MGMT Boston - W4, Q2 25 - Q1 2025 Recap / HYCU, Jeff Bussgang & Salsify
Q1 2025 Recap / HYCU, Jeff Bussgang & Salsify on The Lantern
Welcome to MGMT Boston where we try to help thousands of you manage your awareness of top Boston startups, founders, and local operators putting in the work. Glad to have you here!
TLDR:
Q1 Startup Profile & Operator Recap - Q1 was awesome. Don’t forget about the startups, leaders & content we put out in Jan/Feb/March!!
Startups: Cimulate, Connective Health, WHOOP, OnRamp, Matterbeam, Lynx, Proton.ai, Tulip, 7AI, Copley
Operators: Jeremy Aubin / TireTutor, Evan Klein / Benevity, Barrett King / Ramp, Javier Grevely / XSET, Bela Bogdanovic / Dig Energy
Chris Nelson, VP of Global Sales & GTM at HYCU - responsible for leading everything Sales & Customer Operations, it’s all about high growth in 2025 & 2026 through their focused strategy - channel & alliance partnerships
On The Lantern..
Jeff Bussgang, Author of The Experimentation Machine - Jeff just published his new book, The Experimentation Machine, about building startups through experimentation in the age of AI. Want to be a 10x builder? Highly recommend checking out his book!
Nick Abate, Senior Director of Global Sales Engineering at Salsify - Nick shares some wisdom about building global Sales Engineering teams at Salsify, a late stage enterprise SaaS company
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2025 Boston Tech Big Board - 2025 Startup Directory + Startups to Watch
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Q2 Highlighted Startups: Tines, Civic Roundtable, AceUp
Q2 Highlighted Operators: Subash Rajaseelan / Thinkverse
2023 1H Recap / 2023 2H Recap / 2024 1H Recap / 2024 2H Recap
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Chris Nelson, VP of Global Sales & GTM at HYCU
MGMT Boston is thrilled to be spotlighting HYCU - one of Boston’s top startups throughout this month of April - in conversations with different members of their leadership team.
☁️ Welcome Chris Nelson, VP of Global Sales & GTM at HYCU, Inc. to share what’s happening inside HYCU’s rapidly growing GTM organization in 2025 ☁️
Chris is responsible for leading everything Sales & Customer Operations from acquiring customers to retaining customers & expansion. Supporting functions like Channel & Alliances and Sales Engineering also fall under his purview.
🔍 What’s going on inside HYCU’s GTM org in 2025? 🔎
Channel and alliances are a key piece of their growth story as a channel first organization and a big piece of their 2026 strategy ahead too.
HYCU is a SaaS platform which works closely with the major storage providers (Dell, Nutanix, EMC, etc.) so the channel is how their team predominantly goes to market.
It’s all about high growth right now at HYCU, each month (and quarter) this year. They’re focused on acquiring new customers and taking care of their existing customers leading with the differentiation the HYCU platform offers.
In 2025 they know their ICP, the verticals where they win, and they're staying focused in high impact segments!
🤔 What has Chris learned from his startup career & building HYCU’s GTM org? 🤔
Focus!
As emerging companies, teams will often try to do a bunch of different things that can distract them.
Understand where your startup can win, your ideal customer profile(s), and ideal partner profile(s) to create an ecosystem that complements you the most. That's been working for HYCU!
Then...you have to have the right people with the right talent to execute on a focused plan!
🤝 How can we help? 🤝
1.) Talent 🤩
2.) Amplify 📣
🤩 Talent - Chris and his team are always looking for top talent! They’re expanding in all areas from Inside Sales to Mid Market to Enterprise, Channel, and Sales Engineering
📣 Amplify - HYCU is excited to expand their reseller community and alliance partnerships we’ll be hearing more about in the quarters ahead to help amplify their voice, message, and distribution
The HYCU platform is differentiated, offering a modern way to snap into existing environments and partnerships with ease.
📈 Builders around Boston...make sure you check this team out! 📈
Q1 Startups Highlighted
Cimulate startup profile (commerce):
Cimulate is building a generative AI platform for commerce, peering into the future and redefining the customer experience for a gen-AI and LLM-driven era. This team is leveraging AI to reimagine the commerce customer experience starting with search and enable brands to help people find products they love.
Connective Health startup profile (healthtech):
Connective Health is building a healthtech service for doctors so they are better equipped with the right data at the right time to deliver high quality care to patients. This Seed stage startup is leveraging interoperability for automated medical record retrieval and customized summaries to deliver a better experience for providers and better outcomes for patients.
WHOOP startup profile (sports tech):
WHOOP is on a mission to unlock human performance, revolutionizing how people better understand their bodies. This late stage consumer tech company, located just over the Green Monster in Kenmore Square, is a global leader ushering in a new generation of AI driven technology for the human body.
OnRamp startup profile (SaaS):
OnRamp is building a customer onboarding platform for customer success teams and businesses who want to succeed from the first handshake of B2B relationships. Customers and onboarding teams alike need structured guidance to onboard effectively and OnRamp is becoming the go to choice for a growing number of businesses.
Matterbeam startup profile (infrastructure):
Matterbeam is an infrastructure software startup ending data pipeline tyranny, freeing data to make enterprises more effective. This Seed stage startup envisions a deconstruction of ETL pipelines - extract, transform, load no more - so enterprise data is more portable, immutable, and most importantly...flexible.
Lynx startup profile (fintech/healthtech):
Lynx is building modern fintech infrastructure for healthcare, making it easier for healthcare institutions to build great financial products. This growth stage team is using APIs to become a “Stripe for healthcare”, consolidating various legacy platforms so healthcare companies can build next generation infrastructure.
Proton.ai startup profile (SaaS):
Proton.ai is redefining the way distributors use CRM, bringing an industry stuck in spreadsheets into the future. The distribution industry is massive, touching nearly every vertical (HVAC, electrical, industrial, automotive, construction, janitorial, and more). But when it comes to technology, distributors have been left behind. Today, more than 30% of distributors with over $100M in revenue still don’t use a CRM, and many others are dissatisfied with the ones they have. Even billion-dollar distributors with hundreds of thousands of SKUs and thousands of customers are still running on gut instinct, fragmented reports, and outdated CRMs.
Tulip startup profile (SaaS/AI):
Tulip is building a frontline operations platform to help deskless workforces create and manage applications without writing code. They are helping discrete manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and other physical businesses improve productivity and streamline operations to more effectively grow.
7AI startup profile (cybersecurity/AI):
7AI has built an agentic powered cybersecurity platform to arm organizations with the tools they need to defend themselves from the next generation of AI enabled attackers. Cybersecurity is evolving rapidly and 7AI is stepping into the void to help them meet this moment.
Copley startup profile (commerce/AI):
Copley is building an enterprise grade, AI-powered content optimization and experimentation platform for commerce. They are leveling the playing field to help growing brands compete with the largest storefronts in the world in a scalable way. This veteran team from Klaviyo & Salesforce has climbed the mountain before and they’re on a mission to help emerging brands do the same.
Q1 Operators Highlighted
Jeremy Aubin, Head of Enablement @ TireTutor operator profile:
Jeremy Aubin is an engineer and early stage startup operator who fulfilled his childhood goal of living & working in Boston, building his career where the rubber meets the road, friction and all. Today he is the Head of Enablement at Seed stage consumer marketplace & shop management platform TireTutor.
Evan Klein, VP Product Marketing @ Benevity operator profile:
Evan Klein is a storyteller, marketing leader, and high growth builder who prioritizes value and brings frameworks to the startup jungleland. Today he is the VP of Product Marketing at Benevity, an engagement platform turning social impact into business impact.
Barrett King, Head of Alliances at Ramp operator profile:
Barrett King is a front of house partnerships leader who builds bridges, tops leaderboards, and fulfills visions through active listening for the world’s leading software enterprises. Today Barrett is the Head of Alliances at high flying fintech Ramp.
Javier Grevely, Head of Strategy @ XSET operator profile:
Javier Grevely is a futurist, activating communities with intentionality across borders, making progress with a clear purpose to help others and grow through consistent learning. Today he is the Head of Strategy at gaming & lifestyle brand XSET.
Bela Bogdanovic, Chief of Staff at Dig Energy operator profile:
Bela Bogdanovic is an adventurer, student, and operator who has traveled the world to gain a better perspective to build something that matters in climate and energy. Today she is the Chief of Staff and first employee at climate tech startup Dig Energy, helping decarbonize heating and cooling using geothermal technology.
Jeff Bussgang, Author of The Experimentation Machine
Jeff Bussgang, Co-Founder and General Partner at Flybridge, Harvard Business School professor, previous successful founder at Upromise, Boston sports fan, and now author of The Experimentation Machine joins The Lantern to talk about building startups through experimentation in the age of AI. Want to be a 10x builder? Highly recommend checking out his book or talking to Jeff 24/7 here!
Nick Abate, Director, Global Sales Engineering at Salsify
Nick Abate joins The Lantern to talk about building global Sales Engineering teams at Salsify, a late stage enterprise SaaS company whose mission is to make every product experience matter
Any feedback for me? One thing you liked? One thing you didn’t? Local startups, founders, or operators to highlight? Just reply to this e-mail!
See you next week!
-Matt