During his first State of the City address, Mayor Marty Walsh outlined several initiatives he plans to implement in order to make the economic landscape of Greater Boston more fertile for startups.
The primary concern he expressed for area startups was that there was a lack of cohesion among them and that creating an umbrella coalition with an overseeing authority that's come to be known colloquially as the "Startup Czar" would make not just Boston but its surrounding cities, too, more appealing to entrepreneurs and the industrial minded.
On Monday, March 2, the City of Boston announced that Rory Cuddyer will serve as the first Startup Czar.
Formerly an advisory to Mayor Walsh's chief of staff, Dan Koh, Cuddyer was kind enough to sit down with BostInno to share his insight on Boston's startup scene, how he hopes to improve it for locals and outsiders alike, as well as some lighthearted details about himself.
I'm going to be the first point of contact for startups if they have a question for the city
Nick DeLuca: Tell me a bit about yourself. Are you a Boston native?
Rory Cuddyer: I am currently an advisory to Dan Koh, the mayor's chief of staff. I grew up in South Boston, lived in Southie. Went to BC High, Boston College, pretty much been in Boston my whole life.
ND: What attracted you to this position in particular?
RC: Something that I've kind of eased into over the past year. I was on the mayor's transition team where I was a staff member to the economic development team and a lot of our conversation during the transition group meetings revolved around startups and how the city can provide good infrastructure and good programs to support that.
Then working with Dan; he's been a huge supporter of the startup community here. A lot of my projects have been based around that so, I was pretty involved with the RFI and RFP for the Roxbury Innovation Center, whether it's just writing talking points for Dan as he attends different events around the city or really just following the community pretty closely.
ND: What are your duties and responsibilities?
RC: As startup manager, I'm going to be the first point of contact for startups if they have a question for the city. One thing that the mayor's heard over and over again is that if startups have a question or a concern, they don't really have one single person they can go to in City Hall. Someone might go to Dan Koh, others might go to Chief [John] Barros and others might go to the BRA, so I think this position will be the first point of contact – a single person they can go to knowing this person will be working full time on whatever question or whatever concern they have.
ND: Sam Adams or Harpoon? RC: Harpoon.
ND: 'Startup' is a loose term. How do you define a startup and what are the parameters in which you'll be working with these emerging businesses?
RC: We don't want to narrowly define what a startup is. The approach we're going to take is, any business that is new, whether that be a new restaurant or a tech company, really anything that involves creative skills, if they have a question we'll do our best to help them.
ND: It's a City of Boston position, but will there also be a regional component to it?
RC: I think the approach we want to take is a regional approach. We don't want to isolate Boston and we want to make those connections to Cambridge, Somerville, Braintree and Quincy, and really around the region as a whole. We don't think it's going to be a successful program unless we can incorporate the entire region.
ND: This is the inaugural startup manager position – you have an opportunity to set some precedents and to shape the role in a way your successors won't. What are your ideas?
RC: I'm still settling in and will be working on a final plan but I think with this position and what it's goal is, is to take the city's role and really make it a smooth process, make it predictable for startups when they have a question and it's really just making the dialogue two ways.
ND: Who do you root for in the Beanpot? RC: Boston College
We really want to have a long-lasting dialogue and understand the concerns companies have now and really take those and work them over, try to draft policies around that just to make it the easiest it can be for a startup to expand or move here, or even just to start up. It's a quality of life thing as well. Housing's going to have a huge role, transportation and really just making the city as vibrant as it can be.
ND: Describe an example of how the city has done a good job partnering with startups or with fostering them.
RC: Over the past year, we've really reached out. Terrible Labs with their parking app [TicketZen] has been a great partnership. In general, the relationship we have with Venture Cafe is going to be huge. We're really excited that they're taking on the Roxbury Innovation Center along with SkyLab.
ND: How do you see neighborhoods like Dudley and venues like the Roxbury Innovation Center playing a role in the city's startup landscape?
RC: Mayor Walsh at the end of last year appointed a Neighborhood Innovation Committee. One of the main topics they discussed was any innovation district moving forward will most likely be in an area already populated with residents. I think Dudley is a great example. If you take the Innovation District down on the Seaport, when that started it was kind of a blank canvas and we could pretty much do whatever we wanted down there.
ND: Parking savers, yes or no? RC: It's tough. I grew up with a driveway & I actually don't have a car so I'm agnostic.
Now, if you go to Dudley, you're going into an existing landscape and you need to make sure residents there are involved, included and don't get left behind. Any innovation district moving forward, whether it's Dudley or any other neighborhood that innovation expands into in a clustered way, we do need to take into account the residents and make sure they're being brought into innovation; whether it's just hosting trainings, workshops, we need to be mindful that we don't radically transform the existing neighborhood.
Is it too early to consider another innovation district that's not Dudley or the Seaport?
RC: I want to wait until the Neighborhood Innovation Committee's report comes out just to see what their final thoughts are, but I'm sure down the road we're going to want to cluster around the city.
ND: How do you feel about being labeled a "czar" unofficially? Were the terms "startup ninja" or "startup guru" ever thrown around?
RC: The official title is "startup manager." The term "czar" gets thrown onto any position that kind of has oversight over one area. "Czar," for simplicity purpose, I guess it works. But I'm viewing my role as I'm going to liaise between the city and the startup community. I'm going to do whatever I can to help them. Whatever the media wants to term my position, they have that right.
ND: When you're not working, what could we most likely find you doing?
I'm most likely out to dinner with friends, going to movies, down in New York quite a bit, my boyfriend currently lives down there so I'm down there probably every two or three weeks.
In Southie, Local 149 is a staple. I'm really excited about the new spot that just opened up at the old Franklin, Moonshine 152. Haven't had a chance to get their quite yet but really excited.
ND: Have you used a MBTA app this winter? RC: I've had NetxBus for a couple of years so I've just stuck with that.
I think the only [Oscar movie] I haven't seen yet is "Birdman." Definitely on my list, just haven't gotten around to seeing that.
Spend a lot of time in the South End, the SOWA market is always great to go to. Not so much recently but going to B.C. football games. I Didn't make it to a lot of games last year but always love hitting those up.
