The Venture Lane team is growing, bringing on a new general partner and revealing the latest set of companies to join its accelerator for B2B software startups.
Venture Lane is fashioning itself as a hub for early-stage B2B startups in Boston. The organization has a co-working space for members at 55 Court St. where it also hosts events. Last January co-founders Christian Magel and Brian Denenberg launched Venture Lane Studio, a traction accelerator for B2B software startups.
Today the Boston-based organization announced Jeffrey Beir as its new general partner.
Beir began his career in Boston’s startup world at Lotus Development. He then went on to co-found and serve as chief executive of eRoom Technology, which sold to Documentum in 2002 with a valuation over $200 million.
In more recent years Beir said he has focused on giving back to the startup community and mentoring others. He was a founding mentor at the Harvard Innovation Labs and continues to work with its students. He has also served as a mentor to Boston companies like HourWork and Quebic.
Beir said he met Magel during the Covid-19 pandemic and offered to come in a few days a month and mentor teams at Venture Lane. When Beir learned about the creation of Venture Lane Studio, he told Magel “you’re missing one big leg of the stool.”
“You’ve got good marketing and strategy. You’ve got good sales and go to market. Where’s your product and growth leg of the stool? And he said well why don’t you come help us do that,” Beir said.
He more “informally” mentored teams for about a year. Six months ago, Beir said they began talks to formalize his relationship with Venture Lane by becoming a general partner.
“I’m contributing much more of my time here to the cohort. I’m involved in raising capital. I’m involved in the selection of the teams for the cohort. And then I’m actively involved in the delivery in the studio on the product and on the fundraising side,” Beir said.
The accelerator is already onto its fourth cohort. Venture Lane Studio is a three-month program that accepts just a few companies that have initial product-market fit and are beginning to scale, Beir said. The startups get a $50,000 initial investment from the studio and an additional $50,000 when they hit specific milestones. Beir said they raise this capital from Boston investors and mentors.
There are three companies in the fourth Venture Lane Studio cohort. Cedience hopes to take advantage of Greater Boston’s biotech scene. The startup uses advanced generative AI, natural language processing and machine learning technologies to uncover regulatory insights. The goal is to help drug development teams streamline the path to approval.
Cohort member CIRT is a woman-owned B2B SaaS company led by founder Katherine Shayne. CIRT wants to digitize packaging circularity. Its goal is to keep materials in circulation and out of landfills and the environment.
The third and final cohort company, Qase, connects clients with lawyers through an online platform. Qase wants to simplify access to legal assistance.
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