Last week, Startup Boston teamed up with the City of Boston to host Meet Boston’s Startup Networking Groups , bringing together founders, operators, students and ecosystem builders for one simple purpose: helping people find their place in the startup community. The room filled quickly with over 200 attendees connecting directly with communities that make Boston’s startup ecosystem feel accessible, welcoming and collaborative. Because here’s the truth: Boston’s startup scene

Midway through Startup Boston Week, a room full of founders, operators, and go-to-market leaders gathered at Suffolk University for a timely reality check: AI may be changing how startups sell, but it isn’t changing why  sales works. The session “AI in Sales: The New Playbook for Startups” was moderated by Vanessa Ferranto , CEO and co-founder of Dalbero. She was joined by Jason Ingargiola , Partner at And1 Advisors, and Joss Poulton , CEO and co-founder of ClearSync. Rather

Every few months, the same take pops up: “The Boston tech scene is slipping.” Respectfully…we disagree. What is changing is how the ecosystem shows up. Boston and New England aren’t powered by hype cycles alone; they’re powered by people doing the real, often unglamorous work of building companies, investing early, creating platforms, supporting founders and knitting the community together across industries, identities and generations. This Black History Month, we’re excited

February is kicking off strong in Boston’s startup ecosystem, with a packed calendar of events designed to bring founders, operators, investors, students, and ecosystem builders together. From intimate founder dinners and mentorship sessions to high-energy networking mixers, demo showcases, and campus-wide innovation meetups, this month is all about connection, learning, and momentum. Startup Boston is anchoring the month with eight community-powered experiences, here are fou

Churn rarely announces itself. It doesn’t show up with a dramatic exit or a clear warning sign, it creeps in quietly, hidden behind “healthy” dashboards, polite check-in calls, and customers who seem fine right up until they’re gone. At Startup Boston Week, that uncomfortable reality set the tone for The Crystal Ball: Mastering Health Scores to Predict (and Prevent) Churn , a session that challenged founders and operators to rethink how well they actually understand their cus

At the 9th Annual Startup Boston Week, a packed room of founders and operators gathered for a candid conversation about one of the most underestimated growth levers in early-stage companies: customer success.  The session, Building Your CS Dream Team: Hiring and Growing for Early-Stage Success , featured a deeply experienced panel moderated by Erica Ayotte Favorito  (Founder, Slice Advisory), alongside Mary Migiano  (Head of CX, Compt), Nehal Patel  (Fractional Chief Customer

Building hardware is hard. Building software is fast. Building both (together) can feel like trying to align two entirely different universes. That challenge took center stage during No Meltdowns Required: Mastering Hardware–Software Integration , a Startup Boston Week session moderated by Luis Alvear Tesouro  (Founder, AINovva), which brought together operators with deep, hands-on experience building complex, integrated products: Monica Gauba , Founder and CEO of SureRev AI,

Scaling is where things get real. The scrappy hacks that got you to product-market fit start to crack, your calendar explodes, and suddenly everything feels important. Growth is exciting, but without the right systems, people, and leadership in place, it can get messy fast. The Road To: Scaling Smarter is your no-fluff guide to growing without breaking what you’ve built. Pulled from Startup Boston Week sessions, this series dives into the real questions founders face at scale

At the 9th Annual Startup Boston Week, one question quietly threaded its way through a packed room of founders, operators, and customer leaders: If your customers like your product, why do they still churn? Diane Gordon , a longtime SaaS executive and founder of Customer Growth Consulting, came with a direct answer - and a warning. Liking a product isn’t the same as understanding its value. And when renewal time arrives, that gap can cost companies everything. With more than

January in Boston doesn’t ease you into the year - it hits the ground running. From deep tech and AI to founder support, community building, and capital connection, the first month of the year is packed with events worth putting on your radar if you’re building, backing, or supporting startups in Greater Boston. Startup Boston is anchoring the month with four community-powered experiences: Mentor Matching for Early-Stage Founders (Jan 12)  - An intimate, mentor-driven session

When a startup swims into enterprise waters, the rules change - and the current can turn fast.  That’s why at Startup Boston Week, we sat down with four leaders who have lived the highs and lows of working with corporate giants: Justine Jordan , Head of Strategy at Beefree; Evan Grossman , CPO at Affineon; Shankar Krishnan , Product Leader at AWS; and Melissa Appel , fractional head of product who moderated the discussion.  The full event video is embedded below if you’d like

“If only I had time to pause and reflect”  responded a collaborator to the idea of a reflection & goal-setting activity around the upcoming New Year. And honestly, that reaction is common. When we’re moving fast, reflection is often the first thing to slip off the calendar. But what happens when we don’t take the time to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t? We stick with unhelpful habits. We allow interpersonal friction to build and fester. And we miss out on opportuniti

Marketing isn’t “nice to have,”  it’s your engine for traction, revenue and survival. But for early-stage founders, hiring a marketer, testing channels, and building a repeatable growth motion can feel like guesswork. So we brought together the experts who’ve actually done it - from first hires to enterprise deals - and turned their lessons into your step-by-step playbook. Below are the most tactical conversations from Startup Boston Week 2025 to help you grow smarter, spend

Every startup dreams of waking up one morning and suddenly having product-market fit. But reality isn’t a clean curve up and to the right - sometimes it’s being yelled at by customers, then trying to explain their feature requests to an engineering team that definitely doesn’t want to build them. That was the brutally honest premise of this session led by Rob Zambito , a three-time customer success leader turned founder of Success Scaled Consulting, who has helped companies g

Not every startup is built with drag-and-drop tools and a pitch deck. Some require hardware, regulation, scientific rigor, and engineering that lives at the edge of what’s possible. The Road To: Building Deep Tech & Tough Tech brings together the founders, engineers, and operators tackling the hardest technical problems 0 from robotics and life sciences to regulated healthcare and hardware-software systems. This series pulls together the most practical sessions from Startup B

Did you know that 82% of consumers are more likely to follow a micro-influencer’s recommendation than a big-name celebrity’s? For startups, that statistic represents a massive opportunity - a way to build trust, reach new audiences, and grow brand awareness without breaking the bank. Recorded live at Startup Boston Week 2025, this panel brings together leaders from across the influencer ecosystem to unpack how startups can tap into the power of micro-influencers for real, mea

Listening to your customers isn’t just good practice, it’s your greatest growth strategy. A thoughtful Voice of the Customer (VoC) program turns feedback into focus, helping startups make smarter product decisions, deepen trust, and build lasting relationships. Whether you’re just starting to collect feedback or looking to formalize your process, this session dives into how to design a VoC program that fits your stage, your team, and your goals. Recorded live at Startup Bosto

Building a great product is about more than hitting product-market fit - it’s about staying there. Between customer demands, feature requests, and market shifts, founders are constantly adapting to build products that resonate, scale, and stand the test of time. At Startup Boston Week 2025, founders, product leaders, and investors came together to explore what it really takes to build products that win, not just once, but over and over again. These conversations unpack how to

Boston’s in full fall mode - and so is the startup scene. November is packed with events that bring together founders, investors, and innovators for everything from hands-on skill building to pitch nights and powerhouse panels on women’s leadership and community building. Startup Boston is proud to feature three can’t-miss experiences this month that highlight connection, collaboration, and hands-on learning: B2B Tech Founders’ Dinner (Nov 5)  – An intimate, off-the-record ev

Looking to tap into the power of the New England startup ecosystem? At Startup Boston Week 2025, we brought together some of the region’s...