Boston Startup Community News & Content

Newsha Ghaeli wants to turn the sewer system into a public health observatory. “Urine and stool contain a lot of information about human health and well-being,” said Ghaeli, a former MIT researcher who co-founded Somerville startup Biobot Analytics with Mariana Matus in 2017. Biobot scours wastewater for the stuff we excrete, like bacteria or drug

“It’s a sudden shock to the system,” said Jeanne Hopkins, who was laid off from the business travel company Lola.com. “Typically, it is gradual, but when you can see clearly that the business is in trouble, you have to make decisions that are surgical in order to save the patient.” Hopkins lost her job when

Boston has been dealing with an enormous problem. The region is one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. People suffering from homelessness are among the most vulnerable during the pandemic, and Boston has a large homelessness problem. So here’s the challenge: How can Boston manage the enormous inflow of potential COVID-19 patients? There is

NuoDB, the Cambridge-based database provider founded in 2008, has laid off employees as the novel coronavirus takes its toll on the startup landscape. A source told BostInno that 20 people had been let go, leaving the startup with 50 full-time employees. NuoDB declined to answer questions about how many employees were laid off but said

As domestic and global economies grapple with the COVID-19 era, its impact on startups is coming into focus: All will be impacted, many will suffer and some will close. Boston, a city that TechCrunch keeps tabs on, has seen a number of well-known startups struggle in recent weeks. Their misfortunes come quickly after companies in

“There is not enough sugar on the planet to sugarcoat this: We’re a company that feeds meetings, and meetings are not happening much right now … We were crushing our 2020 plan, until coronavirus hit.”

After raising $8 million in November to roll up top Amazon marketplace companies, the new Boston-based startup Perch has begun putting that money to work in its first few deals. The brainchild of Chris Bell, formerly Wayfair’s head of logistics and a Bain & Co. principal, Perch is well-positioned to serve as unifier of a

As the novel coronavirus roils the economy, startups and tech firms are being hit—hard. Last week, the New York Times approximated that at least 6,000 startup employees had been laid off or furloughed as a direct result of the coronavirus. At BostInno, we’ve confirmed 12 local companies have let go of workers across roles and regions over the last

Boston-based emotional intelligence startup Cogito has reduced its workforce as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic trickle down to the startup economy. A source told BostInno that 24 full-time employees and six contractors had been let go. The company confirmed the layoffs in a statement emailed to BostInno but declined to comment on the number

Well before most companies were tossed involuntarily into the world of remote teamwork — that is, March — a Cambridge software company had been giving it a lot of thought. So much thought that at the start of last year, it created a job position called “Remote Work and Inclusion Manager,” and put Meaghan Williams