Mayor Walsh and IBM announce launch of Starthub, the first All-inclusive online platform supporting Boston's Startup community

Mayor Martin J. Walsh today announced the launch of StartHub, a comprehensive, centralized, online platform designed to connect, support, and grow Greater Boston's world-class technology and early-stage community.  Developed in a public-private partnership between the City of Boston, Venture Café, IBM, and Gust, StartHub will serve as the homepage for Greater Boston's startup community, providing information and resources that will help connect the people of Boston to all the opportunities in the region's ecosystem.

"Boston is a city known for its creative talent and innovative spirit, and I am proud to announce the launch of StartHub which will connect entrepreneurs and innovators with the tools and resources they need to grow and thrive in the City of Boston," said Mayor Walsh. "I am excited to offer our startup community this centralized online platform and I thank all of the partners for their collaboration as we continue to establish Boston as a hub of entrepreneurship."

Announced by Mayor Walsh in his 2015 State of the City Address, StartHub is built to support and grow Greater Boston's burgeoning innovation economy into a world-class leader. Visitors to StartHub will have simultaneous access to a curated stream of Boston-based startup companies and early-stage investors; information on career opportunities and educational courses; the universal calendar for tech and startup community events; the complete guide to co-working and incubator spaces; news about the Boston digital and startup community; and additional features, all in one accessible, centralized location. StartHub is designed to spur economic growth by connecting potential business partners and fostering a thriving startup community.  

"Venture Café is proud to be partnering with the City of Boston and Gust to offer StartHub as a startup resource center for the Greater Boston region," said Kevin Wiant, Executive Director of the Venture Café Foundation. "We strive to connect all parts of the innovation community to help start and grow businesses. StartHub will be a great tool for entrepreneurs to find programs, events, funding sources, prospective employees, guidance and general support for their startups.  We also look forward to working with many other content partners that will help populate the site. Our objective is that all parts of the innovation ecosystem see increased activity from StartHub."

Innovation and entrepreneurship are the dual engines for economic growth for the Greater Boston region. In order to accommodate this growth, technology and innovation clusters have developed throughout the region. With StartHub, these communities are being brought together into one, unified platform.  

"StartHub is an embodiment of how the public and private sectors can align to support and drive innovation by building the infrastructure for a world-class startup ecosystem," said David S. Rose, CEO of Gust. "The City of Boston and Venture Café's commitment to the early-stage community with this new online platform will yield an unparalleled resource for all players of the tech ecosystem. Every entrepreneur, innovator, and curious mind in the Greater Boston region will now have the tools and resources they need to participate in their city's burgeoning economy."  

"IBM is proud to have a strong partnership with an innovative city like Boston to spur economic growth in the region," said IBM General Manger for Cloud Ecosystems and Developers Sandy Carter. "This is a driving force in why IBM continues to invest in local digital communities to better shape the cloud startup and developer experience. StartHub is designed to bring the city's dynamic and creative business culture into the cloud, and will help to unleash new innovation which will solidify Boston's status as one of the world's greatest technology hubs."  

Members of the community are invited and encouraged to become an active partner in StartHub, whether by adding their startup, event, job, course, workspace, incubator/accelerator, news, or content feed.    

For more information, visit http://starthub.org/press  

IBM Cloud IBM Cloud offers one of the industry's largest portfolio of software, services, datacenter solutions and consulting for private, public and hybrid cloud environments. Total revenue for IBM Cloud was $8.7 billion, for the second quarter, ending June 30, 2015, $4.5 billion of which was attributed to XaaS. IBM is helping organizations large and small adopt, manage, scale and benefit from open cloud technologies.  

About Gust Gust is the world's largest online platform and community for entrepreneurs and early-stage investors. The platform makes it easy for early-stage investors and entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate, and manage all aspects of their investment relationship, from initial pitch to successful exit. Gust is endorsed by the world's leading business angel and venture capital associations, including the ACA and EBAN, and powers over 550 investment organizations in 190+ countries. More than 300,000 start-ups have already used the platform to connect and collaborate with over 84,000 individual investors. Gust is based in New York, NY, with a European office in London, UK. For more information, please visit www.gust.com.  

About Venture Café The Venture Café Foundation believes that every person with an idea should feel empowered to become a successful entrepreneur, no matter their background, origin, or education. The Venture Café's mission is to connect the innovation community, expand the definition of innovation, and build a more inclusive innovation economy. The Venture Café Foundation enhances and accelerates the innovation process through spaces, programs, and conversations for individuals and organizations to gather and build relationships.  Please visit our website for more information about our other programs. The Venture Café Foundation is incorporated as a Massachusetts Not-for-Profit Corporation and is a 501 (c) 3 company.