Tracking MIT tech startups

If you’re looking for technology entrepreneurship, most academics think of MIT and Stanford. Both schools — driven more by the entrepreneurial attitudes of their engineering students than their business schools — have spawned thousands of tech-based startups. Of course, I’m a little biased (as an MIT alumnus and a keeper of the Silicon Valley myth of exceptionalism).

Looking for something else, I found the Xconomy blog, founded (by among others) by the former editor of MIT’s magazine, Technology Review. Although it’s organized as a blog, it’s more like an online magazine.

Last year, they had two really interesting articles on MIT entrepreneurship. One contrasted MIT and Harvard tech transfer. Another chronicles recent Boston tech startups (including a list of the startups).

On a lighter note, they profile the entrepreneurial activities of the successful MIT blackjack team fictionalized in the movie 21 (based on the book Bringing Down The House).

There are plenty of blogs about Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurship — led by VentureBeat and ValleyWag. Xconomy seems to be the only comparable Boston blog, and as long as MIT alumni continue to create tech startups, one worth monitoring.