Another company to leave Cambridge for Boston

Casey Ross wins the prize for specious analysis of the day:

The Brightcove relocation also represents something of a role reversal unfolding between Boston and Cambridge. Kendall Square, a longtime incubator for early-stage companies, is now playing host to behemoths such as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and many large pharmaceutical firms. Meanwhile, Boston, known as a hub for old-line financial and law firms, is now attracting younger business firms in fast-growing industries such as biotechnology and clean energy.

The trouble, of course, is that this gets it all wrong. Both Vertex and Brightcove, though growing, are fully mature corporations that have brought untested technologies through lengthy development and into the market. Landing them is a coup for Boston; there's no doubt of that. But they're not stealing them from Cambridge. They're stealing them from the western suburbs, where companies incubated in the Kendall area typically relocated in the past. Both companies needed more room to grow that Cambridge could readily provide.

Google, Microsoft, and Big Pharma are not headquartered in Cambridge - that's where they've opted to place some of their R&D operations. In other words, they're setting up local units to do what firms in Kendall have always done - develop new technologies. To do that, it helps to have proximity to talent and research labs; there are substantial network effects to be harnessed. And so they pay the premiums for Cambridge rents.

There really is an important story here. The best sort of development is the kind exemplified by Atlantic Wharf - the city working with developers to encourage density, and the redevelopment of old industrial properties into new and desirable facilities. The worst kind is exemplified by Vertex and the Fan Pier - throwing enormous numbers of dollars in an effort to persuade companies to do what they were going to do in any event.

If start-ups want to relocate to Boston, they will. But the city is highly unlikely to compete for them with Cambridge - certainly not while the Silver Line is the best it can offer in terms of mass transit. (It's not coincidence that Brightcove is moving in near South Station.) It would do better to market itself to relatively mature, stable companies that no longer need to pay the premium for proximity to the Kendall ecosystem.

well if you saw where Brightcove's office is today, you'd understand why they'd want to move regardless. (they are in that awful building at one broadway)

:)