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A Scene in Hibernation: Pondering How the Pandemic Might Change Boston’s Startup `Ecosystem’ Going Forward

Earlier this month, Boston Globe Correspondant Scott Kirsner brought together a group of leaders from across the city to discuss the future of the technology industry. MassTLC CEO Tom Hopcroft and many others shared their insight, including their concerns and their optimisim for the future. Read the full piece in The Boston Globe, here

We’ve included a short except, below:

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Even if you think you have no connection to Boston’s startup ecosystem, the startup ecosystem is connected to you.

For about the last 75 years, Boston has been a pretty good place to start a company, get venture capital funding, hire people, and grow — whether you’re a Moderna making vaccines or a tech startup like Toast, making it possible for people to use their mobile phones to order take-out.

But the nebulous idea of an ecosystem is what has caused these companies to set up shop in Kendall Square, the Fenway, and the Seaport. It has kept cafés crowded and dry cleaners busy, sent taxes to cities and the state, and driven up both office and apartment rents around much of Greater Boston. The flow of people to and from work every day caused time-sucking traffic — but it also kept public transit full, created work for Uber and Lyft drivers, and generated strong advocacy for bike lanes.

The expansion of this tech and biotech ecosystem supported lots of jobs at law firms and accounting firms, not to mention the construction of hotels to host business guests from out of town. It also benefited the bars, bowling alleys, and movie theaters that entertained everybody after work. Be honest — 10 years ago, did you imagine someone would find it economically viable to build a bowling alley next to a federal courthouse in Boston?

That ecosystem isn’t dead; it’s just in hibernation. But when it comes out, perhaps next summer or fall, what will it be like, and will it produce the same level of activity and economic growth?…

Continue reading in The Boston Globe.

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