Soak Up the Sun, Boston
Lighten up and celebrate our place in the global tech community
It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got
(with apologies to Sheryl Crow)
Now that I’ve had a chance to decompress a bit after an intense and exhilarating Boston Tech Week, I wanted to weigh in on a debate that’s been buzzing in the local ecosystem. Earlier this week, my old friend Doug Levin posted a characteristically un-subtle critique, expressing disappointment that a California-based firm (Andreessen Horowitz/a16z) led the week rather than local Boston leadership.
While Doug’s post sparked plenty of defensive pushback on LinkedIn, to me, this whole controversy is a tempest in a teapot.
First off, credit where it’s due: we should be thanking a16z (which Doug did!) for putting their massive marketing muscle, visibility, and global wrapper around our city’s ecosystem. A tech week is defined by the community that shows up to fill it—and the Boston community showed up in spades. Local organizers leveraged the momentum perfectly to host some truly memorable events.
Boston’s numerous assets were on full display all week: our people, our companies, the city itself, and, of course, our world-class universities (yes, I’m entirely biased here).
On that academic note, we hosted an inspiring inaugural event at Northeastern University, bringing together and celebrating our rapidly expanding entrepreneurial community. Having the Tech Week banner allowed us to reach far more students, alumni, families, and faculty than we ever could have on our own.
The momentum carried through the rest of the week, too. The venerable MassTLC Unconference, masterfully put on by Sarah Fraim and her team, was a terrific opportunity to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and talk through fresh ideas. And to cap it all off, the TBD Angels social event—which was 3X oversubscribed thanks to the heroic efforts of Jessica Angell Carlson—was the perfect, high-energy networking note to close out at least my week.
This regional “Boston vs. Silicon Valley” debate has been going on since I first moved to Boston in the early ‘90s, and frankly, it’s getting a bit silly. Perhaps I’m a little jaded as a native New Yorker, but tech and AI buildout is not a zero-sum regional competition. If it were a pure race, let’s be honest: the Bay Area is so far down the road we can’t even see their taillights.
Instead of squabbling over who gets to promote Boston, we should be focusing on how much there is to celebrate right here. If there is a central sun in the current AI universe, it’s a16z—and it’s to their credit that they are shining a light on what’s happening globally, including right here in our backyard. Our job isn’t to fight for the head of the table; it’s to firmly take our rightful place at it.
It was a phenomenal week. I hope everyone gets a chance to step back, enjoy the sun (both literally and figuratively), and have a great weekend.
I'm, I'm gonna soak up the sun
I'm gonna tell everyone to lighten up
