GigaOM » Cambridge Innovation Center

Cambridge Innovation Center takes its show on the road

Barb Darrow — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:59:51 +0000

The Cambridge Innovation Center, where numerous Boston-area startups have spent time, plans to launch similar workspaces in Baltimore and St. Louis, according to a report in Monday’s Boston Globe. It also plans to add more space locally.

Cambridge Innovation Center

Located in Kendall Square near MIT – and with VMware, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM and Oracle offices within a stone’s throw — CIC hosts innumerable hackathons and meetups, becoming a hub of the Boston-area startup scene.

Startups can rent a desk at CIC’s Cambridge Co-working Center for $535 a month or, if they prefer, they can plunk down $5,200 per month for a swank, three-person office with a view.

CIC claims to have launched more than 1,000 companies since opening 23 years ago

Tim Rowe, CEO of the center and a partner at New Atlantic Ventures told the Globe, the goal is to “create communities of people who are making an impact … We really should be doing that everywhere.”

Co-working spaces are booming — especially in areas where real estate prices are sky high. Many San Francisco area startups launch from RocketSpace, and New York has lots of co-working options, as GigaOM’s Ki Mae Heussner has reported.

Photos courtesy of Flickr user ilamont.com

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Coworking makes room for larger startups

Jessica Stillman — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:28:37 +0000

Corporate remote employees, we recently reported, are increasingly joining the mix of freelancers and entrepreneurs at coworking spaces. But apparently that’s not the only new group making increasing use of the movement. Spaces have long been home to fledgling ventures with just a few employees, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting, that more larger startups are sticking with coworking even as they grow beyond the traditional small size associated with shared space.

Emily Maltby reports on a new style of jumbo spaces being set up to accommodate these larger startups, including the Cambridge Innovation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and RocketSpace Inc. in San Francisco:

In recent years, though, some new ventures have bucked the traditional model by creating pay-as-you-go setups for sizable start-ups.

Some of these spaces have vast, open floors that can be partitioned according to the size of a company, or enclosed offices with adjustable walls. And they often provide communal reception services, copiers and conference rooms—or even amenities like showers and massages.

Many entrepreneurs are turning to these spaces as a way to save on overhead as they expand, as well as maintain the communal feel of the business incubators where they launched their companies.

Though staying in communal space may be good for the budgets of these adolescent startups, and may be comforting to entrepreneurs used to the supportive community aspect of coworking, experts apparently warn their may also be downsides for businesses that fail to cut the apron strings and move out on their own. These include, the “difficulty of keeping secrets from rivals. And some critics worry that coworking for too long may hinder businesses from developing an individual identity,” writes Maltby.

Other startups in the space stealing your employees could also be an issue. “You have human-resources issues…. I don’t want another company to romance my guys away,” George Deeb, founder of start-up consulting firm Red Rocket Partners, told the WSJ.

Should firms with dozens of employees rather than a handful stick with communal office space?

Image courtesy of Flickr user novemberwolf.

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Senator Brown: The time to act on crowdfunding bill is now

Barb Darrow — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:11:31 +0000

On Monday Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown (R) urged a Boston audience to pressure his Senate colleagues to bring his crowdfunding bill – or any crowdfunding bill for that matter—to a vote soon. The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the issue on Tuesday.

The general idea behind the proposed legislation is to make it legal for individual investors to put some money — up to $1,000 or $10,000 depending on the bill — into startups in return for equity. Crowdfunding is the “crowdsourcing” take on start-up funding.

“I don’t own this idea. There are other bills, bring them to the floor so we can tweak and work on them,” Brown told a roomful of entrepreneurs and reporters in South Boston. The House of Representatives has already passed a similar bill sponsored by Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

Brown’s proposed “Democratizating Access to Capital Act” would make it easier for startups to raise capital in small increments from investors. The current crowdsourcing models — like Kickstarter — let people invest in interesting startups, but they get gifts and products — not stock equity — for their money. Brown’s bill would cap each investment at $1,000 while McHenry’s bill has a $10,000 limit. Brown’s also would mandate that an intermediary handle deal flow and provide some oversight. McHenry, talking to the Boston group via Skype, said he worried that would stifle deals. President Barack Obama supports the idea of a crowdsourcing bill.

Backers of this legislation maintain that the inability for small companies to raise capital hurts innovation and job growth. ”You can’t go to the bank with an idea and get financing but if you go to the bank with an idea plus $1 million, the bank will listen,” Brown said. Many of these startups are too small to attract even angel investors, let alone venture capital.

Speakers at the event, held at the Mass Challenge office in South Boston, were preaching to the choir, an assembly of entrepreneurs almost all of whom would love to be able to raise money from small investors.

Amy Cortese, a proponent of local investing, said the slate of security laws discriminates against the non-wealthy. “The thing about the 1930s securities laws is they created two tiers [of investors]. Those with a net worth of $1 million can invest in anything — the sky’s the limit — but ordinary Americans have to invest in public companies. There is some irony that we have to invest in the stock market for safety.”

A crowdsourcing bill would make it easier for friends and family to invest in startups, but it is not exclusive to them. Financial giants could take advantage of it as well.

Proponents said eBay has proven there is crowdsourced protection inherent in the Web world. “Reputation ranking helps you know who’s trustworthy and who isn’t. There is sunshine from these systems and the flow of data through social networks lets us transact with people we’ve never met and probably never will meet,” said Tim Rowe, the founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center, who spoke at Monday’s event and will testify tomorrow in Washington, D.C.

Obstacles remain. State financial regulators oppose the bill because it would cut filing fees they now collect. And it is unlikely that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has trouble enforcing existing regulations, would be able to handle an influx of many smaller entities and deals. Brown acknowledged there are many wrinkles to iron out. “As with anything, the devil’s in the details,” he said.

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