Welcome Ryan Durkin, VP, AI at Work at WHOOP and the driving force behind the Massachusetts AI Coalition on this episode of 🔥 The Lantern 🔥
Ryan is building two things at WHOOP: an internal AI enablement engine helping every employee build with AI tools like Claude, OpenAI, Replit, Lovable, etc. Externally, a movement to make Massachusetts a global leader in AI.
🧠 How did AI at WHOOP lead to the Massachusetts AI Coalition? 🧠
It began with WHOOP Tech Pulse, a series of in-person events at WHOOP HQ, bringing founders together around AI and software / hardware / healthcare, etc.
Every event sold out with a waitlist out the door. The feedback was unanimous: keep going!
But what if instead of just WHOOP organizing…25 leading Boston companies each hosted 4 events a year?
The community overwhelmingly said yes and now the Mass AI Coalition has a website and roster of Boston’s leading technology companies with 10,000 people who have reached out to participate and contribute alongside this movement.
🗺️ Where is the Coalition headed? 🗺️
This past week the Coalition launched with 9 task forces built around three goals:
1.) Start here, Stay here
This initiative is built to make the case for why founders should build in Massachusetts and never leave
-Beacon (0-1 Launch)
-Causeway (Builder Infrastructure)
-Common (Community Support)
2.) Scale here
Companies like WHOOP, Suno, Lila Sciences, LiquidAI, Hi Marley, and 7AI are examples of how you can reach escape velocity in Boston. We need more examples!
-Anchor (Talent)
-Tavern (Knowledge & Events)
-Harbor (Capital)
3.) Join us here
We’ve been fortunate to have companies like Anthropic and Lovable join us in building satellite offices in Boston. Massachusetts should be the most welcoming city in America for other AI companies.
-Banners (Storytelling)
-Treaty (Dealmaking)
-Adams (Belonging)
🤝 How can we help the Massachusetts AI Coalition grow? 🤝
Pick one of the 9 task forces being built to address these challenges and opportunities and commit. Pick one and go deep!
Each task force will have an executive sponsor with 15-30+ years of experience and include a “two pizza team” of 7-12 members driving the agenda.
Across these task forces students from MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, BU, Tufts, and UMass are wanted. Seasoned operators who’ve been in the arena for decades are wanted. And everyone in between!
Visit the Mass AI Coalition website, click “Join Now,” and select your task force.
Then get out into the community and join the movement. There will be 100+ co-hosted events from agentic coding to workflow automation to AEO & beyond. Get in the room if you’re building in these domains!
Boston’s technolgoy ecosystem is entering a new chapter! It’s time to join the movement.