Analysis of the Ecosystems for Startup Entrepreneurs and Company Growth in Massachusetts

In this project for the Mass Tech Collaborative, Mass Economics assessed Massachusetts’ existing and emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems, identifying strengths and gaps by region and town. Mass Economics analyzed and mapped economic activity, industry cluster specializations, and business support assets to understand these ecosystems in regions across Massachusetts. Mass Economics developed custom, town-based data for analytics; collected and analyzed extensive data on firm characteristics, business ownership and formation rates, and self-employment; and compiled and mapped entrepreneurial supports (e.g., incubators, accelerators, government programs, etc.) and capital and lending activity. The custom, town-based data for 6D NAICS and industry clusters comes from Mass Economics’ sister data company, data-Fab, which provides high-quality data at detailed industry levels and geographies.

The analysis revealed that innovation economy activity is centered in the Greater Boston region. However, almost every region in Massachusetts has at least one set of innovation industries with a higher concentration of activity than the rest of the state, and three of the state’s seven regions have a higher proportion of innovation-related jobs than the US, with distinct sets of innovation activities in each. Across the state, venture capital investments are very high relative to the US, but traditional lending activity is not as strong and CDFI lending is very weak. This work illustrates the landscape of entrepreneurial support across the state and offers a foundation for Mass Tech to develop and pursue interventions to bridge gaps in entrepreneurial support. It also begins to identify opportunities for Mass Tech to support businesses and entrepreneurs during and post-COVID, such as helping consumer-facing small businesses and the self-employed expand their digital content and presence.