Packed with world-class institutions, Cambridge produces some of the world’s most sought-after talent, particularly startup founders. The challenge is getting those companies to take root and stay here.
Massachusetts has been grappling with a steady loss of residents to other states, including many younger workers who make up a key part of the startup workforce. The state lost roughly 33,000 residents to domestic migration in the year ending July 2025. For a region built on innovation, the trend raises a broader concern — not just how to produce startup founders but how to keep them here.
At MIT, one of the institutions at the center of that pipeline, new investments are expanding efforts to support early-stage founders. The institute’s delta v accelerator, a program dedicated to supporting student startups for the past 14 years, has provided direct support to young entrepreneurs.
About 100 students participate in the program each year, with each startup group receiving up to $75,000 in funding, guidance on product development and access to experienced mentors. The program has helped 250 startups so far and has helped companies raise over $1 billion in the past 10 years. The program recently received a $6 million donation from Klaviyo, a marketing automation company founded through the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship in 2012.
“It’s a fully immersive summer program where students work full-time on their startups,” said Bill Aulet, managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. “We give them structure, support and access to experienced mentors so they can figure out if there’s really a business there.”
For founders who have gone through the program, that structure helped them shape how a startup takes form in its earliest stages.
“It included some funding so that we could afford to live our lives while building the company,” said Matthew White, CEO and co-founder of Multitude Insights, a startup that makes a data platform for law enforcement agencies. “It also put us through the paces on product market fit and gave us practice with board meetings, which helped prepare us for fundraising.”
For others, like Cynthia Liao, CEO and co-founder of Vertical Semiconductor, the program did more than provide early support. It changed how they think about turning research into a real business.
“We were always certain there was a technology innovation, but delta v helped us find the conviction that there was a real business opportunity behind it,” Liao said.
Keeping entrepreneurs in Cambridge
Delta v was originally designed to give students a way to build their companies at MIT, rather than immediately heading to more established startup hubs outside Massachusetts.
“We had sophomores and juniors saying, ‘We’re going to the West Coast to do this,’ and we wanted what’s best for them, but we also wanted to keep them in our ecosystem,” Aulet said.
Both White and Liao chose to build their companies in the Boston area, continuing to use the resources and networks they developed through MIT in Cambridge. Startup founders point to a less tangible advantage in Cambridge — the culture surrounding innovation.
“I think the magic in Cambridge or Boston is really in the culture and the mindset of the people,” Liao said. “There’s a shared focus on solving big problems that matter, and being surrounded by people who choose to work on hard problems is incredibly inspiring.”
Even as startups look to other technology hubs, MIT provost Anantha Chandrakasan said Cambridge continues to build strength in emerging industries tied to its research ecosystem.
“We have the highest density of biotech companies in the world right here in Cambridge, so we certainly see tremendous activity,” Chandrakasan said. “There are different hubs of technology…but there’s a lot of new emerging areas such as AI for Life Sciences and clean energy manufacturing that I think we’re poised to lead.”
That growth is closely tied to the concentration of talent flowing through the broader Cambridge ecosystem, where students, researchers and founders continue to build on the region’s existing strengths.
“Certainly the talent in this area is absolutely incredible in my view, the best in the world with the amazing students that we have,” Chandrakasan said. “I see great potential as we move forward to create startups here.”
As MIT expands its efforts to support founders, whether startups stay in Cambridge depends on more than a single program. Access to talent, infrastructure and the networks founders build over time all shape whether companies take root in the region.
“Retaining founders has a lot to do with the community,” Aulet said. “When you have this community, you can access resources beyond your control very quickly. That network, being able to call someone, get advice, make connections, that’s what keeps you here.”
But even with that foundation, founders say staying in Cambridge is never guaranteed, as decisions about where to grow are shaped by factors like taxes, state policies and how attractive the broader business environment is.
“Startups don’t just pop up for no reason,” White said. “There’s a very specific mix of education, economic opportunity and large companies that creates the right environment. But it’s a competitive space, and if you don’t make it attractive for businesses, they’ll move.”
That gap extends beyond Cambridge, as the broader Boston area continues to compete with other regions for companies looking to grow beyond their earliest stages.
“There’s no shortage of entrepreneurs here,” Aulet said. “The question is whether we can build the kind of ecosystem that allows those companies to scale and stay.”
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
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