Is There a More Innovative Massachusetts Company? We Don’t Think So.

Silicon Valley is generally considered to be the center of the startup universe.  However, with its blue chip educational institutions, top notch venture capital scene, and rich computing technology heritage, Massachusetts has quietly played home to some of the most innovative and successful companies the average consumer has never heard of.

Fortunately, there are some great efforts afoot to raise awareness of all of the amazing innovation going on in the Boston area.  Scott Kirsner’s Innovation Economy blog (recently relocated to Boston.com) has become required reading for Boston area startups, and the folks over at Xconomy and Mass High Tech also do a fantastic job highlighting the innovative companies on the rise in Massachusetts.  Additionally, while we often catch flack for letting Facebook fly the coop from Harvard to Palo Alto, we have actually figured out how to use social media here on the east coast. 

Case in point is Mass Innovation Nights (MIN), an organization that has emerged as the confluence of Massachusetts high tech innovators, the social networking world, the mainstream media, and the marketplace.  The organization holds monthly events at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham (You can’t find a more appropriate location than that!) where the hottest young companies is Massachusetts show off their latest innovations.

This month, MIN will be conducting its first “virtual” innovation night on Wednesday, August 12.  The event will kick-off at 6:30 p.m. on Twitter using the hashtag #MIN5.  (If you are new to Twitter, the MIN site has some good tips and tools for following hashtags.)  From there, the event will evolve into a phone-based “speed dating” style format with the help of some neat technology from past MIN participant BlitzTime.

One of the three rules for the virtual event is to play nice, but we are far too competitive for that at Virtual Computer.  So, we are putting out the challenge to the Boston startup community.  Do you think you have a more innovative product than us?  If so, the stage is set.  Let’s see what you’ve got!  We’ll be in on the virtual event, as well as jockeying for a spot in a future live Mass Innovation Night.  So, you better bring your biggest innovation, because we’ll be bringing NxTop.