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The ninth-floor office with views of Boston in all directions had about four times more space than Venture Guides needed for its staff. Now the firm is sharing offices with 11 startups, all making software for businesses.
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That was the founders’ focus at Bain and at their own startup, Turbonomic, which they sold to IBM in 2021 for $1.8 billion. From the Venture Guides conference room, the founders can see the buildings that house Bain and Turbonomic’s old office in the Back Bay, Nye pointed out.
Most of the startups in the space also got an investment from Venture Guides, and there is room on the ninth floor for a couple more. With its expansive views and glass-walled conference rooms, the office offers startups a cut above the typical venture capital incubator space thanks to the city’s overbuilding.
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Venture Guides will be looking to make more investments soon, as the firm announced on Tuesday it had raised its second fund. At $262.5 million, it is 21 percent larger than the firm’s first fund, letting Venture Guides buck the trend of tight VC fund-raising for all but the largest firms.
With many of its companies on hand, Venture Guides offers tutoring on an assortment of topics, from marketing and sales to hiring and talent retention.
“All of the guiding is showing them how to do it first, but the idea is that we’re teaching them how to do it on their own,” said Jenny Pyle, who worked in human resources at Turbonomic and now advises the firm’s startups with HR. “Eventually the training wheels are off, and then they no longer need to be here on our floor.”
Elastio, a startup which helps customers protect against and recover from ransomware attacks, moved to the Causeway office in 2023 as one of Venture Guides’ first investments. The initial appeal of Boston’s supply of software talent and the venture capital firm’s expert advice has grown as the ninth floor has filled up around them, chief executive Najaf Husain said.
With multiple startups in the same room, there’s a loose competition to see which can grow fastest, Husain said. “We’re in collaboration with the other teams here,” he said. “It’s awesome. We can all compete and share resources.”
In 2025, of course, the startups are also getting advice from the firm on generative artificial intelligence, the AI breakthrough powering ChatGPT, and many other business apps.
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Nico Herden, Venture Guides resident AI expert, moved from California to Boston to join the firm. Although he is not a fan of the weather here, he said being away from the “echo chamber” of Silicon Valley is an advantage for startups working on original ideas.
“Those founders who have contrarian thoughts, they’re better served in Boston than they are on the West Coast,” he said. “Because it’s harder to get funding, harder to get the right people to buy into it, because you’re going against the groupthink.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the terms for startups in the office space. Startups pay to occupy the space.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.
