We’ve moved – just down the street, not far from our previous hosts (LocaModa) on Sidney. We are now at 84 Hamilton St, still in Central Sq (which is absolutely fabo-licious), right across the street from the Myerson Tooth Corporation and just down from the Good News Garage (of Car Talk fame).

84 Hamilton

Our new hosts are CityVoter, client and friend to the startup. The story goes like this. One day, after looking at a potential sublet space, we happened to bump into Josh Walker from CityVoter at Starbucks. “What up?”, sez Josh. “Looking for space”, sez us. “You should check out our space”, sez Josh. “Can we bring our friends?”, sez us. “Sure!”, sez Josh. And so, our Mini-incubator (or Mincubator as it’s commonly known), consisting of Rocket Farm, Noteflight, and MedicalRecords.com, moved, en-masse, from LocaModa down the street to CityVoter.

The lessons here? 2 biggies.

1) As an entrepreneur you have to dream for what you want and never stop asking. When LocaModa informed us (Rocket Farm, NoteFlight, and MedicalRecords.com) that they were expanding and needed their space back we set a goal: “let’s keep all three companies together and find another place where we can keep the magic going.” All three companies have been hosted, gratis, by LocaModa for almost 2 years. Thanks LocaModa, we wrote back in August. And the Mincubator has been great. We (RocketFarm) are working with Noteflight on a project to bring their amazing music technology to the iPad; we brainstorm all the time with Ace from MedicalRecords. So keeping the companies together was obvious. Bumping into Josh from CityVoter was happenstance. Asking about space was not! You have to dream about what you want and never stop asking and trying for it. Determination rules all in startup land.

2) The second lesson is the miracle of Mincubators. Stephen Randall from LocaModa blessed us with internet and a ceiling, and a collaborative environment for almost 2 years. Now Josh Walker from CityVoter comes along and does the same thing. Is this a characteristic of Dace portfolio companies? Not sure. But we are sure that we love it. It’s amazing as a startup to have that kind of sponsorship from bigger companies.

Word is that the Mincubator concept is active and growing throughout Cambridge and the Boston area. David Cancel from Performable is rumored to be interviewing startups to help fill out their new space in Central Sq. From the intrepid Dan Stevenson from T3 Advisors: “As far as mini-incubators, here is a list of companies and/or clients that really support the ecosystem by helping give start ups a home:”

• Viximo in Cambridge
• Conduit (now Zynga)
• Wistia in Somerville/Davis Square
• PerkStreet in Boston
• BzzAgent in Boston
• CustomMade in Cambridge
• Emo labs

Good job companies!

Be determined. Live the Golden Rule of helping others.

Know of any other Mincubators in the area? Add them below.

Over the weekend my wife and I finally cancelled the Boston Globe subscription we’ve held, as loyalists, for years. Long overdue for a good cancellation, we got fed up with the all too frequent blast of music from the delivery guy at 5:30 AM, the occasional missed deliveries, and, to some degree, a thinner less substantive Globe then used to be. From now on we’ll use the iPad to consume the same content, and more, that we used to pay for (at least for the time being). And in theory it’s better for the environment.

Timely that two articles discuss the very topic of changing newspaper models. BostInnovation did a nice write up of new scenarios for the Globe as they shift (in face of a decreasing subscriber base) from free content online to dual sites, one with lightweight local news and one with premium paid content. BostInnovation sees the key being that users will pony up to pay for the premium content – those users that appreciate more detailed, quality reporting. So newspapers recognize that premium content is, well, premium. Yippee!

The second article came from the Times on the shift of media outlets as a “federation of individual brands” (in this case journalists). Again, the theme is premium content. Premium content, from the best writers, is what will drive people to a site. We’ve seen that locally, in just one example, as Scott Kirsner has migrated from being a Globe journalist to being an individual brand with the Innovation Economy blog.

But what really pulls it together, and in fact, may let the Globe start to rebuild by charging for their content, is the iPad. Having shifted our reading of the morning paper to the iPad, I have to say that – guess what – it’s pretty much, as an experience, just as good. Yes I miss the turning of pages and the grabbing a section to read in the morning. But, it’s all the same content and it looks fabulous on the iPad.

The Globe realizes that they have a falling number of subscribers. And the Globe gets that they have premium content that might be gotten by subscription only. And I hope the Globe gets that the notion of subscription is now palatable because of the experience on the iPad. Not on the web, but definitely on the iPad.

Is this going to be the revitalization of the newspaper industry because a) there are iPads and b) there is premium content? The two mix just fine, thank you very much. Bring on the subscriptions. I’ll pay for good content, all in one place.