I’ve found there are many personality types in the startup world, as in any microcosm of society: type-As, wallflowers, tag-alongs, philanthropists, misanthropes, pink hats, Wizards of Oz, braggarts, ‘doers’, reality field distortionists, Matt Graces (he’s in a league of his own), etc… Amongst them there seems to be a debate ongoing for some time now – does it matter if we, in Boston, ever reach parity with Silicon Valley (or does it matter if we beat New York, LA, Boulder, or whomever)? For the moment, maybe put aside exactly what “parity” means to you and just rely on the notion that we all have basically the same ingredients in our hearts and minds (some mix of exits, IPOs, awesome companies, talent migrations, etc…).

Shotgun, gut reaction driven by Freudian pride always will dictate a “yes, it matters”; it’s nice to be on top, no matter the science or validity behind the ranking. But logic proves a tougher sell. In my mind it’s a typical cost-benefit analysis when distilled. Does the benefit of being on top and letting everyone know about it outweigh the cost (time+energy)? There seem to be three prototypical factions developing:

I tend to think your current station in life will default you into one category at the outset. Do you benefit from your ecosystem’s place on the leaderboard? A newly-minted CEO trying to harvest talent would certainly benefit from folks making the pilgrimage to her Mecca in search of fame and fortune. A heads down, star engineer finding herself vaulted into a position of power could often care less.

I, personally, am magnetically drawn at default to the right (ordinal) side here. It’s my in my genetic makeup to rage against the machine and fall back to the question “who really gives a rat’s ass?” I am at heart a mathematician, and more of a cowboy than social creature. I prefer crickets, stars, puzzling problems, shoddy use of alliteration (see what I did there?), and cheeseburgers (cowboys eat a lot of cheeseburgers).

But that’s my nature, and I feel as of late that I’m slowly being nurtured towards the boisterous, motley crew on the left. My mentors, the people I trust, and the people I respect most are making a compelling case for the shift. They’ve been talking about making more noise as of late, about screaming from the rooftops and telling everyone what it is we’re doing in Boston and all of the amazing stuff that is going on across the city on a daily basis. They talk about how it matters that we take out our own bullhorns and do our part.

Now granted, I’m still on the lesser-coefficient-end of how much I think it matters that your ecosystem makes some noise (say a ~0.025 coefficient weight in the equation of what it takes to build a successful company). I’m also always heads down and maniacally focused on Objective Logistics. But even that – the coefficient, not obsession with OBJL – is changing. Rapidly.

You see, we passively rely upon some things here as builders of companies in Boston. We rely upon 1) a constantly-renewed stock of fresh talent, 2) infrastructure, and 3) electricity/energy. We absorb talent from universities and other cities. We utilize infrastructure in the form of large co-working spaces and tech-enabled monoliths in Cambridge and on the waterfront. And we draw energy from our coworkers, coaches, mentors and friends/other companies (especially when big wins occur).

Now, bear with me here, but it’s a hell of a lot like a sports franchise. And like with a sports franchise, it all really starts with the front office.

The front office is composed of the grand conductors – the people with experience, an abundance of knowledge & wisdom, and money. The great enablers. The mentors. The Alighierian guides (not that I’m comparing building a company with going through the concentric circles of hell or anything).

It doesn’t take an elephant’s memory to recall when things weren’t so sweet with our beloved Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins. Remember when they just weren’t that good? When we all watched and enjoyed even though we knew heartbreak was around the corner? Perpetually? Masochistically even? Well, nouveau Bostonians, it was bad. Like real bad. Like Nickelback bad.

What changed? What was the great inflection point? How did these franchises begin to assume their dynastic, winning ways? Surely we could take a lesson from it in the startup community?

The change began when a new front office in each sport came to town, saw the potential swelling in the community, took the reins, and started organizing the nebula. They saw boundless opportunity. Our very own sports version of Pied Pipers – John Henry, Danny Ainge, Robert Kraft, etc…

Well, I’d argue that we within the Tech-Boston community have a new front office full of Pied Pipers as well. It can be said that people such as:

Jeff Fagnan, Rich Miner, Bill Warner, Scott Kirsner, Lee Hower, Katie Rae, John Harthorne, Rob Go, Eric Paley, David Beisel, Antonio Rodriguez, David Skok, Abby Fichtner, Fred Destin, the GMs-In-Training (the young VCs – Dolginow at Atlas, Hsiang at GC, Song at Flybridge, the networkers – Jason Evanish, etc.)

and a host of others have been around for a long time. They have. But it still took the “Cambrian” entrepreneurial explosion that followed the Great Recession to thrust them into a high(er) gear and a bigger spotlight. It took the massive fascination with entrepreneur-as-savior/Zuck-Effect to put the new “front office” in the driver’s seat again where they belong – and it has been good for the city (and the whole East Coast as a matter of course).

Just like when John Henry & Co. saw the potential and took control of the Red Sox, Bob Kraft the Patriots and Danny Ainge the Celtics (yes, of course the Bruins too), it has been a slow, calculated march towards a serious amount of innovation, collaboration, epic nerdiness and fun. For better or worse, you simply can’t deny that the air is electrified on the streets of Cambridge and the Boston Waterfront. Wins, many, losses, sure; but in my opinion there are innumerable championships to be had in the coming years and beyond. And perhaps most importantly, we’re all hearing about it more and more due to the unflagging efforts of the “lefties.” Our very own startup Sam Kinisons.

So what seems to be the problem? Sounds like things are on the right track? Can’t we just go about our business and let our success peacock for us? Speak softly and carry a big stick?

I’m starting to believe more and more that the answer is a resounding “no, it is not enough.” We need a Boston Startup Nation. The front office knows that the whole ecosystem gets bigger and more successful (and also more fun) when new talent is drafted or traded for, the ballpark is upgraded, and the “team” starts kicking some ass more consistently  (exits, Public Offerings, amazing innovation).

How do we create a Boston Startup Nation? Marketing. Noise. Increased awareness. Why do you think so many companies have created the position of “community manager” or evangelist? Well, there’s a product to be sold. We are our own product, and we need to sell it more effectively.

It’s fun, energizing and intellectually stimulating to be here in Boston right now. Our front office, on the whole, is thoughtful, helpful, and extremely adept. Our stadiums are new. And man if we don’t have some talent.

But if no one knows about all that’s going on then we may end up with a perpetually empty venue, devoid of fans and players alike. So how do we let our future card-carrying members of Boston Startup Nation know how much it kicks ass to start and grow a company here? Well, we make some noise. We market our offering.

So as I sit here and wonder why the hell it is I’m even writing this entry and not trying to deconstruct the Nash Equilibrium (key word there is trying…not much success), I realize that I have been convinced by our “front office” and lefties to start making a little noise about what our great city has to offer to all of the cowboys and gals out there.

And, just like with all of our sports franchises, I think that we are now more than officially on the map, and a serious force to be reckoned with; you know the end to this story if it plays out right. But we need your help and your voice.

So, there are three types of people in Boston:

I’m going to politely ask that if you happen to be a “righty,” please consider sticking your head up once in a while and moving a shimmy to the left with me. It’ll only make our venue larger and ecosystem more viable. Happy New Year. Onwards and upwards.