In The Know
The Inno stories you need to read today.
Elsewhere in Inno
Stories from around the Inno network we think you’ll dig.
Making Moves
Inside the people, companies and organizations making moves in Boston.
Sri: The #MeToo movement, originally started by Tarana Burke in 2006, went viral on social media in October 2017. Since then, its impact has been quantifiable and measured. The movement’s impact trickled down to other aspects of corporate America — like hiring. New data from Boston-based recruitment marketplace provider Scout Exchange found a 41 percent spike in the number of women hired for executive roles paying more than $100K a year. The study also focused on the pay gap between women and men in different sectors and found a 22 percent pay gap across job roles in engineering, human resources, clinical jobs, sales, administration and marketing. While the average salary earned by men was $110K, for women it was $90K. Read more: Is The #MeToo Movement Helping Women Get Better Jobs?
Lucy: It’s time to say goodbye to Jibo. Just a year after the company landed on the cover of Time magazine, the social robot maker filed a withdrawal of its certificate of registration, a move that means Jibo can no longer do business in Massachusetts. In June, the startup confirmed layoffs, which they qualified as a “significant” reduction. BBJ has more.
Sri: Two updates from Harvard University. No. 1: They will create a 36-acre campus in Allston. A subsidiary of the university, the new LLC will oversee the planning and development of the University’s Enterprise Research Campus in Allston. This campus will also have a green space, residences, hotels and a conference room. No. 2: Researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Programpropose an outlandish solution for climate change: dimming the sun. These academics say they have “looked into it” and it’s not technically difficult or expensive to spray chemicals into the atmosphere to block the sun. They are not talking about whether or not it should be done, but instead stating that it might be possible.
New Money
Your daily funding roundup.
Sri: Boston-based blockchain startup Flipside Crypto raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group. Fintech entrepreneur Jeff Parker also joined the round along with existing investors True Ventures, Castle Island and Boston Seed Capital. The company has raised a total of $4.5M to date.
Lucy: Aras, which provides an open product lifecycle management software for the enterprise, announced a $70M minority investment led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing group with participation from Silver Lake Kraftwerk. The Series D round will support Aras’ expansion of global operations and growth of its open PLM platform through in-house development and technology acquisition.
Sri: Cambridge-based logistics software provider Wise Systems raised $6.9M in a new round of equity funding, according to a Form D notification.
Player Personnel
Who’s moving where.
Lucy: DataRobot, which uses automated machine learning for predictive modeling, announced it has appointed Neal Silbert as the GM of insurance. Prior to joining DataRobot, he held a variety of leadership positions at Zurich North America and IBM. Most recently, Silbert was SVP at Insurance Industry Advisors.
In The Community
The events and happenings to know about tonight and this week.
Sri: How can women of color be supported at a workplace? “Join HubSpot and female leaders of color from different industries for a candid talk about why this gap in leadership exists and how businesses can support and advance the careers of women of color.” This panel will take place at HubSpot on Monday, Dec. 10, at 4 p.m. Details here.
Read This Right Now
Insight and analysis from the community and beyond.
Sri: The startup world is not new to also-rans and copycats. A myriad of pet food companies, short-term rentals and an array of bike share companies. David Beisel, co-founder and partner at NextView Ventures, weighs in on the trend as a seed investor. In a Medium post, he writes: “Rather than just a harmless, misplaced attitude, this copycat fallacy can be a detriment to seed stage founders for two reasons. First, this copycat threat leaves entrepreneurs hesitating to share their startup idea and early experiments. Yes, there is certainly risk in this perspective and there is a logical set of reasoning for operating in stealth mode. But I believe the risk of another someone literally copying an entrepreneur’s startup idea is largely overperceived and overweighted.”
Random
The fun stuff.
Lucy: Alright, alright, we are definitely on track to change the name of this section from Random to Animal World. But hey, this is cool: A new horse coat color pattern was discovered in Iceland. The brand new color variant, a sort of speckled white, was called ‘ýruskjóttur’ (Now try to say it out loud).
 Featured Jobs
Featured startup and tech jobs on BostInno’s new Careers Directory.
|
