Scott Kirsner

Whenever you drive the Tobin Bridge, just before you leave Charlestown, you're passing over the last company making boats in Boston.

In an office building on the edge of Kendall Square, overlooking the Charles River, is a company that exists to create other companies.

Governor Deval Patrick bought us a Ferrari in 2008, when he signed a law allocating $1 billion to the industry over a decade. Now Beacon Hill needs to insure, maintain, and gas up that Ferrari.

Boston startups that are likelier to have diverse founders are harder to get off the ground here.

Bruce Baptista wore a running shirt from his brother's Boston-based clothing company, PYNRS, as part of a Pioneers Run Crew event on April 14.

On a backstreet near Central Square is one of the most secretive research and development labs in New England. The front door is behind a chain link fence.

Applied Invention is working on mind-boggling initiatives such as a mechanical clock designed to last 10,000 years, or torpedo-like underwater drones to gather data from the ocean.

The 70-acre vineyard in Provence, France, was a COVID-era purchase for Amy and Pierre Villeneuve, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs active in Boston tech for a quarter century.

On a recent Friday morning, I hopped into my electric car in the driveway, drove to a marina in Salem, and boarded a 21-foot powerboat that — like my car — had been charging overnight.

If you asked me to compile a list of the four most influential things to come out of MIT in the past 25 years — things that have truly changed the world — it wouldn't include any drugs, software, patents, or startups.