- On Thursday, General Catalyst announced that principal Peter Boyce was promoted to partner in its New York office.
- The Harvard alum joined the notable venture firm right after graduation. He had helped create and lead entrepreneurship clubs and programs at the university while he was a student.
- Boyce invests in healthcare, financial services, and consumer startups mostly out of New York.
- He told Business Insider that the East Coast hub is growing into a startup powerhouse that uniquely benefits first-time founders and environmentally conscious young founders.
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The next generation of startup founders are ditching Silicon Valley's moderate climate and sky-high cost of living for colder winters and moderately less expensive rents in New York.
At least, that's what Peter Boyce is betting on. The recently promoted partner at venture firm General Catalyst thinks New York's startup ecosystem is uniquely primed to deliver every promise that Silicon Valley has made, and he's ready to write the checks that make that reality. The Harvard alum joined the notable venture firm right after graduation. He had helped create and lead entrepreneurship clubs and programs at the university while he was a student.
"We benefit from having deep roots in Silicon Valley, but also out here," Boyce told Business Insider. "I was really excited about that challenge and opportunity, the entrepreneurial part of building that same network out here in New York."
New York's mature financial services market and recent rebranding as a second home of major tech companies have created the ideal environment for a flurry of startup activity, Boyce said. He primarily works with first-time founders, which look a little different on the East Coast than the technical whiz kids of Silicon Valley lore. The founders in New York range from career financial professionals looking to try something new to private practice owners to recent graduates, he said.
"I've been drawn to finding folks that are ridiculously magnetic for attracting talent," Boyce explained. "They are learning machines. They are constantly absorbing advice from investors, mentors, and other founding folks that are two stages ahead."
That's what has made Boyce's secret sauce so successful, he said. All early founders, but especially first-time founders in a relatively young tech ecosystem, have to hire the right people at the right time. It's a tricky problem even in well-developed Silicon Valley where seasoned tech execs are a dime a dozen.
"There's this ability to remix industry talent with engineering, software, and product talent. You can have an exec from Blackstone or Pfizer team up with a product lead from a tech company to start something new, because the existing industries here evolve with new software," Boyce said.
The potential for talent is partly why he started Rough Draft Ventures, a subsidiary of General Catalyst that works with university students at the earliest stages of company development. His thinking goes, if more people are involved earlier on, the more the entire ecosystem benefits. By working with college students since his own university days, Boyce has had a front row seat to the changes in founder mentality and Generation Z's preferences as they start to really drive purchasing power.
"Six and a half years ago, the Gen Z founder was thought to create the next big mobile app," Boyce said. "Things like social products, dating products. But the company profile these founders are creating is actually dramatically broader and more varied than that."
Still, Boyce maintains that regardless of which industry Gen Z decides to disrupt, the new generation of founders are too practical and environmentally conscious to spin up companies in places like San Francisco.
"There's going to be a rise in sustainability and consideration on their impact on the environment," Boyce said. "The Gen Z student today is thinking about sustainability and impact, especially with consumer brands, so I expect to see more on that front."
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