrastructure, what makes infrastructure more defensible than applications, and why Boston remains one of the best places in the w

At some point, every founder reaches the same realization: your startup will only grow as fast as the team you build. But hiring in an early-stage startup isn't just about filling open roles - every new employee changes your culture, your speed, your burn rate, and ultimately your company's future. During Startup Boston Week, moderator Disleve Kanku (Co-Founder & CTO, Echo Labs) sat down with Pascal Kriesche (Co-Founder & CEO, smoodi), Cait Brumme (CEO, MassChallenge), Bridge

Some startup advice never gets old: Build relationships. Find the right people. Put yourself out there. But at Startup Boston Week, one panel took those ideas a step further. In You Belong in the Room: How One Question Changed Everything, moderator Derek Fieldhouse (Fidelity Private Shares) sat down with Unicorn co-founders and co-CEOs Denielle Finkelstein and Thyme Sullivan to share the moments that transformed their company - not because they had all the answers, but becaus

Let me describe a scene that every CS student or self-taught developer knows too well. It's 11pm. You're staring at a LeetCode problem. You read the solution three times. You understand it. You close the tab. Two days later, you can't recall a single thing about it. That was me. I came into software engineering from a mechanical engineering background, having taught myself Python from scratch to break into the field. I loved building things. But technical interview prep felt

Some of the biggest innovations in healthcare start with a simple question: What if there’s a better way? For CranioSense’s co-founders, Dr. Ryan Myers and Kristian DiMatteo, they wanted to find a different way to diagnose elevated brain pressure following traumatic brain injuries that’s noninvasive and can be used across a variety of care settings. CranioSense’s product, IHdetect, will be able to diagnose elevated intracranial pressure in minutes, without the need to drill a