We are excited to feature a growing number of startups & external orgs in our ongoing goal of highlighting the “here and now” around Boston’s dynamic startup & technology ecosystem.
Whether it’s startup milestones, product launches, announcements, event recaps or just overall good vibes to share…send it over! We’ll try to make sure it gets posted on this News Feed and distributed as far and wide as we can promote. Thanks for building alongside us:
MKTG WMN’s Coworking Event at Wistia (1/29)
On January 29th, thirty of Boston’s most dynamic marketers gathered at Wistia’s Cambridge office for the inaugural MKTG WMN Connect event—a day filled with authentic connection, professional growth, and productivity.
The morning panel, “The Future of Marketing Leadership,” brought together three powerhouse marketers:
- Karlis Collins, Director of Marketing at WGBH
- Becky Martins, Head of Revenue Marketing at Jellyfish
- Aurelia Solomon, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce
These leaders shared their perspectives on career pivots, navigating uncertainty and challenges, climbing the marketing leadership ladder, and more. Attendees appreciated their candor and unfiltered insights on what it takes to become a marketing leader today.
The afternoon brought another highlight: an intimate conversation with Chris Savage, Wistia’s CEO, and Taylor Corrado, Senior Director of Brand Marketing. They tackled the big questions about marketing’s seat at the leadership table, the future of video content and how companies should be investing in this format, and the critical importance of DEI in modern marketing. Attendees loved having the opportunity to hear from a CEO who understands the power of marketing and brand building.
As the day wound down with a celebratory happy hour, one thing became clear: this wasn’t just another professional coworking event. It was a reminder that sometimes the most productive thing we can do is step away from our screens and connect with other brilliant minds in our field – in person.
Did you miss MKTG WMN Connect? Don’t worry – they’re just getting started. For more info, check out: Join MKTG WMN
Announcing the $1M Moonshot Competition for University Startups
The most transformative ideas across software, hardware, AI, robotics, climate, biotech, and more are forming inside university research labs, MBA programs and undergraduate dorm rooms. Yet, funding options for students and faculty remain bleak. Grant programs are broken, slow, cumbersome and risk-averse. And investors are often unwilling to back a big idea before a founder is ready to graduate, drop out or spin-out.
At Pillar VC, we’ve launched the $1M Moonshot Competition to fill this funding gap. Our team is energized by ambitious founders working on weird, crazy, groundbreaking science with the potential to disrupt industries and create new worlds of possibility. For the second year in a row, we will award more than $1 million in SAFEs to university undergrad and grad students, postdocs, and faculty.
Moonshot Timeline:
- March 2: Deadline to apply
- March 10 – 28: First Round Interviews
- March 31 – April 4: Final Round Interviews
- April 8: Winners Selected
To learn more about the Moonshot Competition, visit moonshot.pillar.vc.
Matterbeam
An infrastructure software startup ending data pipeline tyranny, freeing data to make enterprises more effective. This Seed stage startup envisions a deconstruction of ETL pipelines – extract, transform, load no more – so enterprise data is more portable, immutable, and most importantly…flexible.
Barrett King, Head of Alliances at Ramp
Barrett King is a front of house partnerships leader who builds bridges, tops leaderboards, and fulfills visions through active listening for the world’s leading software enterprises. Today Barrett is the Head of Alliances at high flying fintech Ramp.
MTLC Tech Hot Topic Series: Building Ethical AI into Products at Akamai (1/31)
Is AI the new hope? Many believe, yes. From the implications of DeepSeek-R1, the impact of current affairs, and the importance of human centered AI design, it is clear major milestones are evolving in front of us.
Panelists: Morgan Beschle (VP of Product @ Kyruus Health), Sanjay Yadav (Head of Engineering @ Parlance), Shankar Krishnan (Product Management Leader, AWS)
Importance of Ethical and Responsible Innovation: Michael Davies emphasized the significance of ethical design and responsible innovation, highlighting the need to address unintended consequences and negative externalities of rapid technological advancements. He stated, “Technological innovation is the most powerful force of humanity. Every one of you has technical or engineering expertise, and everyone else owes their lives to the work we and our predecessors have done over history.”
Role of AI in Healthcare: Morgan Beschle discussed the integration of AI in healthcare, particularly in improving patient care access and the challenges of introducing AI in a traditionally risk-averse industry. She mentioned, “AI is just a tool in a toolbox. We start with the business problem, what use cases are you trying to tackle, and how are you going to measure success?”
Risk Management and Failure Handling: The panelists emphasized the need for robust risk management strategies, including defining acceptable failure thresholds and having fallback mechanisms in place. Morgan Beschle highlighted, “What is the alternative? When we moved to electronic medical records, there were risks, but there were also risks with paper records. It’s about comparing the new solution to the existing one and understanding the risk tolerance.”
Future Directions and Innovations: The discussion touched on the rapid pace of AI innovation and the need for continuous learning and adaptation. Sanjay Yadav mentioned, “We are looking into ways of using generative AI behind the scenes to drive the conversation flow with the caller, which will help us drive down costs and improve the naturalness of interactions.”
Join us for our next Tech Hot Topic conference on March 21st at Slalom, Reshaping the Marketing Organization Around AI!
Tech Runs Boston: Crack the Recruiter Code at Venture Café Cambridge (1/23)
Early career professionals! Curious what today’s recruiters are really looking for in candidates? At MTLC’s recent Tech Runs Boston event, recruiters spilled all on how to stand out in the job market and navigate the ever-evolving hiring landscape.
Panel of Boston tech recruiters: Dagny Belak (Emerging Talent Recruiter @ Akamai), Phil Landry (Sr. Manager, Executive Recruiting @ Wayfair), Jordan Frese (Global Talent Acquisition @ Acquia), Gabrielle Miller (Senior Technical Recruiter @ Robert Half)
Soft Skills Matter.
- Conversational Skills: Engaging in meaningful conversations during interviews can make candidates stand out, be personable.
- Building Trust: Establishing a connection with the interviewer by showing genuine interest in the company and role. Explore the company site but also check the news and see if there are any headlines about the company you can work into the conversation. (acquisitions, etc)
- Communication in Technical Interviews: Clearly explaining your thought process during technical exercises is crucial.
Human Review Still Dominates.
- Human Eyes on Resumes: Most resumes are still reviewed by humans, but AI can help refine resumes by aligning keywords with job descriptions.
- Avoid Over-Reliance on AI: Use AI tools to enhance your resume but ensure it retains a personal touch. Recruiters are getting better at spotting overuse of AI.
Tips for Crafting Effective Resumes and Cover Letters:
- Simplicity and Clarity: Keep resumes simple and well-organized. Avoid overly creative designs that might confuse applicant tracking systems.
- Quantify Achievements: Use numbers to highlight your impact and achievements. Metrics are important.
- Tailored Executive Summary: Customize the executive summary to align with the job description. Recruiters are looking at lots of resumes, make it easier for them to tell you’re the best fit by littering in keywords found in the job description.
Tips for Effective Use of Job Platforms:
- LinkedIn: Keep your profile updated and engage actively. Other platforms like Built in Boston, RippleMatch, and Handshake are also valuable.
- Consistency: Ensure your resume and LinkedIn profile are consistent and that your work experience timeline matches up.
Best Practices for Preparing for Interviews:
- Practice: Prepare thoroughly and practice common questions like “Why are you interested in this role?” and “Tell me about yourself.” Be personable when talking about yourself but be sure to tailor your story to align with the job opportunity.
- Structured Responses: Use methods like the S.T.A.R (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method to structure your answers.
- Ask Questions: Prepare thoughtful questions to ask the interviewer, showing your interest and engagement.
Handling Career Changes
- Executive Summary: Use the executive summary to highlight your career transition and relevant skills to the best of your ability to align with the new role you hope to land. Recruiters will save a resume that is at least a 50% match to have you in their network if more relevant roles open up for you.
- Network: Leverage your network to help tell your story and advocate for your career change.
WHOOP
WHOOP is on a mission to unlock human performance, revolutionizing how people better understand their bodies. This late stage consumer tech company, located just over the Green Monster in Kenmore Square, is a global leader ushering in a new generation of AI driven technology for the human body.
What should you know about WHOOP?
-WHOOP is growing up
-This is an AI, data & research company
-International expansion is a key strategy in the coming years
Launch Yard @ Seaport (1/16/2025)
- Vlad Duda from Nomad AI – Nomad-proof Your Finances: Insights and Guidance for the Modern Entrepreneur. Dropped the mic on how to manage finances like a globetrotting pro, proving nomads can do more than just Instagram sunsets.
- Andrew Chang from American Data Science – A cloud platform where data scientists, developers, and AI can easily launch GPU/CPU notebooks servers and run code. Showed us how to turn GPU/CPU notebook servers into cloud magic for developers, data scientists, and probably aliens at this point.
- Fynn Schwichtenberg from Accelno – Automating mundane tasks in the financial analysis value chain.
- Kabir Hemrajani from riff raff – Help marketers and agencies turn Slack Chats into Client-Ready Docs. Took Slack chaos and transformed it into client-ready docs faster than someone could ask, “Who’s got the notes?”
- Caspian Chaharom from AutoPCB – AutoPCB automates printed circuit board design similar to how Wix automates website design. Personalized education so spot-on, it probably knows your dream job before you do. Personalized education so spot-on, it probably knows your dream job before you do.
- Nikolay Vyahhi from Edvancium – Edvancium is a learning app that delivers personalized education aligned with your background, interests, and aspirations.
- Allen from Friday – Surprise guest shocked the crowd with a tool that’s about to make inbox chaos obsolete. Seriously, if you’re still drowning in emails, just wait.
Most Notable: Seaport’s Best Find was Caspian Chaharom from AutoPCB whose automated circuit board designs left the crowd wondering: did hardware just get… fun?
Missed it? Oof, rough. But don’t worry—we’re taking the magic across the river to Cambridge on 1/30 > Tickets here
Evan Klein, VP Product Marketing @ Benevity
Evan Klein is a storyteller, marketing leader, and high growth builder who prioritizes value and brings frameworks to the startup jungleland. Today he is the VP of Product Marketing at Benevity, an engagement platform turning social impact into business impact.
Connective Health is building a healthtech service for doctors so they are better equipped with the right data at the right time to deliver high quality care to patients. This Seed stage startup is leveraging interoperability for automated medical record retrieval and customized summaries to deliver a better experience for providers and better outcomes for patients.
Cimulate is building a generative AI platform for commerce, peering into the future and redefining the customer experience for a gen-AI and LLM-driven era. This team is leveraging AI to reimagine the commerce customer experience starting with search and enable brands to help people find products they love.
Cephable is a personal, private, and accessible AI platform that enables users to control their digital devices through adaptive voice commands, head movements, facial expressions, virtual buttons, and AI task automation. Designed to enhance accessibility and inclusivity, Cephable allows individuals to navigate and interact with technology on their terms, for work, gaming, or everyday tasks.