Rob, Lee, and I couldn’t be more excited to share that as of Monday, Jay Acunzo has joined NextView as our Director of Platform and Community.

Jay joins us from HubSpot, where he was a senior manager on the marketing team, specifically leading the blog and content strategy. In his Boston-based career, he’s also worked for Google and local startup Dailybreak, in addition to co-founding the community group Boston Content which has grown to hundreds of members.

This is a major step forward for NextView as we continue to focus on helping our existing portfolio, as well as proactively contribute to the larger Boston (and New York) entrepreneurial community.

Although the idea of venture firms developing a platform (i.e. resources, events, content, and other initiatives to help entrepreneurs) is not entirely new, to our knowledge this addition is the first such dedicated role here in Boston. Being a unique position, we were focused on finding someone equally as unique who was also entrepreneurial, energetic, and embedded in the early-stage tech ecosystem.  In short, for those reasons and more, Jay is the perfect fit.

A few questions that might be worth answering right out of the gate:

Why bring on a Director of Platform?

As Rob explained in his recent post on this new role, the venture capital industry is experiencing unprecedented change, with new funds emerging and new and better strategies focusing on the needs of founders and their companies. At the core of this shift is the need for firms to add real value to portfolio companies beyond just capital and boardroom advice.

With that in mind, the three of us at NextView saw massive opportunity to better empower early-stage companies and the entrepreneurs who lead them both in our portfolio and throughout the greater Boston ecosystem.

My startup is part of the NextView portfolio. What does this mean for us?

We want to put your needs at the core of what we do even more. Over the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing from us and Jay – we’ve already got some initiatives in the works – as we hope to be more and more in-tune with your challenges to help you succeed and grow. As Rob said in that same post, the idea of a NextView platform is really dedicated to helping you win.

I don’t work for a NextView-backed startup. Why should I care?

For those who have followed the NextView story as we’ve built our firm over the past few years, we’re continually striving to advance the broader local startup community by fostering conversation and direct participation.  With Jay’s arrival, we’re looking to take those efforts to a new level, so stay tuned for more news along those lines soon.

Lastly, please join us in welcoming Jay to NextView on Twitter!