In addition, Boston World Partnerships selects two startups every month from a pool of applicants that tell the organization whose brains they'd like to pick. The organization arranges the sessions.
6. Pick your neighborhood.
Early on, the city encouraged the growing Dancing Deer company to stay in Boston. Looking for a way to retain its local workforce and have a positive presence, the company transformed an old seafood processing facility in Roxbury.
"When we started growing out of our facilities, it was easy to call the city and ask them to help us find more space, which they did," Karter says. When they outgrew that space, the company found its current location in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
In January, Mayor Tom Menino announced the formation of the Boston Innovation District in an underdeveloped section of the South Boston waterfront. The 1,000-acre area includes Fort Point, Seaport Square, and the Marine Industrial Park. The idea is to transform it into a bustling, affordable knowledge-based neighborhood where young professionals with diverse areas of expertise can work, live, and thrive.
"By bringing together these clusters in one tight area, you get a more diverse economic and creative environment that everyone can benefit from," McKenzie says.
Boston was the first city to develop an urban Main Streets program, and now there are 19 of these districts. These unique commercial districts receive financial and technical assistance from the city to revitalize areas, promote strong neighborhoods, and strengthen the businesses in them. According to the city, the districts have a 95 percent occupancy rate.
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7. Move in.
It's logical that the city wants to make it easy for store owners to open attractive places to shop and visit. To help, Boston offers matching signage grants that help owners improve their facades. "That's been a hugely successful program," Carbonell says. "In our last fiscal year, which runs from July to June, we did 100 storefronts across the city."
Boston was the first major city to put green standards into its building code, McKenzie says. "We're finding more and more with businesses and employees that they really want to be part of the green movement," she says.
A partnership called Boston Buying Power allows businesses to come together and purchase energy in bulk to keep overall costs down. So far 1,500 businesses are enrolled, Carbonell says, with an average savings between 10 and 15 percent. The aggregate savings is around $2 million.
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8. Build your workforce.
With the high number of colleges and universities, it's not surprising that nearly 80 percent of Boston residents older than 24 hold at least a high school degree. And contrary to its reputation, half the population in metropolitan Boston is non-white.
"You have this incredibly well-educated, diverse city," says McLaughlin. "The geography is relatively small, but within that you have incredible pockets of expertise."
It's also a young population with a median age of 31 years. A city swimming in talent is advantageous for startups looking to recruit. But that talent also knows it has options. "You're not on an island," McKenzie says. Those working in the high tech sector in particular know they have plenty of choices.
The quality of life in New England is also an attraction for employees, Carbonell says. Affordable housing can be found in neighborhoods that are a short train ride from downtown Boston. The outdoorsy city is also home to Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace parks, myriad bike paths, and it's not a far trek from mountains and beaches.
9. Ditch the car.
Boston opened the nation's first subway in 1897. Today, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's public transit system includes buses, trains, and commuter rails. More than a million people ride the T on an average weekday.
"You can live and work in or near the city without getting in a car that much," says John Jacobs, co-founder and chief creative optimist for the Boston-based company Life is Good. For professionals, the average commute is less than 30 minutes.
Plans are currently under way to add stations along the Fairmount branch of the commuter rail to form what's being called the Indigo Line. The project promises to connect underserved communities along the southeast corridor to South Station, where the Red Line goes to MIT, Harvard, and Tufts.
The $22 billion Big Dig put Boston's elevated highway in an underground tunnel. No longer divided by the Central Artery, the North End is now home to public green space called the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. Carbonell says the Greenway is attracting microentrepreneurs to the area, including the Clover Food Truck, which serves low-cost vegetarian food.
"It's been unifying," McKenzie says. "It's easy to get downtown to the North End."
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10. Get to know the locals.
McLaughlin says the city is much more of an open place than it used to be. "I would propose that Boston has changed a ton even in the last three years, never mind the last ten," he says. "It's a place that more and more supports entrepreneurs.
"Culturally I always thought it was unique because it's a blend of history, the present, and the future," Carbonell says. "We see that play out daily in our business community."
Jacobs says he likes the pace. "We definitely had some friends in the business try to woo us to Oregon," he says. "But we love Boston more than any city in the country."
