The thesis was dated prior to the hard tech wave, and it is a perfect time to update it as Boston has a lot of the talent. Plus, Link Ventures is based in Boston with $1B AUM focused on AI. We have the talent here in Boston. That said I’m biased though as a cofounder one of our lovely local AI groups, and I used to have board meetings every two weeks with the Link Ventures executive team at my last startup.
I'm not reading too much into it. SF Bay Area is still the startup HQ of the world. Gary probably just wanted to hire this guy despite his desire to live in Cambridge. Plus YC is leaning harder into their preference for college-age founders, so having a partner next to Harvard&MIT doesn't hurt.