Hello Boston, hello world!
And welcome. This is the inaugural blog post from Venture Lane, the newest startup hub for early stage tech startups. Yesterday the curtain was lifted, and our startup hub officially opened here in the heart of Boston. We had an impressive turnout at our launch party, with over 150 people joining us in the celebration. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out, and all those involved with getting Venture Lane up and running!
Why are we doing this?
Besides people wanting to know what Venture Lane is, we often get posed the question: ‘Why are you doing this?’ Let me elaborate a bit on why we started Venture Lane and what we believe are the ingredients that make it a unique place here in the startup community of Boston.
The road to Venture Lane
Over the last 20 years, I have been a part of startups on three continents with offices in 11 countries. Every time we would set out for a new venture, the question arose: in which setting do we start? We tried kitchen tables, holiday apartments, Regus offices, corporate headquarters, a model agency, an advertising agency and co-working spaces, just to name a few. Every time we set out to build fantastic businesses and cultures, but most of the time this only happened once we found our own space and not in the early stage. It went so far that I really became to despise corporate shared offices and refused to work in them, since I felt the spirit and the love simply was not there.
Then, after listing my last company and having made the decision to move to Boston, the idea was born to develop a startup hub for early stage companies, of which I am a passionate supporter. With these companies, the venture and the founders there but they still need some support and advocacy. I wanted to build a company and platform that can last forever and is not solely developed to be sold at a later stage.
From past encounters, I knew that the ecosystem in Boston was strong and the support of the local tech and investor community really impressed me. The world’s 5th largest startup ecosystem is full of intellectuals with extraordinary ideas, diverse people willing to support, continuous talent to hire and loads of capital to support it. In addition, I found a pretty robust infrastructure with tons of shared workspaces and a thriving landscape of accelerators and incubators. It only had one caveat: you couldn’t have it all in one place, at the same time, as long as you wanted!
Ingredients for the best startup landing pad
Over my travels I found that there are three elements to make a successful tech startup landing pad: community, impact and the right space.
Community: You want to have like minded-people around you who deal with similar phases and challenges in their lives. You are seeking that support network that gets you back on your feet in the bad times, and helps you leap even further in the good.
Impact: It’s a paradigm, since your company is on a mission: grow fast, attract the best team, acquire outstanding customers, find the right investors.
Space: Where you do all of this provides the framework. This is your playground and physically where everything happens and comes together.
These three ingredients, carefully implemented of course, have the power to create an incredible momentum and flow, which champions turning points in the life of your company, and in your life as an entrepreneur.
At Venture Lane, we took the time to carefully select these factors. And we strive to be “that” place with the work tribe you can count on. Ask any of our members so far, and we think they’ll agree.
The journey has only just begun, but we here at Venture Lane are excited for the ride. Thanks for being a part of it!
Cheers,
Christian Magel,
Founder, Venture Lane
