An annual event in Boston punches up the fact that we have an incredible cleantech cluster-New England Clean Energy Council's annual Green Tie Gala.
Although this event took place back during Clean Energy Week in November, I was reminded of it when out in Denver recently. Denver has some great stuff going for it. NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab), University of Colorado with multiple campuses in Denver and Boulder that have significant funding from both Federal and State agencies, and a history of technology oriented companies, albeit with a heavy emphasis on telecom (Qwest, Level 3).
However, what there isn't as much of in Denver is what some call the "ecosystem." Others call it the "cluster." This is a body of people who hold different but overlapping responsibilities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and whose fusion is its wellspring--
- Academics: These are those most often with the new disruptive technology or science breakthrough that serves as the seed of a new company
- Business entrepreneurs: those who have experience taking the seed of an idea, and building a company around it
- Investors: The first friends & family, then angel investors, and often venture capitalists or corporate strategic investors who pour money into these new ideas to fund the business entrepreneurs scale the disruptive idea
- Professional services providers: These are often the "connectors" in the ecosystem. They're comprised of lawyers, accountants, executive search consultants, and start-up advisors. They act as the glue between the prior three categories, more often than not introducing one to another, supporting the growth of these companies with their area of specialty
[Footnote: If you compare Boston to Silicon Valley however, Boston is shallower in large technology and sciences companies that serve to spawn "runners" to new start-up companies. The biotech industry is perhaps better in Boston at doing this than the pure technology industry in the last decade, with a growing base of larger biotech and pharma companies including Genzyme, Cubist, Biogen and Sepracor. Medical devices companies also fair better in many ways to large tech, with Boston Scientific, ThermoFisher, and Perkin Elmer. In technology hardware and software, beyond EMC, there are precious few large technology companies left in Massachusetts. ]
Details on the Gala? This year's Green Tie Gala was held at the JFK Memorial Library in Boston (last year was held at the Museum of Science). There are many organizations in the innovation sector here in Massachusetts that have done a good job at galvanizing a broad cross section of constituents, including the Mass Biotech Council, as well as MITX (formerly MIMC), and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, or TiE Boston (Indus Entrepreneurs). However, we've had yet to participate in a gathering of any that approaches that of the cleantech cluster here in New England.
Senator Markey gave the opening address to punctuate the cocktail hour. To a person it seemed, everyone knew everyone. Yes there were a few outsiders (a small contingent from the UK had come over as part of a trade mission coordinated with Clean Energy Week in Massachusetts because of its target rich calendar), yet all of these were welcomed by the larger fold, and the gathering seemed to virtually breathe together as some sort of larger unified body, a cluster with so few degrees of separation that walking from group to group or table to table was akin to going back to your high school reunion.... You knew at least half those sitting at every table. For those who have experienced the annual Nantucket Conference, it is this atmosphere if intimacy and familiarity that presides.
To cap the night off, venture capitalist Chuck McDermott of Rockport Capital led his band in an after-hours session that continued the beat of familiarity both given its leader as well as in its musical selection (Chuck stating that the band only plays "songs popularized before 1960").
