Episode Summary:
In our final episode we bring together Jana Eggers, CEO of Nara Logics, Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe columnist and CEO of Innovation Leader, and Dave Balter, CEO of Flipside Crypto, to discuss the question on every Boston entrepreneur’s mind: to build in Boston or Silicon Valley? This episode is a fun and enjoyable listen where you’ll get to hear each guest’s opinions and theories.

Uncovered in this episode:

• The biggest differences between the two coasts when it comes to starting a business
• Scott’s take on why so many people who start to build in Boston end up leaving to go out West
• Strategies for how to keep talented entrepreneurs in Boston
• The misconception that big companies aren’t made in Boston
• Why we should stop overthinking things in Boston and “just dance”

List of resources mentioned in episode:

• Articles written by Scott Kirsner: https://muckrack.com/scottkirsner/articles
• Nara Logics website: https://naralogics.com/
• Flipside Crypto website: https://flipsidecrypto.com/

About Jana Eggers:
Jana brings over 25 years of technology and leadership experience to Nara Logics from Intuit, Lycos, American Airlines, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and startups that you’ve never heard of. Jana is a frequent speaker, writer, and mentor on AI and startups. She is also a marathoner (most recently completing Boston) and an Ironman.
About Scott Kirsner:
Scott Kirsner has written a weekly column for the Boston Globe since 2000, and before that helped the Globe launch its digital publishing division with Scott Cohen and Frank Hertz, his co-founders at Innovation Leader.

Scott has also been a contributing writer for Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Variety, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and other publications. He is the author of several books on innovation and technology, including “Inventing the Movies,” which explores the challenge of bringing new ideas to a century-old, change-resistant industry: Hollywood.

Scott has presented leadership strategies to corporate leaders, technologists and entrepreneurs at Harvard Business School, the MIT R&D Conference, South by Southwest, the Consumer Electronics Show, HubSpot Inbound, Tijuana Inovadora, the Connected Health Symposium, and the NAB Futures Summit. Scott has also appeared on NBC's Today Show, NPR's Science Friday, the Discovery Channel, and WBUR's Radio Boston.

About Dave Balter:
Dave has been active in the cryptocurrency space for years, and has learned invaluable lessons from not buying during crypto winters and at least one wallet loss.

Previously, Dave was the CEO and co-founder of Smarterer, a machine-learning skills assessment company acquired by Pluralsight in 2014. Post-acquisition, Dave was the Head of Transactions at Pluralsight, while also serving as a Board Observer.

Before co-founding Smarterer in 2010, Dave founded and was CEO of BzzAgent, a social media marketing company, which was acquired by dunnhumby, a division of Tesco(PLC) in 2011. From 2011 - 2014 Dave sat on the Global Executive Team at dunnhumby, where he led all venture investments and M&A activity.

Dave sits on the Board of AdHawk, is an investor and/or advisor to more than 50 startups and is Vice Chairman of Boch Center for the Performing Arts, a nonprofit steward of iconic venues, providing arts, entertainment, cultural, and educational experiences to the greater Boston community.