Halloween is quickly approaching, and with it brings some pretty explicit examples of fright. For some, the opportunity to intentionally be scared is something they are willing to pay money for (consider all those haunted houses and amusement parks that are so popular this month). Others go to the extent of avoiding something as benign as turning on the nightly news because they don’t want to hear about another devastating natural disaster or misalignment in our government.  

But what about the fear that we can’t avoid by burying our heads in the sand? Even if we are passionate about our jobs, work is our livelihood. If we channel it correctly, work fear (think impending project deadline, preparing for an important customer pitch, etc.) can drive us in helpful ways. Though if we let it overwhelm us and take over, we can self-sabotage. Read on for a few ideas about how to turn your fear into an advantage.

YOUR FEAR IS LIKELY IRRATIONAL...AND WILL PROBABLY NEVER HAPPEN

Many of us have the tendency to let our minds wander. This can be a huge asset, as it can lead to innovation and new creative approaches. However, when we start allowing that mental walkabout to go to a dark place, we begin to tap into our fears.  We focus on the chaos of the situation we are contemplating rather than the opportunity it might present. Rather than focusing on doomsday, take a walk down memory lane. Did the fears of your past ever materialize into anything?  Likely no. When we think rationally, we can work through it and let go of the fear and move forward.

Of course, sometimes fear isn’t irrational. However, our ability to work through our thinking is still relevant. Apply the same thinking as from above. Worst case scenarios and the bad outcomes we dream up rarely come to fruition.

YOU ARE MORE RESILIENT THAN YOU THINK

Let’s be realistic. Sometimes bad stuff happens, and our fears are realized. And yet, even when that happens, it is rarely ever as bad as we thought it was going to be. Sure, maybe I bombed a presentation in front of my colleagues, but is the world ending? Maybe just for the moment. However, if I can turn that experience into a learning, I’ve turned a dreaded situation into a positive outcome. Just take a deep breath. Remember you’ll push through this. And if you reflect back on your career in terms of what you are most proud of, you probably will point to how you powered through a difficult experience and you ended up in a better place as a result.

GET COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE

Consider all the things you’ve been successful at during the course of your career. Of course, there will be stress and fear along the way, if we expect to move forward.  When we let these emotions overtake us, we stagnate.  Who wants that?! Work daily to challenge yourself out of your comfort zone, and into your stretch zone. Get comfortable with discomfort. It’s an awesome outcome of growth.  

Sometimes, being scared out of our wits can be exhilarating. That typically comes when we actively seek out and embrace the fear; like intentionally being scared by watching a horror movie or daring to ride on an upside down roller coaster. Perhaps it’s because we chose that activity, and feel somewhat in control as a result. However, when we lose control and let our fears drive us, we miss major opportunities for learning, growth, and progress. Take a deep breath, embrace the fear and drive forward. You’re likely to be glad you did.

As self-professed “innovators” in the tech startup world, we constantly think about new ways to remove ourselves from the confines of a conventional workplace. Break rooms are replaced with ping-pong tables, coffee machines are complemented with beer fridges, and blazers are swapped for branded hoodies. The traditional 9-5 grind is all too uncommon, replaced with flexible work schedules and unlimited paid time off because of productivity and insight work on their own clock.

In an environment like this, it can be difficult to see the benefits of giving HR an initial seat at the table (pun intended). The last thing an innovative, cutting-edge tech company wants is to be inundated with compliance rhetoric, workplace regulations, and heavy performance management or recruiting processes. In reality, the field of HR has evolved tremendously and caters to all the aspects of tech culture that startups are so protective of and more. Here’s why you should consider adding that seat to your initial team.

Recruiting Top Tech Talent Is Pretty Hard

You came up with a brilliant idea, secured your first round of funding, and built up an amazing initial team of employees. Now, you need to continue to recruit the best and the brightest to scale and grow. Many companies initially use recruitment agencies to find new employees, however, this practice does have its limitations. Aside from the fact that agencies tend to be tremendously expensive, they’re not always effective in making quality hires.

Agencies don’t know nearly as much about your culture as you do, making it difficult to screen candidates that may not be a fit for the role and your unique company values. Many agencies juggle multiple companies and roles simultaneously, and it could be harder for your candidates to all receive the “red carpet” treatment throughout their interview process.

Furthermore, there is a large shortage of tech talent in general, so having someone internally devoted to recruitment can ensure that you’re taking into account the full landscape of your company; you have more perspective on your gaps and what nuanced skills you may be looking for.

Finally, with a centralized recruiting function, you’re better equipped to keep diversity and inclusion in mind when building out your organization, which leads to a stronger workforce at every level.

Your Company Can’t Evolve if Your Employees Don’t

Since you’re going to be dedicating ample resources into recruiting your employees, you probably want to retain them. Retention and Engagement is most likely to trend upward when employees feel that they’re continuing to be challenged and invested in. HR can streamline this process by setting up the foundations for this growth through training, performance management, strategic planning, and salary structure.

Training can involve preparing managers to be great leaders or can be focused on company-specific practices to speed up onboarding for new hires. Manager training can be supplemented with the process of building out light performance check-ins that will ensure that all your employees are getting the feedback they need to continue to be successful and grow. This is especially useful for smaller companies since projects can move rapidly when you’re initially starting out.

Thinking about the long-term bigger picture, this perspective is also useful in strategic planning, where people teams can think about the growth they’ve seen in their employees, and how that translates to what the company can do in the future. Your HR team can use performance insight to promote existing employees, structure teams to be efficient, and backfill gaps with new hires.

Finally, it is absolutely crucial to remain competitive from a salary perspective, and understand how to build a robust compensation package whether that comes in the form of equity, medical benefits or merit bonuses. Having a dedicated resource to make purposeful decisions around your compensation philosophy can set a good precedent for your company.

Work Isn’t Just a Place to Get Your Paycheck Anymore

The average person in today’s world is looking for a lot more than a paycheck and free Friday lunches; they’re looking for meaning, fulfillment, and community. There are thousands of companies that potential candidates can work for, so it is the company’s responsibility to define what its vision, mission, and values are so that employees can decide whether they internally align with those goals.

Employees also want to feel a sense of community with those they work with, especially since they spend most of their waking hours with them. An HR team fosters community by identifying and building out a company culture and drives subsequent programs or events to ensure your company’s values are being showcased and practiced.

It is also HR’s job to share your mission with the greater community so that others are aware of your employer brand. Dedicating a resource early on can help reinforce these initial company values and turn them into a corporate identity that feels as strong as it was at 50 people as it will be when it reaches 500 people.

Rasika Rajagopalan is an HR Business Partner at SmartBear Software.

Saturday morning was a little cloudy with some light rain coming down, but that didn’t stop the energy and buzz around Boston City Hall Plaza.

City Hall Plaza was home to HUB Week Demo Day, where over 100 startups and tech-related organizations across various industries showcased their products/services/etc. The three floors of the building were bustling with members of the tech community seeing what these startups were all about.

A few of the companies were alumni of several accelerators and incubators across the city, and some were previously profiled on VentureFizz, such as Perch, RateGravity, and Operation Code.

For us, we love seeing unique and creative startups, and here are 10 that stood out at this year’s HUB Week Demo Day.

nDash.co

nDash.co is a content marketing platform that allows brands to connect with freelance writers for a variety of assignments. Their booth allowed attendees to see what work nDash users can be assigned for, such as copywriting and blog posts among others.

Fun fact: Stephanie Roulic, nDash.co’s Co-Founder and Director of Customer Success, is the main organizer of Boston Startup Week.

BlocksCAD

A startup out of the LearnLaunch accelerator, BlocksCAD created educational software for children to learn how to use mathematics and basic coding to create CAD shapes. The software is designed to be easy-to-learn for a variety of projects, including art-based ones that the booth highlighted. The company’s Business and Operations Coordinator, Madeline Reich told us she uses the software to teach third graders.

Knightly

Campus police officers have a lot to keep track of with students on the go. Northeastern University senior Abigael Titcomb founded Knightly, a platform where students can share their locations with each other and with campus PD anonymously. It allows for campus PD to take care of more serious issues, such as out-of-control partying on school grounds and students can take care of themselves.

SlapFive

A slap five is another term for a high five and, as SlapFive’s Co-Founder Jeff Ernst says, “It’s the ultimate form of personal satisfaction.” His company created a B2B platform that will capture and personalize results of a customer’s experience with a particular software. Ernst showcased several members of a variety of Boston tech companies using SlapFive’s text, audio, and video features.

Veridium

You know how in spy movies when agents use scanners to get into top secret rooms? Veridium is making technology similar to that and underwent an in-depth development process to get the scanning technology down. The company has created that scans a user’s fingertips through a smartphone’s rearview camera. The company’s goal is to eliminate passwords for high-security institutions, such as financial service companies.

Wizio

Wizio comes from Northeastern University’s Entrepreneurship Group and they are utilizing AR technology to provide apartment shoppers a better look inside a potential new living space. Wizio’s COO John Puma III wants to give the real estate market a new way for agents to interact with customers, and give the customers a close look at every nook and cranny in an apartment.

Placeful

Placeful is a startup founded by three architecture veterans, and their expertise has allowed them to look inside the detailed inner workings of apartment buildings. The company’s platform displays, among other aspects, zoning regulations, how many people can live in the building, and what kind of utilities are needed. The company’s main goal is to show how several neighborhoods do have the potential to contain more homes.

Water Hero, Inc

Water Hero comes from the town of Beverly and is founded by serial entrepreneur Dan Sterling. Water Hero developed an IoT sensor to help homeowners track and diagnose problems within their water systems. Users can also control water valves through the app and can be notified through the app that displays water systems’ conditions and properties.

Kuvee

Kuvee had several wine bottles placed on their table and a large, black plastic container with a touchscreen. Kuvee created this device that will keep wine fresh for up to 30 days, by placing a bottle into the container. Another unique feature is the ability to connect to the Internet on the container and order wine.

Vindor Music

The only music-related startup on the show floor, Vindor Music created an electronic saxophone and learning software to teach children how to play some unique sounding tunes. The company’s Chief Musicologist Joel Edinberg played music from movies and classic video games to bring interest in. We captured video of him playing the "Tetris" theme.

The company’s Kickstarter is going live today.

After the show floor closed up, attendees piled into one of the domes set up in the middle of the plaza. Six other companies were named the finalists for Demo Day and engaged in a pitching competition.

CareAline

CareAline is a digital health company and a MassChallenge finalist. The company is creating a comfortable and wearable medical wraps and sleeves to help ease patients with implanted intravenous lines. Company Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Kezia Fitzgerald told the audience an emotional story behind the inspiration for CareAline.

TellusLabs

Tellus Labs is combining several findings from satellites to help solve issues relating to agricultural and economic issues. Much of the company’s data has been stored over years of satellite research and into a platform called Kernel, which is devoted to solving issues involving agriculture.

The Best Bees Company

Best Bees is another unique startup, in the sense, they are doing something that would make an onlooker go “…what?” Best Bees is creating ‘smart beehives’ in order to look into beekeeping data at a much more intimate level. Their presentation showed long-term goals, such as finding ways to improve honey bee health and potentially increase the population of the insect.

Tactile

Tactile took the stage with some shocking numbers: less than 1% of written text has a Braille counterpart. Tactile created a device that can decipher text and translate it into Braille. During the company’s presentation, they showed how many universities are interested in using the product such as Harvard and MIT.

Twiage

Twiage is an alumnus of the PULSE @ MassChallenge program. The company created a communication platform that contains a patient’s personal information all-in-one database for hospitals. Twiage wants to eliminate any miscommunication in the ER, as they found a lot of mistakes occur due to a simple error.

PipeGuard Robotics

The winners of the competition, PipeGuard Robotics created an automated robot, named Daisy, that will detect pipe leaks in public water systems. The company displayed what their robots look like (they mildly resemble a badminton shuttlecock) and how they have plans to scale in size and scope with them.

We live in a world where sharing, even with total strangers, has become commonplace. We post selfies taken in odd and inappropriate places on Instagram, upload videos of our kids’ latest recitals for our “friends” to see on Facebook, and share beliefs with potentially polarizing opinions in ALL CAPS on  Twitter - regardless of the privacy setting.  

With all of this personal transparency, it’s hard to believe things are still a bit opaque in the workplace.

According to a 2014 American Psychological Association survey, 25% of employees don’t trust their employer, and only 50% believe their employer is open and honest with them. Where does this lack of trust come from? Most likely, a lack of transparency.

Many believe transparent leadership fosters a culture of trust and communication, which, in turn, encourages engagement and productivity. But for decades, businesses ran on secrecy. Be it financial data, salary information, or success planning, privately owned companies have long subscribed to the theory that sharing critical information should be done only on a need-to-know basis.

However, as a new generation of entrepreneurs make their mark in the business world, a new trend of transparency takes hold. Millennials, who’ve grown up in the age of social media, value an open and honest workplace and are creating businesses that reflect their need for sharing.

For instance, SumAll is a young company that gives each of its employees access to heaps of critical information like investor details, capital structure and even have individual salaries posted internally. While major retailer Patagonia uses projects like the Footprint Chronicles to give transparency on their supply chain reducing negative social and environmental impacts.

What is Transparency, Exactly?

Transparency is about giving the people on your team, enough information to help them buy-in and fully commit to the greater journey of your organization. In many ways, transparency shares similar characteristics to a strong marriage with a focus on communication, honesty, regular feedback, respect and admitting wrong.

A commitment to creating a culture of trust and transparency must come from the top down or it does not work.

Why is it Necessary?

When business leaders foster a culture of trust and transparency, the entire workplace benefit in numerous ways:

1. Solid Workplace Relationships

Relationships of any kind are built on trust. When employees quit, they tend to quit because of poor relationships with management. According to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey, 37% of respondents said they were more likely to leave their job if they held a negative opinion about their boss’s performance.

2. Clearer Company Vision

Employees are able to align with and fully understand the company vision and their role in it when management is transparent. Roles change, markets shift, and organizations transform. When you can effectively create a line of sight for your people between their daily activities and higher level organizational goals, their buy-in and purpose will increase. Be transparent about any external or internal factors that may be causing a need to pivot. Be honest about the work that they are doing and be diligent in connecting these dots.  

3. Problem Solving

By being transparent about the challenges you see, you open the door for your team members to honestly share their opinions about company problems. This breeds a culture that is better equipped to face the day to day obstacles with a realistic approach to finding better solutions in less time.

4. Employee Engagement

A culture of transparency results in employees who are more engaged. A Harvard Business Review’s 2013 employee engagement survey found that a staggering 70% of respondents felt more engaged when business leaders kept them in the loop with updates and company strategies.

Finding the Balance Between Transparency and TMI

But how much transparency is too much? When does transparency stop being helpful and start being harmful?

Transparency is not about sharing all information all of the time. Some information will add little value to your company’s culture, and sharing every single detail of your business (rumors, hunches, employee issues) will ultimately backfire. Rather, transparency is about empowering employees with the information they need to be successful.

So, how do you have open communication within your organization without crossing over into TMI?

Focus on authenticity. Authenticity should always come first. It’s important, especially for business leaders, to have some sort of lens to identify ways to be authentic and friendly without giving TMI.

Next, always help your team fully understand HOW your business functions and that every decision THEY make impacts your business’ success. Once they understand the direction the company is going, give them those details they need to help the company reach its goals.

And finally, never hide information if it is going to create fear. When people don’t understand what’s happening, they get scared, and this fear distracts from the work that needs to be done. So, be open. You want to give enough information so team members know they are okay and have nothing to worry about.

Legal Concerns

There are times when you legally shouldn’t discuss something. This could be when you’re about to go public or if you’re going to be part of a merger and acquisition. If you’re not sure if it’s something you should talk about, don’t be afraid to go to senior leaders and in-house legal teams and ask for the parameters. When it comes to legalities, it’s always better to ask for permission than ask for forgiveness.

Strong organizations have high levels of trust and create a culture where all team members are treated with respect. When balanced, transparency can strengthen relationships, empower and engage employees, and help companies turn their visions into realities. So next time you wonder if you should share or remain tight-lipped, ask yourself two questions: What is my intent? What is the potential impact?  

Gabriela McManus is Executive Director at Intelligent.ly. Follow her on Twitter: @GabMcM

I'm a big fan of all things tech and Boston. So in a chocolate meets peanut butter moment, I decided to create my own personal Boston Nerd Tour. For out of towners, this will be an intro to Boston from the geek point of view. For locals, this is a reminder that in addition to living in or near one of the most beautiful cities in the world, your home has been pivotal to the creation of the current tech industry. 

Let's get started.

The Telephone (Boston)

You know the story: Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson were working in their laboratory in 1876 on a device to transmit sound over wires. Working in separate parts of the laboratory, Bell accidentally spilled acid on himself and urgently used the new device to say: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” Okay, the battery acid may actually have occurred in a separate incident, but it sure makes for a great story. The small plaque in front of the John F. Kennedy Building on Cambridge Street commemorates the first transmission of sound over wires at the laboratory that once stood here. Interesting side note: Bell's future chief engineer was also from Boston, and worked as his patent draftsman in 1876. He was Lewis Latimer, whose parents escaped slavery in Virginia to settle in Boston, and who lived nearby on School Street.

For those under 30, I feel compelled to add the historical note: there was a time long long ago when phones required wires. 

1st Venture Win (Boston)

In 1957 when Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson were seeking funding for the first microcomputer business, the only firm that showed interest was the Boston-based American Research Development Corporation (ARDC). ARDC, the first publicly traded venture capital firm, was founded by George Doriot, who is known as the “father of venture capitalism.” George and ARDC provided Olsen and Anderson $70K, which would be worth $355M after the 1968 IPO of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). While ARDC no longer exists, this investment goes down in history as the first big success in venture capitalism. This location was George's house, where the deal was done. Some might say Olsen and Anderson would have had an easier time raising capital if they'd gone to Silicon Valley - but unfortunately, there were no venture firms in SV in 1957. 

George Church's Lab (Boston)

Lotus Development Corp (Cambridge)

The office park you are looking at was formerly the worldwide headquarters of Lotus Corporation. Who, you may ask? You know, the maker of Lotus 123, Notes and SmartSuite? Who will you ask again? Okay, I give up. Think of Lotus as the Microsoft of Massachusetts. And if Microsoft had sucked a little more, the company might still be here today.

Entrepreneur Walk of Fame (Cambridge)

In the heart of Kendall Square is the tech equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But instead of celebrating movie actors like Danny DeVito, it celebrates tech entrepreneurs. Last time I walked by the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame it had seven stars: Edison, Gates, Hewlett, Packard, Kapor, Swanson and Jobs. While you're here, stop by the MIT Coop to shop for MIT branded clothes and tech books. Confession: you likely will find the Coop more interesting than the Walk of Fame. 
 

MIT Museum (Cambridge)

The MIT Museum is a great place to see some of the contributions MIT has brought to our industry. You can see exhibits from MIT's work on advanced radar in World War II, their pioneering work in robotics and artificial intelligence, and even exhibits from the "Steve Jobs of Boston," Edwin Land. My personal favorite though is the LISP Machine. I’m a big fan of any hardware that can make all those parentheses I used in college run faster. 
 

MIT (Cambridge)

One of the secrets to understanding Boston’s tech history is to realize it is the byproduct of a collaboration between three distinct entities: private industry, higher education, and government. No institution in Boston exemplifies this trinity more than MIT. It was MIT in the early 20th century that pioneered programs to establish links with private industry, and it was MIT that the US government chose as its location for radar research during World War II. MIT is known as one of the top research universities in the US, creating such well-known technologies as GPS, the first computer game, doppler radar, the spreadsheet, the FAX machine, voice recognition, and much much more. There are many sites to see at MIT, but a quick walk up the stairs of the Roger Building and down the Infinite Corridor will give you a flavor for the school. This is also the location at which the South Boston janitor and genius, Matt Damon, became noticed by his therapist Robin Williams. Okay, maybe that was just a movie called Good Will Hunting. 

RAD Lab (Cambridge)

In the summer of 1940 with the Battle of Britain raging, Winston Churchill took the dramatic step of sending his country’s most secret scientific breakthroughs to the US. Known as the Tizard Mission, it resulted in the creation of the Radiation Laboratory at MIT (“RAD Lab”), which was at the epicenter of radar and microwave research that some historians credit with winning the war. At its peak, the RAD Lab employed more than 4,000 people and filled over 15 acres of floor space in Cambridge. It also had a positive side effect for Boston: the creation of a rapidly growing and educated tech workforce. MIT building 4 is the location of the original RAD Lab. 

1st Video Game (Cambridge)

In 1961 DEC gave MIT a PDP-1 minicomputer, which the school installed in the Kludge Room at the Electrical Engineering Department (current site of the Fairchild Buildings). The next year Steve Russell and friends used the PDP-1 to create Spacewar!, the first computer video game. If you played the arcade game Galaxy (1971) or Atari Asteroids (1979), you were playing a later generation of Spacewar! This game would be the inspiration for the computer gaming industry we know today. 
 

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Cambridge)

While Elon Musk is busy worrying artificial intelligence will take over the world, MIT's CSAIL is busy doing research. One the most notable researchers here is none other than Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web. Another notable inmate at CSAIL is Richard Stallman, the open source pioneer, founder of the Free Software Foundation, creator of copyleft, and the person responsible for the open source port of many of our favorite UNIX tools (e.g. emacs, gcc, make). You shouldn't have any trouble finding the CSAIL buildings since they look like they were designed by Salvador Dalí. 
 

Polaroid Building (Cambridge)

One of Steve Job’s idols was an entrepreneur named Edwin Land, who was the most successful creator of consumer products of his time. Land came to Boston in 1927 to attend Harvard, but dropped out to start the company that became known as Polaroid (what is it with entrepreneurs dropping out of Harvard?). Over his career Land created some of the most successful consumer products in the world (e.g. the Polaroid OneStep camera), was awarded over 500 patents, and led a company that by 1978 employed 21K people and generated over $3B in revenue. Cameras from Polaroid were the iPods and iPhones of their era. Unfortunately, Polaroid suffered the fate of many companies in our industry: a technology disruption. This white art-deco building at 748 Memorial Drive is on the National Register of Historic Places. While you are here, you might want to visit one of my favorite non-historical tech locations: Micro Center. 
 

Harvard Computation Laboratory (Cambridge)

In 1946 Harvard began the construction of a new building to house the giant calculator called the Mark I. The building would be called the Harvard Computation Laboratory (replaced later by the Maxwell Dworkin building). The 50 foot long Mark was in use 24 hours a day running computations for the US Navy. It was here the earliest computer scientists of Boston worked, and where the first "bug" report was filed: a moth stuck between relays in the machine. I should note in MIT's defense that while the first computer in Massachusetts was located at Harvard, the digital circuits upon which it was designed came from the 1930s work of MIT graduate student Claude Shannon.

The Harvard Computation Laboratory was also where Chinese born scientist and entrepreneur, An Wang, invented magnetic pulse memory, which would be a standard in computers for the next 20 years. Wang would go on to found Wang Laboratories in 1955, which at its peak in the 1980s employed over 33,000 people and had $3B+ in revenue. Wang went on to become one of the great Boston philanthropists. When the roof of Boston’s Performing Art Center was falling down in the 1980s, Wang made a substantial contribution, and the Wang Center was born.

The Maxwell Dworkin building that now resides on this site was donated by none other than Microsoft co-founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. 
 

The Harvard Mark I (Cambridge)

During World War II, the US military struggled to keep up with its demand for rapid mathematical computations. These computations were used in targeting artillery, breaking codes, and even building the first atomic bomb. But long before "computers" were a device, they were a job description for the people who performed the tasks of crunching numbers and verifying their results. But the war caused demand for “computers” to outstrip supply, resulting in the creation of the first modern computers.

Microsoft Gets Its Start (Cambridge)

In 1974 a Honeywell programmer named Paul Allen made his way through the snow in Harvard Square to a newsstand called Out Of Town News. He bought a copy of his favorite magazine, Popular Electronics, which had an article on the MITS Altair, the first commercial personal computer kit. Paul immediately rushed over to the Harvard dorm of his high school friend and freshman, Bill Gates, who read the article and began to realize the personal computer revolution was starting. Yes, that freshman was Bill Gates, the co-founder and longtime CEO of Microsoft. And yes like all great entrepreneurs, he dropped out of Harvard.

Zuck Goes West (Cambridge)

Most of us in Boston tech know Henrietta’s Table as a great place for a business lunch. It’s centrally located at the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, and offers a nice atmosphere for talking business. But Henrietta’s most famous dinner was in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin (who?) went to meet a senior associate from Battery Ventures, in one of the last opportunities for a Boston venture capitalist to invest in Facebook before Mark and team headed west. In defense of Battery, Facebook had less than 2K users, no revenue, and Battery had already invested in another pioneering social startup called Friendster. So when you go to Henrietta's Table, make sure to log in to Friendster to post pictures of your visit.

Harvard Business School (Cambridge)

Across the Charles River from Harvard Square is the Harvard Business School, home to the top elite MBA program in the United States. The alumni of HBS have been a catalyst in our industry as executives, entrepreneurs, and investors. But instead of talking about HBS's illustrious alumni, I'd like to talk about one of their many notable faculty members: Clayton Christensen. Christensen's 1997 The Innovator's Dilemma remains one of the top ten must-read tech books in our industry. The book asserts that established market leaders can do everything right and still lose their market leadership due to value networks that influence companies toward sustaining innovation. The landscape of the Greater Boston Area is riddled with case studies of The Innovator's Dilemma: DEC, Wang, Data General, Apollo, Lotus, Polaroid. While the theory has been challenged lately, its truth provides a caution to all technology companies and regions: innovate or die. People who have not raised venture capital may be surprised to learn that whopping 26% of VCs have attended Harvard Business School. But people who have raised venture capital in our industry (e.g. me), are always surprised to learn it's not 100%.

Email & the Internet (Cambridge)

In 1948, MIT professors Leo Beranek and Richard Bolt, and one of their students, Robert Newman, founded BBN Technologies. BBN started as an acoustic consulting firm that was best known for examining the 18.5 missing minutes from the Watergate tapes. But BBN and its founders had another claim to fame: fostering the earliest idea for a computer network that would eventually become the internet. On April 7, 1969, BBN was awarded the federal contract to create the first computer network called ARPANET. The first four nodes of the network were deployed to UCLA and later expanded to the east coast with the addition of a node hosted here in Cambridge in 1970. But BBN didn't stop here: they went on a year later to create email. Yes, that makes BBN wholly responsible for giving Nigerian princes a bad name.

BBN is now a subsidiary of Raytheon. 
 

The VisiCalc Attic (Arlington)

The phrase “killer app” refers to computer software that is so useful consumers feel compelled to buy the hardware just to run the application. Super Mario Brothers was the killer app for the Nintendo Entertainment System game console, and Halo was the same for the XBox. Most people don’t realize the original “killer app” was created here in Boston. Yes in the attic of this Arlington house, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston wrote VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet. When VisiCalc arrived on the scene in 1980, it quickly became the most popular application for the Apple II, helping fuel what we today know as the personal computer revolution. So what’s with the attic? Well, a garage may work in the Silicon Valley, but the last place you want to be writing code in a Boston winter is your garage. 
 

The First Internet Service Provider (Brookline)

This 19th century Tudor-style building in Coolidge Corner was the location of the first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the United States. In November 1989, Software Tool & Die launched The World, providing its customers PPP dial-up, email, and access to the Usenet (the Reddit of its time). I still remember using my 14.4K modem to log in to The World back in the early 1990s. It was the place the real nerds gathered, while our cooler but less tech-savvy colleagues used AOL and CompuServe. This 1898 building also has its own history, serving as the second location of a popular grocery store called S.S. Pierce - the Wegmans of its time - whose customers included John Quincy Adams, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Daniel Webster. 
 

Home of Venture Capital (Waltham)

On the plateau above the Cambridge Reservoir west of Route 128 is a sprawling office park. It’s not much to look at today, but not long ago this was the Sand Hill of Boston. If you were an entrepreneur in the 1980s through the mid-2000s, you likely would have made your way up the steep incline to the numerous buildings that once housed the venture capital industry of Boston. Like its Silicon Valley equivalent, there was a time when every venture firm that mattered was within walking distance of this location. But like the Silicon Valley, times have changed and venture firms have moved into Boston and Cambridge, leaving only the old guard to still call Winter Street their home. 
 

The Microwave Oven (Waltham)

During World War II when the British government was looking to accelerate the production of its microwave-driven magnetron radar, they turned to a small company in Waltham, Massachusetts called Raytheon. This decision turned out to be fortuitous since Raytheon engineers were able to innovate their way to raising production from 100 to 2,000 magnetrons per day. This would propel Raytheon from $3M in revenue to the global corporation it is today, employing over 61,000 people and generating $25B+ in revenue.

1st Scrum Team (Burlington)

There is a long forgotten company that resided at 25 Corporate Drive in Burlington called Easel Corporation. While the company no longer exists, it has one historical claim to fame: it was the location of the “the first Scrum team”. While Scrum as we know it was created post-Easel by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, it was here the first team started leveraging short iterations, standups, and cross-functional teams. Prior to “the first Scrum team”, software was developed through a serial process known as Waterfall that often took years to complete. Today it is common for companies to push hundreds of changes to their software to production each day using Agile and Scrum. The first standup occurred on the 3rd floor of the main building (on left as you come down Corporate Drive). I know because I was there. 
 

MIT Lincoln Lab & 128

The story of Boston tech cannot be told without mentioning Route 128. Route 128 was the first circumferential highway in the country when it opened in 1951. Derided as the "road to nowhere", its distance from Boston brought it through undeveloped farms and towns. One of the first institutions to embrace Route 128 was the US Air Force, which took over Hanscom Field in 1953, and brought with it federally funded institutions such as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Route 128 would be a major catalyst for establishing eastern Massachusetts as a tech center in the US, with its growth so rapid that by 1958 the state had to remove 50 beautifully crafted stone bridges to widen the highway. This type of poor planning and financial waste was later perfected in Massachusetts with the Big Dig. 
 

The Mountain (Framingham)

If you travel west on Route 9, you'll see The Mountain on the right next to exit 12 of the Mass Pike. While it's not much of a hill today, it once stood 364 feet high before being excavated to build the Mass Pike. The Mountain is currently home to the manufacturer of the headset everyone will be wearing on your next flight: Bose. In 1964, MIT graduate student Amar Bose turned his disappointment with the stereo system he purchased into the founding of Bose Corporation. The company today makes high-performance audio devices such as my favorite noise-canceling headphones. 
 

Digital Equipment Corporation (Maynard)

Many people forget that Boston was the original Silicon Valley. In the 1960s and 1970s, Massachusetts was the epicenter of the rapidly growing minicomputer industry. One of the most successful minicomputer companies was Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which was the Apple and IBM of its time. At its peak in 1987, DEC employed over 140,000 people, has brought to market products such as the PDP, VAX, Alpha, and DECnet. This location at Mill & Main is the old wool factory that was the original DEC headquarters from 1957 to 1992. The founders of DEC, Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson, leveraged their experience at Lincoln Labs to conceive of an interactive computer system that eventually became the PDP. In addition to DEC, Massachusetts would be home to other notable minicomputer manufacturers, including Wang, Data General, and Prime Computer. 
 

EMC (Hopkinton)

In 1979 two former Northeastern University roommates, Richard Egan and John Curly, founded EMC. Lacking a clear plan, they sold office furniture before eventually settling on reselling Intel products. On a customer suggestion, they built their first product: Prime microcomputer compatible memory. Thus started one of the fastest growing companies in Massachusetts. By 1986 EMC went public, by 2014 they were driving $24B+ in revenue, and by 2016 they merged with Dell to become Dell EMC. One of EMC's great contributions was acquiring and growing VMware, which until Amazon AWS was one of the biggest infrastructure companies in the world. But perhaps their most important contribution to Boston tech is the Dell EMC Club seating at Fenway Park, whose rare invites I never turn down (hint, hint). 
 

The Massachusetts Miracle (Lowell)

This building at One Industrial Drive was the headquarters of Wang Laboratories from 1976 to 1997. While Wang Laboratories started in Cambridge and later moved it to Tewskbury, it was in Lowell where the company achieved its greatest heights. Selling everything from typesetters to programmable calculators to word processors, its entry into the minicomputer market propelled Wang to be a global technology leader. From 1979 to 1984, Wang grew an average of 61% YoY, making the company one of the best examples of the economic growth in the 1980s known as the "Massachusetts Miracle". At its peak, Wang Laboratories had annual revenues of $3 billion and employed over 33,000 people. But the transition of leadership to An Wang's son and the inability to respond to the microcomputer revolution resulted in the company faltering and eventually filing for bankruptcy protection in 1992. The remaining vestiges of Wang now reside in Getronics and Kodak.

Goddard Rocket Launch (Auburn)

At a golf course in Auburn Massachusetts, you'll find two markers commemorating Robert Goddard's launch of the first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926. The 10-foot tall rocket went 41 feet in the air, making Goddard the father of modern rocketry. In spite of his revolutionary work, he, unfortunately, received little attention until after his death. Shortly after reaching its peak altitude, Goddard's rocket slowly lowered itself back onto its launch platform. No, just kidding on the last part - that would have to wait for Elon Musk.

Odd fact: The original location of the Johnson Space Center was Boston before Kennedy's death brought the Texan Lyndon Johnson to office. That would have made for this phrase in Apollo 13: "Boston, we have a problem." 

1st Wireless Transatlantic Transmission (South Wellfleet)

Tucked in one of the most beautiful areas of Massachusetts in the Cape Cod National Seashore is a display commemorating the location of the first wireless transatlantic transmission in 1902. The transmission came from an antenna array erected on top four 210 foot towers that once stood near this site. Its most notable use came 10 years after construction when it alerted the British Navy to the sinking of the Titanic. We should, however, assign no blame to this station for the creation of the 1997 James Cameron movie Titanic.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1S2RDzDIUH1nSr_JNAgZg-9RQi9U&ll=42.26530375551343%2C-70.89263999999997&z=9

Joe Kinsella is the CTO & Founder of CloudHealth Technologies.  You can find this post, as well as additional content on his blog called High Tech in the Hub.  You can also follow Joe on Twitter (@joekinsella) by clicking here.

Last week, the New England Venture Capital Association hosted a panel in Cambridge focused on cybersecurity. The panel featured a number of venture capitalists and operators from the Boston area who are plugged into this market.

What was interesting was this panel session was not about money. Instead, the focus was on two things: innovation and defense.

Innovation, according to the panel, is coming in many forms based entirely on new approaches to defending businesses, consumers, and the country’s infrastructure. Technology factors into the conversation because there are actually a number of innovative companies right here in Boston who are developing new technology to support this wave of innovation.

The second big trend discussed was defense. How can we as a collaborative industry focus on leveraging better technology, and revolutionary new approaches to better defend ourselves from attackers, nation states and other adversaries who have weaponized themselves for success?

The most pressing issue came up first: Russia. How is the cybersecurity community reacting to Russia?

Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas had an interesting take on this, as he pointed out that companies are now re-acclimating to two things: cyberattacks for political gain; and then sabotage-based attacks. Looking through a U.S.-Russia lens, he cautioned that any company needs to consider their political footprint as an organization and that political agendas can fuel an escalation in malicious activity against you.

Another perspective on countering Russian hacker activity as an industry is the notion of bodies and skill. To take the offensive and effectively stay ahead of attackers, who also apply innovation to what they do, it takes massive investment in technology and lots of scale. The need for continued innovation requires capital, and that level of investment is being applied to vendors who are looking to bring a more holistic solution to cover more infrastructure.

It was also pointed out by Brendan Hannigan of Polaris Ventures that it doesn’t really matter if it’s a state or not a state who is targeting you as a company. Customers of cybersecurity providers simply need better technology and more innovation. These innovations will change the economics of attacks now and in the future.

For example, when companies are responding to incidents, increased intelligence and sharing have become critical to prevent large-scale damage and to contain incidents, not just technology. Ultimately, it’s going to be economics that will drive how well you can attack or defend, and execution is a close second.

Moving on from Russia, some best practices were shared as the discussion moved to the slate of the most recent, high-profile attacks that have grabbed headlines. It was suggested that specific industries are more vulnerable than others, and this has never been as accurate.

There are industries and companies who are using outdated versions of software, and by doing so, they open themselves up to substantial risk. Again, back to economics theme, when teams aren’t practicing good software patching hygiene, attackers sniff this out easily and are able to penetrate more easily.

A question was asked on exactly what type of attacker behavior is driving innovation.

One perspective through the lens of the VC is that with NSA tools being compromised recently, there is a massive scramble for new technology within the government and the commercial sector – the notion being that some of the best penetration and exfiltration tools developed by the U.S. are actually now out on the black market.

The resounding solution layered on top of innovation was that applying more intelligence is the biggest thing we can do. And there is a substantial amount of capital flowing into how to obtain, leverage and share threat intelligence.

It was also highlighted that organizations are looking at making fundamental changes for how they can protect infrastructure and are applying far more innovation to how they leverage cloud technology, to secure micro-systems and applications in a fundamentally different way.

New technology that is also interesting to investors focused on making products and solutions more human-centric, easy to use, consumable, and less prone to human error through automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

C-level executives being targeted is also a huge problem.

The question was posed to the panel on how customers are affected by the current state of threat severity increasing, and a rush to develop new, agile technology to counter it. At the enterprise level, it was suggested that any enterprise customer (buyer and user of cyber technology) might have somewhere close to 40 different cyber technologies in-house.

And with more technology, it’s often confusing for these customers. Vendors have to ask themselves: are we adding to the problem by just bringing a new technology that doesn’t have a huge impact for teams? To that point, aggregation technologies have now become extremely important to help drive the optimal value from each in an integrated way.

With respect to deal flow in the Boston market, the panel was asked if there are specific locations where are opportunities coming from.

The panel agreed that the Boston area is rich with innovation. Other areas like the Valley and Israel are the other two definitive areas based on talent pool and geographic location.

But it was also pointed out by Rick Grinnell of Glasswing Ventures that security used to be way more niche, and that buyers are applying far more scrutiny to acquiring cybersecurity technology than ever, pushing a faster failure rate around emerging technology, where it either works, or not, and if not, startups die early.

Even with $3.6B invested last year across 150 cyber companies, and larger funding rounds around $100M, it’s still harder today than ever to get your first capital investment and to make your first $5M of revenue due to changing threat landscape, and the need to innovate so quickly.

Finally, as to where will the next big innovation come within cybersecurity, the notion of artificial intelligence, and applying math to threat detection and analytics are where the money is at. Get better and get better at integrating as well as the integration of machine learning for better, faster results.

Additionally, the shift to the cloud, although challenging in many ways, allows for an entirely new way to secure infrastructure, given the rise of AWS, Google and Microsoft’s penetration into the data centers of large and mid-size companies. Cybersecurity investment will be pushed in this direction.

Overall, it’s an exciting time in both the economy, and in how innovation is trumping legacy technology to counter the bad guys, and a lot of it is happening right in our backyard in Boston.

Tom Bain is the Chief Marketing Officer at Centripetal Networks. Follow him on Twitter: @tmbainjr1

Images via the New England Venture Capital Association's Twitter account - @NewEnglandVC.

I’ve heard co-workers mention on countless occasions, “I just need to be inspired.” Candidly, that sentiment has always frustrated me a little. Why? While arguably we could all use some inspiration, do we really expect to miraculously be inspired...or rather, is this something we are actually in control of to make happen for ourselves?

It’s easy to go through the world hoping things happen for us by some divine miracle. And yet, how often does that really happen? Perhaps it’s a harsh view of the world, but at the end of the day, I believe if you are passively hoping to achieve your goals, your chances of success are pretty limited.

So, how does one find inspiration proactively? I spent some time pondering that this weekend, as my daughters and I had this same discussion. This is how we summed it up...

Mindset Matters

I work with a guy who watches the same motivational Tom Brady video every morning. For him, it serves to inspire him to give it his absolute best, every single day. I choose to look at my schedule every morning and start the day by determining which thing I will accomplish that day that will add the most impact.

Whether it’s starting your day by skimming through your favorite blog or listening to a podcast on the train to work, choose something that will speak to your core. While this activity can be quick in the process (e.g. no more than a few minutes), select something that puts you in a great mindset to tackle the day.

Space Matters

As I wrote about last week, the space we work in is a physical manifestation of our culture. Individually, it speaks to our own unique approaches to work, and how we feel most productive. I know, for example, I don’t do very well sitting at a desk all day. And yet, I’ve got a ton to do. My revised approach? I used to sit on the lobby couch every morning for an hour or so. I could be mobile, unplugged, and still rip through email and other tasks in a comfortable environment. However, more importantly, it gave me the opportunity to see many faces walking by on their way to grab a morning coffee. As a result, it allowed me to catch up with a variety of people I wouldn’t normally see. These conversations ended up sparking ideas, learning of new wins, etc. In other words, that hour inspired me and set the tone for the day.

For others, it’s about ensuring they have a tidy space, pictures of their friends and family, or killer office supplies and technology to aid them in getting motivated. Whatever your thing is, incorporate it into your day.

People Matter

It’s incredible the difference of people we surround ourselves with when it comes to inspiring us. They can be friends, family, or colleagues; they can be news reporters or civic leaders.

The point is, open your mind to actively listening to diverging points of view. While you may not agree with a particular political perspective, it’s important to pay attention. You may find your response to it inspires a new way of looking at the situation or motivates you to take action on something you truly believe in. Personally, one of the things I truly value in my career has been the ability to curate some truly different types of people in my network. I may not want to hang out with them on a daily basis, but they always inspire me to expand my thinking. When I partner those perspectives with inspiration and insights from my trusted few go to people, I’m ready to take on the world.

Don’t know who those people are for you? Start with a list of people you admire. If you can’t build a relationship with them IRL (e.g. I really admire Richard Branson, but don’t think I’m likely going to have lunch with him anytime soon), see if they have videos of speaking events they may have done, podcast interviews, etc. These people don’t have to be world-renowned - sometimes the most inspiring ones can be found by asking a friend who they know who does something you are interested in learning more about. Feeling shy? The Internet is a pretty great place. Search videos, TED Talks, LinkedIn influencers, etc. It’s out there; you just have to look for it!

Laughter Matters

Last week I went to a conference and heard the Executive Creative Director and Co-Founder of Refinery 29, Piera Gelardi speak. Quirky and brilliant, she talked about the concept of being ridiculous sparks some of her teams best ideas.

When you let your guard down and embrace your comedic side, it’s quite amazing what ideas it can inspire. Besides, whose day isn’t made better with a good laugh?

Personalization Matters

We all have different, unique things that inspire us. The trick is,  you have to identify those things for yourself, and then ensure you are actively weaving them into your life. I covet my drive to work in the morning. Why? To me, it represents a fresh start. I erase the thoughts of yesterday, and just consider what’s possible for today. That, driving really fast, “Lithium” blasting, with the top down on my car doesn’t hurt either.  

How do you find YOUR inspiration? Challenge for the day: if you are someone hoping inspiration will just come to you, stop yourself in your tracks and try a new approach. There is inspiration all around us. You just need to determine how to pursue yours.

Christina Luconi is Chief People Officer for Rapid7. Follow her on Twitter: @peopleinnovator.