The Destination

Boston’s frigid winters can’t stop its piping-hot entrepreneurial scene, thanks to an endless supply of top-shelf talent from area colleges. Here’s the tea on Inc.’ s No. 15 Surge City.

Inside Boston’s piping-hot startup scene.

STARTUP NEIGHBORHOODS

Seaport Overlooking the once tea-filled harbor, 1 the fast-growing Seaport attracts new kinds of disrupters—like startup accelerator MassChallenge and business software firm Catalant Technologies. There’s room for out-of-towners, too, like Glossier 2 and vegan restaurant chain By Chloe. 3

Allston Harvard Business School’s home base is known for its cheaper rents. Students can also benefit from the school’s incubator and co-working space, Harvard Innovation

Labs. Pop-up-card company Lovepop 4 and A.I.-powered edtech firm Sophya are Boston-based alumni of the program.

Kendall Square Thanks to MIT, entrepreneurial co-working space Cambridge

Innovation Center, and satellite offices of Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon, Kendall Square is the “lifeblood of Massachusetts’s innovation ecosystem,” says Ari Glantz, a director at the New England Venture Capital Association.

COMPANIES TO WATCH

Toast MIT alumni Steve Fredette, Aman Narang, and Jonathan Grimm launched their restaurantmanagement platform in 2013. Valued at $2.7 billion, Toast makes kiosk hardware as well as point-of-sale and analytics software.

Whoop Harvard grad Will Ahmed, along with John Capodilupo and Aurelian Nicolae, launched the wearable-device 5 company in 2012. Whoop tracks strain, recovery, and sleep; has raised just under $50 million; and can be found on the wrists of LeBron James, pro baseball players, and Duke University’s basketball team.

ArtLifting Harvard grad Liz Powers and her brother Spencer launched an art curator that gives homeless artists 55 percent of the profit after their work is sold. Toms founder Blake Mycoskie 6 is an investor.

RECENT EXITS

Online marketplace for new and used cars CarGurus 7 raised $150.4 million from its IPO (2017) Online pharmacy and medication-delivery service PillPack 8 to Amazon for $753 million (2018) Cybersecurity firm Carbon Black to VMware for $2.1 billion (2019)

NOTABLE FUNDING

$250 (restaurant-management million Toast platform) $45 million ClimaCell (weather-prediction platform) $60 million Drift (conversational marketing platform)

RED FLAGS

High commercial real estate prices drive startups to set up shop in suburbs like Malden, Waltham, or Quincy. But, “if you’re not in the city, it might be tough to get people to come work for you,” says

Matt Reiners, co-founder of seniorfocused wireless-headphone startup Eversound. “There is just a disgusting propensity for snow,” says Kyle Rand, co-founder of VR platform Rendever.

This means accepting that investors and potential partners may avoid the city between November and April. Early-stage funding still lags behind that in hubs like New York City and Silicon Valley, which drives seed-seeking founders elsewhere, says Jodi Goldstein, executive director of Harvard Innovation Labs.

WHERE TO TALK SHOP

District Hall Massachusetts outlawed happy hour in 1984, so founders flock to event space District Hall for its frequent conferences, hackathons, and workshops.

Tatte If you’re arranging a meeting at this café, 9 be sure it’s the right one: There are 15 Tattes throughout the area. The Third Street café in Cambridge, with its long communal tables, is especially popular with entrepreneurs.

OAK Long Bar This Copley Square watering hole’s $18 cocktails 10 and luxurious decor attract clientele with pockets deep enough to invest in your latest venture.

TALENT PIPELINE

The strongest talent pipeline for Boston-based startups is the city’s 30-plus colleges and universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Babson

College. Many host entrepreneurial or business programs, along with their accelerators and incubators, to support young visionaries.

Prestigious local hospitals like Massachusetts General, Beth Israel, and Brigham and Women’s attract medical students and professionals, some of whom go on to launch their own companies, like Ailis Tweed-Kent’s drug-delivery platform, Cocoon Biotech. When prominent local startups go public, like marketing software platform

HubSpot, travel website TripAdvisor, and smart-vacuum manufacturer

iRobot, employees often go on to work at other local enterprises.