When you think about working for a startup, you probably picture foosball tables, cold brew on tap and standing desks.
And you wouldn’t exactly be wrong.
But what startup stereotypes are unique to Boston? We asked five local startups to find out.
Mylestone is a Boston startup that hopes to make your memories more accessible with the help of virtual assistants like Alexa. With Mylestone, you can add photos, video or audio to the Mylestone platform and sit back as a story is generated for you.
You know you work for a Boston startup when...
“Going from point A to point B almost always includes running into someone you know,” said CEO Dave Balter. “The Boston tech scene operates in a few distinct locations, like Seaport, Leather District, Downtown Crossing, Kendall Square and Central Square — which is magnified by the tight knit, communal nature of the people. Whether you're a VC, an entrepreneur, an employee or a vendor you can almost guarantee a random encounter and heartfelt hello.”
Cars aren't the only vehicles becoming autonomous. Sea Machines is developing driverless control systems for boats and commercial vessels. The company says this could improve boating safety when deployed as an autonomous "overwatch" system on manned vessels, in addition to enabling unmanned vessels to be piloted in hazardous situations.
You know you work for a Boston startup when...
“When your garage-based software testing burns through a 'Nor'easter night with the conviction that you will succeed,” said David Fieuw, chief developer.
“When your team decides to turn the office into a ‘wood-shop’ for the day to build a workbench, embedding sawdust into your CEO’s newly minted handouts for an investor pitch the next day — But your founder is steadfast and sees it as ‘good luck,’” said Phil Bourque, director of business development.
“When you have come to peace with team trips to Ikea once a month for more desks,” said Mike Cammack, director of operations.
Launched in 2015, VentureApp is a VentureApp is a chat network for the business community.
You know you work for a Boston startup when...
“You leverage one of the best summer holidays, Cinco de Mayo, as a fun theme for your all-hands-on-deck hackathon,” said Kate Sullivan, director of communications. “Enter: Two days of hacking, Cinco de Mayo decorations around the office, breakfast burritos, tacos, snacks for all and of course Coronas and tequila to wrap it up."
Boston-based Zerto provides enterprise-class business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for virtualized infrastructure and the cloud. In November 2016, the company was ranked No.45 fastest-growing tech company in North America by Deloitte.
You know you work for a Boston startup when...
“You can walk all of a block or two away from your office and, besides passing at least three Dunkin’ Donuts on your way, you've left one ‘district’ and entered another, going from the Innovation District to the Seaport District to the Financial District and more,” said Erik Mason, Sr. Manager PR and Brand. “This diverse environment is one of the key reasons Zerto selected Boston for its U.S. headquarters, which provides an eclectic mix of cultures, personal and professional backgrounds and schools of thought. This all contributes to a startup culture that is inspired, thoughtful, inclusive and creative.”
Datawire is an early-stage startup focused on making it easy for developers to build resilient microservices. Their team has extensive experience in developer infrastructure, security and cloud software.
You know you work for a Boston startup when...
“Your afternoon snack run is a trip to Flour Bakery,” said Richard Li, co-founder and CEO.
