January 2026’s Top Startup Events in Boston
- Stephanie Roulic
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
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 where early-stage founders get real-time advice, build lasting relationships, and connect with experienced startup leaders in small group discussions.
She Builds Boston: Brewing Bold Ideas (Jan 14) - A monthly coffee meetup for female founders building tech, life sciences, hardware, and product-based startups. Designed for honest conversations, shared lessons, and meaningful connection without panels or pitches.
Quarterly Ecosystem Leaders Roundtable (Jan 29) - An invite-only working session for the people building and supporting the startup ecosystem, focused on surfacing real gaps, aligning resources, and leaving with clear 90-day action steps.
Dealflow Mixer: Connecting Investors & Founders (Jan 30) - A high-signal, invite-only mixer bringing together pre-seed and seed-stage founders actively raising with investors actively deploying capital through curated 1:1 conversations.
From there, January continues with antiviral innovation launches, AI and robotics deep dives, hackathons, founder-friendly fitness, and community-driven meetups across the city - all designed to help you kick off the year connected, informed, and moving forward with intention.
January’s Top Startup Events
SMART Antiviral Prize Launch Event
Date: Wednesday, January 7 from 1:30pm - 4:30pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: VITAL
BARDA and VITAL are hosting the launch of the SMART Antiviral Prize, a $100M initiative aimed at accelerating the development of broad-spectrum small-molecule antiviral therapies. The event brings together innovators from academia, startups, industry, and partner organizations working to advance the next generation of antivirals. The prize focuses on novel approaches targeting viruses in the Togaviridae and Flaviviridae families, which include dengue, Zika, West Nile, and Chikungunya and currently have no FDA-approved antiviral treatments. These viruses cause millions of infections globally each year, with cases rising in the United States.
Mentor Matching for Early-Stage Founders
Date: Monday, January 12 from 5:30pm - 7:30pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Startup Boston + City of Boston
Join Startup Boston and the City of Boston for an exclusive, mentor-driven event connecting early-stage founders with experienced startup leaders through small, intimate group discussions. Founders will gain real-time advice, share challenges, and build meaningful relationships with mentors and peers, while mentors engage directly with promising local startups and stay connected to Boston’s innovation ecosystem. The connections formed here are designed to last—offering guidance, support, and momentum well beyond the event.
The State of Humanoid Robotics
Date: Tuesday, January 13 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Underscore VC
Inference IRL is a new monthly technical series hosted at Underscore VC that brings Boston’s AI community together to share research, exchange ideas, and debate what’s next in AI. Designed for engineers, founders, and researchers, the series goes beyond the hype to focus on what it truly means to build AI-native systems, from agentic models to infrastructure and developer tooling. This session explores the state of humanoid robotics, examining how advances in agility and real-world deployment are shaping applications in logistics, manufacturing, and beyond.
She Builds Boston: brewing bold ideas
Date: Wednesday, January 14 from 9:30am - 11:00am; Learn more and register
Organizer: Startup Boston
Mornings hit differently when you’re building something big - and this monthly coffee mixer is designed for female founders who want real connection, not panels or pitches. Hosted by Startup Boston, this community-powered meetup brings together women building tech, hardware, life sciences, and product-based startups to trade lessons, share resources, and grow alongside peers who get it. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling fast, consider this your monthly pause to refill your cup, build lasting relationships, and keep moving forward with community at your back.
rootless Boston business leaders brunch
Date: Wednesday, January 14 from 10:00am - 12:00pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: rootless
The Rootless Boston Business Leaders Brunch brings together founders, executives, and decision-makers from across Greater Boston for a focused morning of connection and conversation. This invite-only brunch is designed for leaders who value meaningful relationships over surface-level networking. The event features curated introductions, thoughtful discussion, and opportunities to connect with people actively building and scaling businesses in the region. Attendees can expect a relaxed yet intentional atmosphere, great food, and conversations that extend well beyond small talk. Whether a founder, operator, or senior leader, participants will have space to step out of the day-to-day and build relationships that last beyond the room.
The January Escape Hatch
Date: Wednesday, January 14 from 5:00pm - 7:30pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Launch by Lunch
Launch by Lunch is kicking off January by bringing Boston’s AI startup community together for a much-needed night of connection and fun. The event blends a tropical escape with a cozy holiday game night, inviting attendees to show up in either vacation-ready resort wear or full winter-mode holiday gear. The evening features a fun fact scavenger hunt, casual games like cornhole and shuffleboard, and plenty of opportunities for easy conversation.
BWIB: New Year, New Connections Social
Date: Thursday, January 15 from 5:30pm - 8:30pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Boston Women in Bioinformatics
This event is open to the Boston-area bioinformatics community, with a focus on supporting women and gender-diverse individuals, and allies at any career stage are welcome. It brings together professionals working in computational biology, genomics, data science, and adjacent fields for an evening of connection and community. Attendees can expect relaxed, presentation-free networking centered on real conversations with people who understand the day-to-day realities of the work.
Boston Gen AI Meetup: Jan 2026 Edition: "Voice & Audio AI in Business and Life”
Date: Tuesday, January 20 from 6:00pm - 8:30pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Boston Generative AI Meetup
The event brings together the global AI community for an evening exploring the latest developments in generative, predictive, causal, and agentic AI. As the world’s largest AI meetup, it offers thoughtful discussion on how voice and audio technologies are reshaping both business and everyday experiences.
The Open Accelerator AI Hackathon
Date: Saturday, January 24 from 10:00am - 5:00pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Red Hat + IBM
This in-person, one-day hackathon in Boston’s Seaport District focuses on rapidly prototyping production-ready AI applications using enterprise-ready, open-source templates. Unlike traditional hackathons, participants are encouraged to bring a real challenge their startup is currently facing through a “Bring Your Own Problem” (BYOP) format. Teams will learn how to leverage the aitemplates.io framework, including the MCP Server, AI Agent, and UI templates, to build proof-of-concepts aligned with real business goals.
Founders Basketball Boston (January 2026)
Date: Tuesday, January 27 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: New Edition Events
Founders Basketball is a growing community of startup founders and investors who connect over both business and buckets. Attendees span a wide range of stages and industries, from pre-seed solo founders to Series B executives across tech, CPG, venture, entertainment, retail, and more.
Quarterly Ecosystem Leaders Roundtable
Date: Thursday, January 29 from 9:00am - 12:00pm; Learn more and register
Organizer: Startup Boston
Ecosystems don’t move forward by accident—they move when the right people are in the same room doing real work. Startup Boston’s Quarterly Ecosystem Leaders Roundtable is an invite-only, hands-on working session for the people building, funding, connecting, and supporting startups across Greater Boston. This isn’t a panel or a networking event; it’s a focused room designed to surface real gaps, align resources, and turn “I need” and “I can offer” into concrete collaboration. Participants leave with shared context, clear follow-ups, and 90-day action steps that actually carry into the next quarter.
Dealflow Mixer: Connecting Investors & Founders
Date: Friday, January 30 from 9:30am - 11:00am; Learn more and register
Organizer: Startup Boston + City of Boston
Startup Boston and the City of Boston are hosting an invite-only Dealflow Mixer bringing together pre-seed and seed-stage founders building product-based startups with investors actively backing product-driven companies. This high-signal event focuses on curated 1:1 matches and real conversations, ensuring strong alignment between founders who are actively raising and investors who are actively deploying capital. Due to high demand, attendance is selective - requesting an invite doesn’t guarantee a spot, but it does open the door to some of the most meaningful early-stage connections in the Boston startup ecosystem.
Check out our full event calendar right here to stay connected with the Boston startup community. Also, remember to subscribe to our newsletter using the form below for monthly updates!