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Harvard graduates Julia Alvarenga and Alice Jacob lived at a house in San Francisco with other student startup founders as part of the TekTrek program.John Werner<\/p>\nJohn Werner is taking a different approach. This summer, the energetic startup investor and MIT lecturer created a program dubbed \u201cTekTrek\u201d to help 44 mostly local students get their startups off the ground. Funding came from former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and entrepreneur investors David Siegel and Dave Blundin. The student group included 11 from MIT, 12 from Harvard, 16 from Princeton (Schmidt\u2019s alma mater), and five from other schools.<\/p>\n
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Werner is a constant presence on the Boston tech scene, putting on conferences, looking for promising startups, and making introductions among his many contacts at events across the city.<\/p>\n
But Werner didn\u2019t base his accelerator program, run out of his nonprofit, Ideas in Action, in Boston. Surprisingly, he took the students to San Francisco for two months, put them up in a big house in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, and provided mentors and coworking space. Special events ranged from a tour of Google headquarters to meeting top executives from companies such as Apple, Intel, and Nvidia over dinner. <\/p>\n
Was he hoping the cold San Francisco summer would scare them off? Not exactly.<\/p>\n
Taking the kids closer to the heart of Silicon Valley exposed them to the region\u2019s burgeoning AI scene and the success of the tech giants, Werner explained. Many would likely have ended up on the West Coast without the TekTrek program, and Werner said he hoped to give the students the benefit of learning about Silicon Valley while still convincing some to stay on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t get the CEO of Intel [Lip-Bu Tan] to Boston,\u201c Werner explained. \u201cHe\u2019s an MIT grad, so I can get him to meet kids from the East Coast on the West Coast and give them advice and give perspective and give access.\u201d<\/p>\n
The students worked hard but had plenty of time to bond. \u201cI had never met so many smart, generous, genuinely interesting people in so little time,\u201d said Julia Alvarenga, who graduated from Harvard this year and is working on an AI marketing startup called The Yard. \u201cIt felt less like a program than a community we were lucky to stumble into.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvard graduates Julia Alvarenga and Alice Jacob lived at a house in San Francisco with other student startup founders as part of the TekTrek program.John Werner<\/p>\n
This month, the group returned to Massachusetts for a few more events, including a talk by Mayor Michelle Wu at the home of former Facebook and Uber exec Ed Baker and a pitch showcase at MIT\u2019s Stata Auditorium in front of dozens of local venture capital investors. <\/p>\n
Werner acted as MC with his usual flare, drawing connections between the Longfellow Bridge over the Charles and the Golden Gate Bridge, name-dropping the many tech celebrities who supported TekTrek, and working in nuggets of Boston tech trivia (who knew Charles Stark Draper, founder of Draper Labs, was the inspiration for DC Comics\u2019 Ironman?).<\/p>\n
With dozens of Boston VCs watching, Brian Elliot, cofounder and CEO of AI programming startup Blitzy, opened the pitch event by presenting an early pitch from his company\u2019s seed financing round. \u201cSo John ambushed me, like he does, and he said, \u2018Didn\u2019t you have a really bad seed deck?\u2019\u201d Elliot explained. \u201cWe\u2019re going to show all these investors it doesn\u2019t really matter how bad your deck is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Bussgang, general partner at Flybridge Capital, attended and said he was impressed with some of the startups. \u201cThere were substantive, high quality pitches,\u201d Bussgang said. Whether many will stay in Boston, \u201ctime will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvarenga and her cofounder and Harvard friend Alice Jacob offered the last pitch of the day. \u201cWe know it\u2019s been a long day so our goal is to get you excited again,\u201d Jacob told the crowd, as the pair energetically described how they would use AI to help connect college influencers with big brands. While some of the TekTrek founders are already planning to return to Silicon Valley, Alvarenga and Jacob said their student-focused startup would be based in Boston, providing some validation for Werner\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n
But Emilka Puchalski, who finished her sophomore year at Princeton, said the health sensor startup she cofounded, Tomos Devices, probably would end up in California. \u201cIt makes sense for what we\u2019re doing,\u201d she said after the pitches.<\/p>\n
Werner remained high-energy and pleased with his efforts, even a week later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to put them into the slipstream of what\u2019s going on out there and have it not be a mystery,\u201d he said this week. \u201cWe wanted them to see how they could be on both coasts, but we wanted them to see that staying here is an option.\u201d <\/p>\n
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\ud83c\udf0e Massachusetts doles out $27 million in tax credits to climate-tech firms. Read more from business reporter Jon Chesto.<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\ude93 Stow police department cuts ties with Flock Safety after determining officer used system to find personal info, officials say. Read more from Globe correspondent Bryan Hecht.<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\ude0e How I learned to stop worrying and love the AI apocalypse. Read more from business columnist Larry Edelman.<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udd11 Whoop plans to lease additional space in Boston before going public. Read more from real estate reporter Catherine Carlock.<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc40 Online monitoring firm Dynatrace<\/a> in Boston agreed to pay $915 million<\/a> to acquire AI monitoring firm Arize based in San Francisco. The company also raised $1.25 billion<\/a> through a private sale of senior unsecured notes.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcb0 Venture capital firm Floating Point<\/a> in Boston raised $125 million<\/a> for its third fund.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfe5 Health care AI software startup Bios Life<\/a> in Boston raised $25 million<\/a> in a deal led by Redmile, Vsquared Ventures, and Kindred Capital.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf21\ufe0f Boston-based Reservoir<\/a>, building high-tech water heaters, raised $8 million<\/a> in a deal led by Asymmetric Capital and including Founder Collective and MCJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcdd Edtech startup Codio<\/a> in Cambridge raised $5 million<\/a> in a deal led by Armada Investment.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udda8\ufe0f 3D printing company Formlabs<\/a> in Somerville said it received an undisclosed amount<\/a> of equity investment from Rob Willett, board member and former CEO of Cognex, and Dan Riccio, Apple\u2019s former senior vice president of hardware engineering. Riccio is also joining the company as a strategic advisor.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udda5\ufe0f IT services company Focus Technology<\/a> in Boston acquired<\/a> New York-based Converged Technology Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.<\/p>\n \ud83e\udd1d Industrial software firm LLumin<\/a> in Springfield was acquired<\/a> by Utah-based CAI Software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.<\/p>\n \ud83e\udd16 Automation software firm Realtime Robotics in Boston promoted president and chief commercial officer Kevin Carlin<\/a> to chief executive. Prior CEO and cofounder Peter Howard continues as chair of the board.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd0b Battery developer SES AI in Woburn added Paul Diemer<\/a>, former chief technology officer for Flex\u2019s power business, to its board of directors.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcb5 Private equity firm Great Hill Partners in Boston hired Sam Liu<\/a> as director of AI for its growth team. Liu previously was an associate partner at Bain & Co.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udca6 Water tech company Gradiant in Boston hired Nish Vora<\/a> as managing director of the Americas. Vora previously was vice president at Veolia Water Technologies and Solutions.<\/p>\n \ud83e\ude7a Health data company Azara Healthcare in Burlington hired Ashley Basile<\/a> as chief strategy officer and Josh Taylor<\/a> as chief revenue officer. Basile previously was chief product officer of clinical solutions at Availity. Taylor was chief growth officer at symplr.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc4b Online insurance site Insurify in Cambridge has hired Jake Bouvrie<\/a> as chief AI officer. Bouvrie previously led machine learning and AI at Kayak.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc41\ufe0f Flock Safety announced changes<\/a> intended to quell privacy concerns and address abuses of its system by some members of law enforcement.<\/p>\n No data centers in my backyard<\/a> (Jasmine Sun)<\/p>\n \u2018Brand-new everything\u2019: How data centers transformed this small town\u2019s economy<\/a>\u00a0(CNN)<\/p>\n America\u2019s Best Incubators and Accelerators of 2026<\/a> (Time)<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc4b Thanks for reading. We\u2019ll be will be back next Wednesday. <\/p>\n \u2753 Have a tip? Email Aaron at aaron.pressman@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u270d\ud83c\udffc If someone sent you this newsletter, you can sign up for your own copy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @ampressman<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GT2FUJQFFJGIZL2YPE2TSVALGI.png\")
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