Boston accelerator opens applications for second batch ed tech

Today, 15 October 2013, the LearnLaunchX opened applications for their Ed-Tech accelerator.1 The Boston accelerator will host up to eight companies in its second batch. During the three month program, batch members, “are immersed in a community of like-minded professionals committed to helping them grow their businesses. The goal of LearnLaunchX is to accelerate the product and market development process so that entrepreneurs will be able to secure the resources they need to grow.”2

It makes a lot of sense to host an Ed-Tech focused accelerator within Boston, it presents an unparalleled combination of talent, technology, and education. There are more than 60 Universities within the Boston Metro Area with more just under 250,000 students, with 35 Universities and around 152,000 students in Boston proper.3 Of these Universities, according to the U.S. News and World Report “National University Rankings,” two of the top-ten and seven of the top-50 U.S. Universities are located in the Boston Metro Area.4 As far as the established startup sector in the city, AngelList lists a total of 1,191 startups operating within Boston, and an aggregate of more than 3,000 companies in which a founder is an Alumnus of the seven Universities.5

The relative strength of key economic sectors adds to the Boston Metro Area’s allure. The Milken Institute – an independent economic think tank – has rated Massachusetts #1 in their biennial “State Technology and Science Index” every year since the index’s inception in 2002; the Cambridge- Newton-Framingham metro area (in which Boston is located) moved up four spots to rank #8 in Milken’s annual “Best Performing Cities 2012;” the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metro area ranked #4 in NewGeography’s “Best Large Cities for Information Jobs: 2013;” Boston was ranked #6 in The Atlantic’s “The 25 Most Economically Powerful Cities in the World,” in 2011; Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Boston as the 3rd Most Inventive City in the World; of the 100 largest metros in the US, Boston has the 6th highest percentage of college-educated residents, with a whopping 43.0%; finally, the Daily Mail ranked Boston as the drunkest city in the U.S.6 Adding to the honors, the Technology and Education sectors of Boston are booming, with a total of more than 72,000 working in the “Professional, Scientific, And Technical Services” industry and more than 49,000 working in the “Education Services” industry.7

The density of colleges and universities, coupled with the health of the education and technology sectors creates a sort-of perfect storm. There is an incredibly rich talent pipeline, and people are flocking to join in the knowledge-based Boston economy. LearnLaunchX is taking the same approach as the Brandery – which we wrote about towards building an accelerator. Namely, play to what can’t be reproduced. Boston is a gigantic college town, so they created and Ed-Tech accelerator. All that said, it seems that they will have no problem finding a qualified batch of startups.

Here is a cool map of the speed of bus lines across Boston I found while researching this article. Via The Atlantic:

The Atlantic Speed of bus lines in Boston

  1. The application deadline is November 22, 2013, and the program is set to begin February 10, 2014. What batch members receive, and selection criteria.  ▲
  2. LearnLaunchX Mission  ▲
  3. While not the most reliable source of info, Wikepedia offers a list of these Universities, and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (ACIUM)  lies out some demographic trends for all Boston-area Universities.

    The Boston Redevelopment Authority 2011 Report, “Boston By the Numbers: Colleges and Universities,” (PDF) notes the statistics for the city itself.  ▲

  4. The 2014 US News and World Report Rankings lists, in order, Harvard University at #2, Massachusetts Institute of Technology at #7, Tufts University at #28, Boston College at #31, Brandeis University at #32, Boston University at #41, an my Alma Mater Northeastern University just cracked the to 50 at #49.  ▲
  5. AngelList stats on the City of Boston; Tufts University; MIT; Harvard is a little convoluted – there are stats on Harvard proper, Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Kennedy School; Northeastern University; Boston College; Boston University; and Brandeis University. While this is not a hard-fast number, AngelList provides a pretty solid baseline of companies; an absolute minimum if you will.  ▲

  6. The Milken Institute “The State Technology and Science Index: 2012” Interactive Massachusetts Data and the Full Report (PDF). The Methodology.
    The Milken Institute “Best Performing Cities 2012” Interactive Data for all Cities and the Full Report (PDF). The Methodology.
    NewGeography, “Best Large Cities for Information Jobs: 2013,” Full data set and the methodology.
    The Atlantic, “The 25 Most Economically Powerful Cities in the World,” Methodology and data together.
    Bloomberg Businessweek, “The World’s Most Inventive Cities” #3 Boston and Methodology.
    The New York Times, “Cities with the Most College-Educated Residents”
    Daily Mail, “Boston tops list of America’s 25 drunkest cities”  ▲

  7. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, “The Boston Economy in 2010.”  ▲