ThingWorx headquarters is now Boston

Tom Paine

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I may have missed the memo on this, but ThingWorx has moved its headquarters from Exton to Boston. I don't know when it happened.

From its website:
"ThingWorx is based in Boston USA - the global hub of IoT innovation. Questions? Business inquiries? Big ideas? Please get in touch!"


It is certainly no surprise. ThingWorx and associated acquired companies have become the visible centerpiece of parent company PTC's strategy. PTC is based in suburban Boston. And ThingWorx' most important partner, GE, has just moved its headquarters from Connecticut to Boston.

And LiveWorx, PTC's huge annual IoT production, was held in Boston a couple of weeks ago. The highlight was PTC's virtual reality acquisition, Vuforia. An "A list' of speakers helped to reinforce PTC's image as the thought leader in industrial IoT.

ThingWorx' LinkedIn page has 243 employees listed, including 65 in the Philly area and 41 in the Boston area.

A request for information to ThingWorx has so far not been responded to.

Links 6/17: The "Chinese Netflix" plans big entry into US market; Oracle no longer breaks out database revenue

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Vanguard's McNabb: 'We are a technology company " with 3,000 engineers

Tom Paine

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Whenever Vanguard Group CEO Bill McNabb talks, people listen.

Not only because Valley Forge-based Vanguard is the monster of the mutual funds business, with assets under management of about $3.4 trillion. But also because McNabb himself  is seen as a key influencer in the global financial services industry.

And at a Morningstar Investment conference on Wednesday, he made news in several areas. Not the least of which was the technology front. The trade website RIABiz quotes him as saying in a side talk after his main address, "We are a technology company", citing  its 3,000 person strong engineering force ( though I don't think he meant it was Vanguard's primary strength).  McNabb discusses a recent visit he and some other top Vanguard executives made to Silicon Valley:

“I mentioned I was really intrigued by some of the software development that we saw in Silicon Valley among the robo-advisors,” he says. “So we are working hard on how do we get that kind of capability within the firm to do more cutting edge? We have great technologists, but you know we are running big platform, legacy systems, so how do you develop something for this in three months the way you would see out of the Valley?


Vanguard has a startup product called 'Vanguard Personal Advisor Services' which is considered a hybrid, part algorithm-based robo and part high touch, personal call center assistance, and has had a very successful launch.  Of the independent, robo-based startups, of which Wealthfront and Betterment are best known, Vanguard is considered closest to Wealthfront, at least in terms of investment philosophy.

McNabb later added, "We are watching Alibaba in China very closely, and they have entered a space and done so very successfully,”
RIABiz reported.