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The Story of Greg Mark, and How Markforged Disrupted the 3D Printing Industry
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In the late 1990s, while still in high school, Markforged Founder and CEO Greg Mark had a job like many other high school students—he was repairing bicycle frames.
He found out about an internship for a company called Outback Bicycles. It was a standard, three-month internship where you would sweep the floors, do some light machining, and then at the end of your three months, you would get to build a bicycle frame to keep and ride. However, like most internships, this was intended for college students—which Mark was not. This did not deter him.
He drove down to their office and said, “Hey! I want to do this internship.”
“No,” they replied.
He came back a few days later and asked again.
“No,” they replied once again.
He persisted and persisted until one day, Outback gave him a chance; he would spend two weeks learning the ropes. It wasn’t necessarily a formal internship, but it was close. Unfortunately, things did not start as planned.
“On my first day, I screwed two things up. I drilled a water bottle bolt hole in the wrong place, and I stamped the wrong serial number on the bottom. I was nervous, they yelled at me, they forgave me, they let me come back, and then the next thirteen days were great,” Mark said.
By the end of it, Outback was happy with him, and Mark came on as a fabricator for his senior year in high school. He learned machining, welding, cutting, and aligning. “By the time I graduated high school, I was making custom bicycle frames for $20/hour. Which, for a high school senior, was awesome.”
This was the catalyst for Mark’s love of engineering and, by extension, the 3D printing company he would found many years later: Markforged.
The Contract That Changed Everything
Markforged Founder and CEO Greg Mark.
After high school, Mark studied aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, where he got his master’s. This led to a position at Tribotek—the electrical distribution company—as well as the founding of his first startup, Aeromotions, which manufactures aerodynamic wings for race cars. After he left his company in 2011, he became CEO of Genasun, which develops off-grid solar charge components and advanced lithium battery systems.
While at Genasun, the company was in talks to get a contract with the U.S. Navy (the world’s largest customer of off-grid technology is the U.S. Military).
“We showed our tech to the Marine Corps. They loved it, and said, ‘This is great, but Marines don't wire things together. We plug them in.’ So they describe this box that they wanted to enclose the electronics in, with these connectors to charge the batteries with solar power,” Mark recalled. Note that this was on a Friday.
The CEO went back to Boston that day to see his friend, who just got a low-cost 3D printer. “This project would be perfect for it,” Mark thought, so he, with his friend’s guidance, designed the Navy hardware to specification and printed it.
“It blew my mind that we could take a CAD file we had and go layer by layer, build the part, and then have a real thing we can actually use. It took me longer to paint and sand it than it took to print,” he said. “We shipped it out to the Marine Corps on Wednesday, and they got it Friday. Literally a week after they told me what they wanted, they had a functional prototype in their hands, and we got a nice contract out of it.”
Mark explained that the only difference between his Navy prototype and the end-use version is that “plastic is weak.”
Coincidentally, when this happened, Mark was also thinking about doing something different; he wanted to start a new company to call his own. The initial idea was a competitor to Dropbox, but this was quickly scrapped due to concerns of scalability. The other idea he kept coming back to was 3D printing.
“What if I could make a carbon fiber 3D printer?” he thought. “What if I could make real end-use parts?” He made some prototypes, decided he was on the right track, and got an initial round of funding. In 2013, Markforged was born.
High-Strength 3D Printing
Today, Markforged offers a platform for 3D printing, as well as a range of 3D printers for industrial uses. However, unlike many companies that work solely in plastic, Markforged printers can print carbon fiber, stainless steel, fiberglass, and titanium, as well as plastics and other materials. Their products are used by Google, Ford, NASA, Amazon, and many others to make same-day prototypes and strong end-use parts.
“Most people in 3D printing are doing something that somebody else has already done, and they're either doing another version of it or a lower-cost version of it. No one printed carbon fiber before we did.”
The Metal X 3D print system.
Even with a team of skilled engineers, Mark called the process of developing such a printer “extremely difficult,” but added that it paid off. The company discovered that they could further expand that technology into metal—without much difference in the printing process.
“When we go to trade shows, people tell us that our metal parts look so good. We show them a metal part and a carbon fiber part, and we say, ‘This plastic is loaded with metal, and this plastic is loaded with carbon fiber, and the machine can’t tell the difference.’ They are amazed.” The company plans to develop the metals side of the business even further, and sees it as the company’s key area for growth.
“You should think of us as a profitable, quick-growing composite 3D printing company that has a metal shop startup tacked on to it.”
“Quick-growing” is right. In its nearly five years on the market, Markforged has sold its products and services to 75 percent of the aerospace companies in the world, including “small ones you've never heard of,” the CEO claims. And if your company is in automotive, “you have plural of our printers,” he added. Mark said that the company’s sales are going up 300 percent year-over-year, and their organic expansion rate is at 34 percent.
And that’s not all. This past November, in an effort to put their foot on the gas pedal, the Watertown-based company raised $30M in a Series C led by Siemens VC company next47. Not only were they the first VC investment for next47, but they were also the first investment by another backer: Porsche. Both companies were already using Markforged printers.
Five years of significant growth and profit later, it’s hard to look at Markforged as a scrappy company that’s still in the process of making a name for itself. It’s safe to say they’re past that stage, and Mark agrees.
The VentureFizz Career Inspiration Podcast: Bruce Zambrowicz - Sr. Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Acquia
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For the eleventh episode of our Career Inspiration podcast, I interviewed Bruce Zambrowicz - Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition at Acquia.
Bruce has an interesting background, where we have some similarities. He ran his own recruitment firm for over ten years before switching to an in-house recruiting role at companies like Monster and Rue La La before joining Acquia.
Acquia is one of the anchor companies in the Boston tech scene which has some ambitious growth plans for 2018.
In this episode we discuss:
Zambrowicz's background
The company's unique employee referral program
His secret weapon for recruiting
...and lots more!
You can listen to the podcast in the player below. To make sure you receive future episodes, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play, or Soundcloud. If you enjoyed our show, please consider writing a 5-star review - it will definitely help us get the word out there!
Working at a company heralded for its unique culture, I am often asked how we are attempting to scale it. There is a general feeling that to grow quickly means your culture will suffer as a result. While this is indeed a potential, I don’t believe growth has to equal watered-down culture. I’d offer that strong culture is one of the key components to that very growth in the first place.
That said, we need to be laser-focused on how we adopt that culture with the onslaught of so many new people. It’s not just about handing over a coffee cup with your core values on it or directing people to a handbook where they are listed; it takes hard work to help everyone understand your company’s values, as well as to embrace and embody them as well. While each of our companies is unique and has their own set of values and culture, my hope is that if your company is in growth mode, you’ll find this perspective thought-provoking.
It’s Not Just About Culture Fit...
Though I have been actively focused on identifying and scaling culture throughout my entire career until recently I was fixated on helping to understand and enable culture “fit.” Loosely defined, I thought of this simply as meaning that the candidate’s beliefs and behaviors were well aligned with our company’s. When we identify that alignment, we’ve got someone with good “fit.”
And yet, I’ve discovered over the years, there is so much more to it. If we center all of our attention on someone fitting in and blending with what’s important to our organization, we potentially risk building a team of thinkers who are overly myopic in their thinking. In other words, while we are busy trying to identify people who believe in the same things your team does, we could also inadvertently create an environment where we are limiting innovation by hiring people who are a little too similar. While fit might seem like the right dynamic as your company is growing, the larger you scale, the bigger this concern this becomes. And no growing company wants to limit its ability to innovate and adapt.
...It’s About Fit AND Contribution.
Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” While it is still vitally important to understand if your candidates - and employees - share an aligned mindset about the belief system of your organization, it’s just as critical to explore what those individuals are going to contribute back. When we think about cultural contribution at work, we need to consider things like inviting people with different mindsets to the conversation to expand the ideas and innovation. Or perhaps celebrate those who don’t just show up and “live” the values, but actively work to enhance them with their energy and actions.
In our company, we have a very simple formula to reward and recognize those who are truly contributing. We don’t just consider skill, or them doing their job well. We also carefully balance a positive attitude, a high aptitude to learn, and theirembodiment of our core values. It’s not rocket science; we celebrate those people who are additive to the organization as they stand out as exceptional. Of course, it’s certainly easier to just show up and “fit in”, and thankfully at our company, we are fortunate to attract a team who strives to go above and beyond. However, a thriving company won’t just hire cultural contributors; it will nurture and reward current employees who behave in this manner.
It’s an incredible place to be, establishing the culture of a growing company. Attracting people who share a similar belief system and working together towards the same mission can build serious feelings of belonging and community. Keeping it strong and thriving as you scale, however, takes care, nurturing, and editing. At our company, we refresh our approach fairly frequently.
This year, we’ve created a series of examples that are being introduced to all of our people in the coming weeks that clearly outline what behaviors we think are great - and not so great - to help people really understand and internalize our values with more clarity. At the end of the day, however, it’s all important. Having a clearly articulated set of values and beliefs that are vital to your organization’s ability to align all of your people activities (hiring, promotions, development, communication, terminations, etc.). Be mindful it’s not just about finding people who “fit in” to make your culture thrive; balancing that with what they contribute back is just as essential.
Founded in 2015, OM1's mission is transforming healthcare by reimagining how it is measured and delivered. The company has built an intelligent data cloud to enable different healthcare stakeholders to cost-effectively access, analyze, and use outcomes data in an accurate and vigorous manner.
With such a robust platform, OM1’s engineering team is hard at work to deliver results for healthcare stakeholders.
To give our readers an insight into the company’s engineering team, we connected with OM1’s Head of Engineering, Nick Brachet.
Also, OM1 is hiring! Check out their BIZZpage for all the company’s openings.
Quick Hit Details
Year Founded: 2015
Number of employees: 50
Number of engineers: 12
Industry: Healthcare
Can you share a summary of what OM1 does?
OM1 is a digital health company focused on solving the problem of determining and understanding the true results of healthcare. We believe that a value-based healthcare system requires a much more complete view of patient outcomes than has been available until now. We leverage a state-of-the-art technology platform, a world-class team of scientists, clinical experts, and software engineers, and a committed network of organizations to create a new standard for health outcomes information.
What does the product planning process look like and when does engineering get involved?
We use an Agile process with two-week sprints with a traditional sprint planning meeting to finalize commitments for the upcoming sprints. Prior to that Product Owners groom the backlog with Engineering. In that grooming, engineers work closely with product owners to understand the value brought to users and can offer their creativity.
How are cross-functional teams structured?
Rather than formal cross-functional teams, OM1 leverages a collaborative work environment where people from different teams or functional areas get together as needed.
What are some of the different technologies that the engineering team gets to work with and at what scale?
Our Engineering team leverages various technologies such as Spark (Scala and Python) as well as analytical databases such as Snowflake.
What are some of the interesting projects that the engineering team is tackling?
Healthcare data is notoriously messy and this problem is amplified when collecting data from various sources. One of the interesting challenges that the Engineering team has to tackle is to normalize all this data into a usable repository. Another aspect to our work is Patient Linking - the ability to identify patients between data sources in a HIPAA compliant matter is a very complex and challenging problem being researched and fine-tuned in academia.
Defining and calculating patient outcomes at scale is an inherent challenge to OM1’s mission.
We also tackle how to visually represent that patient data in a repeatable, insight-driven way that is digestible to end users.
How is testing handled - manual or automated?
Testing is automated as much as possible.
Does your engineering team have a chance to work on projects outside of their day-to-day responsibilities?
Yes! Engineers do get to work on skunk work projects and get to contribute back to some open source projects. We are very open to engineers experimenting and investigating tools that will best serve our purposes.
What can someone expect during the interview process?
We have a very straightforward interview process with the usual phone screen and in-person interview. You’ll have a call with our Head of Engineering which is more of a conversation than a deep technical screening. You’ll have a chance to meet with different members of the team as well as our CTO and Head of Engineering when you come into the office. Something that really sets us apart is our speed and readiness to hire. We move at the candidate’s pace!
What is the culture like at OM1 for the engineering team?
Culturally, we’re not prescriptive for how an engineer should build! If an engineer can provide evidence for why he or she believes this approach is best, the engineer can go ahead and try it out. We often approach our challenges almost academically, providing a proof of concept prior to executing that plan across the systems. This allows us to iterate quickly through ideas, and it’s exciting to have that flexibility. We have a great Slack culture for asking questions and getting help, and we like to “fail fast.”
What does your team do for fun outside of work?
We are a very tight-knit group. A couple times a week someone will Slack something they are planning to do that evening and invite the group along. We do drinks every couple weeks outside of the office and are religious about our trivia on Wednesdays.
Rapid Fire Q&A
What’s on tap?
Let us know what you like and it will be in the fridge!
"I joined OM1 because I was inspired by the simple vision to transform healthcare by leveraging massive amounts of data. In my family of physicians, when they discussed how to measure healthcare quality, they largely referred to measuring processes. For example, “Did John Smith receive aspirin as soon as he arrived at the hospital for chest pain?” verifies that providers executed on existing procedure, but “What is the optimal treatment for a patient like John?” questions the status quo. The innovation at OM1 would allow for the latter type of exploration, which I believed was urgent for patients’ quality of care. I have had incredible opportunities to grow technically and professionally here. Every day, my hands are in different parts of the stack, from prototyping a new web feature on the front-end and developing APIs to tackling critical performance bottlenecks. Our culture encourages teaching, experimentation, and investigation, and I have learned so much from the talented people here about how our technologies and processes can be state-of-the-art, which I have particularly valued being earlier in my career. What’s more, it’s an environment where there are few, if any, barriers for taking ownership, and if I am interested in diving into a challenging problem we’re facing, I can take the plunge. Plus, I work with folks who make me laugh every day (although it’s still a source of contention that I’m a Ravens fan!)"
"As a DevOps/Infrastructure Engineer coming from a large enterprise shop, I was ready to join a team where I could see the impact my work has on a daily basis. When I found OM1 it was a perfect fit. I am able to bring my existing knowledge and skills to the table, helping the business grow while at the same time I have the opportunity to learn every day."
Blockchain & Cryptocurrency in Boston Tech - Part 3: “What’s Going On” - The Entrepreneurs and Companies in The Space
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The investors have given their two (probably blockchain/cryptocurrency-based) cents on the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector in Boston in Part 2 and a handful of them spoke about industries and companies that are getting involved.
But, what else is going on? And, more interestingly, who are the other startups and entrepreneurs getting involved with this space here in Boston?
Our deep dive into the blockchain and cryptocurrency scene in Boston continues, as we enter Part 3 and profile a collection of startups utilizing blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. This isn’t a complete list per say, as many of the startups in this sector are still in stealth mode.
I had a chance to speak with multiple entrepreneurs, all of which had different career backgrounds. Some ranging from first-time founders to serial entrepreneurs. However, each company carries a common trend with how each founder views the technology as disruptive. Since blockchain/cryptocurrency tech is open source, entrepreneurs and engineers have taken it upon themselves to build unique applications for an abundance of industries.
Sia
I profiled Sia in June 2017, and they were the first blockchain and cryptocurrency-based company I came across in Boston.
Sia Co-Founders David Vorick and Luke Champine had a growing interest in Bitcoin, and wanted to create a “better version of it.” While they couldn’t find anything fundamentally wrong, the two engineers started to look closely at the blockchain technology behind it and found how it can be administered for other applications. Vorick and Champine took into account how a blockchain is decentralized, and how it can be applied to data storage.
The two have developed an open source network where users can buy one TB of cloud storage space for a low, low price of $2 per month. Sia’s users can also host data in exchange for the platform’s own cryptocurrency, Siacoin. The data is highly secure and redundant, as it is broken down into several encrypted pieces across the company’s blockchain. If a hacker were to attempt to steal or distort the data, they wouldn’t be able to, since said data will be encrypted and spread throughout several locations.
Sia's dashboard.
“Right now, cloud storage is about $20 per terabyte per month, but it will cost more if you want to store across multiple locations,” said Zach Herbert, Sia’s Head of Operations. “I was shocked by Sia’s price of $2 per terabyte. It’s almost the complete opposite of what, say, Amazon is doing. It’s an order-of-magnitude reduction.”
LBRY
LBRY is a web protocol designed for content creators to share their work through a decentralized network. LBRY users can upload video, audio, pictures, and written work to the protocol the content can be spread across to a wider audience. Users can purchase other users’ content by using the company’s LBRY Credits, which can be downloaded right from the web browser.
The company is the brainchild of Jeremy Kauffman, Josh Finer, Jack Robison, and Jimmy Kiselak. Kauffman was an early adopter of Bitcoin back in 2013 after a friend introduced him to the cryptocurrency. After becoming more entrenched in the culture surrounding it, Kauffman became more interested in some of the other aspects of cryptocurrency.
“I was reading a conversation between [Alphabet Executive Chairman] Eric Schmidt and Julian Assange about the applications of Bitcoin to information distribution,” Kauffman said. “What made me interested in learning more about it was the fact that it was decentralized. I began asking myself ‘What other things can be decentralized?’”
In 2016, Pillar led a seed round into Kauffman’s startup and they have remained active within the cryptocurrency/blockchain space in Boston.
LBRY was another startup I profiled last October. Since the initial interview, the company has grown to 14 full-time employees, and they are currently working on a mobile version of the protocol, which is set to release in February.
Tengu
Tengu Founder and CEO Chet Manikantan is a serial entrepreneur who has worked in all different fields of technology, including edtech and FinTech in his hometown of Bangalore, India. He became interested in Bitcoin back in 2009 as more or less a hobby.
“It stemmed from an academic interest,” said Manikantan. “I started to follow forums and eventually downloaded the software. I began mining coins on a laptop and that was that for a little while.”
Manikantan was re-introduced to cryptocurrency in 2015 when taking part in a Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program and discovered the MIT Bitcoin Club. From there, his newfound interest became Bitcoin and what can be put to use with this form of technology.
Chet Manikantan, Founder and CEO of Tengu
“I’m always looking for projects with a meaningful impact,” Manikantan said. “Blockchain and cryptocurrency technology is perfect for solving many problems. Take, for example, the Equifax hack. All of that data was stored in one space and not encrypted.”
“Your credit score should travel from service to service, and Tengu was born out of this idea,” Manikantan adds.
Tengu is an early-stage startup developing a FinTech service that Manikantan describes as a “decentralized Equifax.” Something interesting to point out is that records will be kept on the company’s own blockchain, which was developed from scratch over the course of nine months. Tengu will record a user’s financial transactions, as well as unconventional variables including non-financial transactions, and allow them to see their credit score based on these actions. These will be placed on the startup’s global blockchain and will allow the records and credit score to travel from user to user.
Currently, Tengu is being tested within the company and is set for a release in March.
And for those who are curious where the name came from, Manikantan told me it comes from various sources.
“Tengu is a rough translation from ‘tree of life’ in several Indian languages, but also in the Shinto religion in Japan, the Tengu was the God of Prosperity,” said Manikantan. “Another way of looking at it is since we deal with P2P sharing, you could say it takes two to Tengu.”
Voatz
In the last U.S. Presidential Election, the overall voter turnout had, as reported by CNNdropped from64% of voting-age citizens turning out for the 2012 election, but in 2016, it was 53.5%. There were several reasons stated to explain said drop off, including inconvenient polling locations, a lack of knowledge of where candidates stand, or not having interest.
Founded in 2014 by Nimit Sawheny, Voatz is looking to change that. The startup has developed a smartphone application to enable voters to participate in elections. The company’s app uses a mix of biometrics and blockchain-based technology in order to keep the voting process anonymous—without having to go into one of those booths. By using the blockchain, Voatz is able to store their voting data in a far more concise manner, but not have said data compromised by miscalculations in the polls.
Voatz has maintained a busy schedule over the past year, as the company graduated from Techstars Boston before being immediately accepted into the MassChallenge cohort in 2017. Voatz made headlines at the start of this year, with their announcement of a $2.2 million seed round led by Medici Ventures.
Voatz at Techstars Demo Day 2017.
Esprezzo
In December 2017, the monthly Boston ICO Meetup group invited CampusTap Founder and CEO Remy Carpinito to speak about his newest startup, Esprezzo. A recently founded blockchain/cryptocurrency-based startup, Esprezzo is bringing something to the space that will certainly be needed if more entrepreneurs are working with this technology.
Esprezzo is a Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider that will help blockchain developers fill in the blanks where they are having trouble creating applications. The company also offers tools for blockchain-related projects, such as framework management and front-end development.
Remy Carpinito, Founder and CEO of Esprezzo
“There are endless opportunities to produce applications using this tech. We are working on producing the middleman,” Carpinito told me. “We want to put the power back with the user.”
Carpinito and Alan "AJ" Wilhelm both got involved with Bitcoin mining when it was still a new concept within the cryptocurrency world.
“My CTO [Wilhelm] and I are pure technologists,” said Carpinito. “We each have an understanding of this technology and know where it can fit in the market. AJ is enamored by the blockchain.”
He saw the potential of the underlying technology and wanted to implement it into his current company. Carpinito had an idea for CampusTap that would involve moving student IDs to a private blockchain but found a lot of complications with a school’s security protocols.
So he, and a third of the team at CampusTap decided to take a chance and spin-out into a new startup.
Commonwealth Crypto
Besides Bitcoin and Ether, there are dozens and dozens of other cryptocurrencies out on the market each with their own user base. With several types out there each with their own market price, would-be buyers and traders would want to get their hands on them.
Commonwealth Crypto is currently developing technology that empowers those who are trading or exchanging on a cryptocurrency platform, (such as Coinbase) to trade without having their coins lost or stolen. Commonwealth Crypto is compatible with most forms of Bitcoin, as well as Litecoin and ZCash.
“Commonwealth Crypto’s tech prevents custodial ownership and theft,” said Richard Dulude of Underscore VC, who led Commonwealth’s seed round last December. “It’s infrastructure for crypto trading where they can connect every wallet to every exchange that is on the blockchain.”
The company’s founding team, Sharon Goldberg, and Ethan Heilman, have been deeply involved with network security and cryptocurrency/blockchain throughout their respective careers. By creating a security protocol for buyers in the cryptocurrency space, Commonwealth Crypto is enabling those who are new to this space to become more involved with it.
AirFox
Finding quality mobile and/or Internet service in a particular area overseas can be a bit of a challenge. Founded in 2016, AirFox is giving options for wireless carriers that are not sold to the public. AirFox users will be able to access the Internet through an Android-enabled device, by inserting a chip into their phone or tablet.
The company’s Co-Founder and CEO Victor Santos analyzed mobile and web markets overseas and saw the ongoing trend of people who are enabled for the Internet but unable to log on.
“If we have access to these people, how do we give them more access?” VP of Business Operations Christine To asks. “Internet is expensive, and for those who cannot access it, they cannot participate in the digital economy.”
AirFox was one of the first venture-backed companies to raise millions off of an ICO and now have their own utility token, AirToken. AirToken is based on Ethereum and can be used to purchase mobile airtime, data, and internal currency on the platform.
FirstBlood
Similar to cryptocurrency and blockchain, esports is growing in popularity; both had underground, almost cult-like followings, and are now receiving more mainstream coverage.
The startup has developed a platform that is designed to support the esports ecosystem by allowing up-and-coming players to create a profile and play with others. Those who sign up will be rewarded with the platform’s own token, which can be used to reward other players.
“One of our goals is to reward those going on their esports journey,” said FirstBlood Community Director Auryn Macmillan. “We want to make it a more accessible experience for up-and-coming players.
For those who pay attention to esports, they know certain communities will contain not-so-friendly behavior with certain players, especially in the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre that FirstBlood concentrates on. For those engaging in toxic behavior, the platform will subtract tokens from their balance. There is more of an incentive to actually play fair, which is something any gamer would be happy to hear.
“We went with the MOBA genre because there is a lot of room for improving the player experience,” Macmillan told me.
FirstBlood’s beta platform was launched in July, and still undergoing quality assurance testing before opening itself up to more users. The platform can be implemented with the MOBA game DOTA 2.
“It was the first game we chose since it already has a massive community. It also has an open API to implement FirstBlood with,” said Macmillan. “However, we do plan to expand and branch out into other esports. Expect a couple of surprises on the horizon.”
Cognate
“My parents are trademark lawyers, so I learned a lot about trademark law at the dinner table, whether I wanted to or not,” said Cognate CEO and Founder Bennett Collen. “I was originally an environmental science major, but I got sucked back in.”
Cognate is a platform built from the Ethereum blockchain, and it utilizes the smart control protocol in order for SMBs and startups to store trademark and promotional information. Users will write-up the information regarding trademarks, including logos, slogans, and domain names, which, in turn, can be accessed by trademark lawyers when cases involving infringement or bootlegs come up.
Bennett Collen, Founder and CEO of Cognate
However, Cognate wasn’t always built off of Ethereum, and they went through the classic early-stage pivot. Collen was introduced to the cryptocurrency world through the Blockchain at MIT event in 2016. While he heard about Bitcoin, he started to understand the blockchain technology behind it, and how it can be applied to his business.
“It wasn’t so much a business pivot, but more of a tech pivot. The immutable data, along with the timestamps, really helped drive the point home for me,” said Collen. “After about a month of conviction, I convinced myself and our CTO to make the switch. I didn’t do it for the buzzwords; I did it because the technology elegantly solved this problem.”
Adjoint
Adjoint is a team of financial sectors veterans. Co-Founder and CEO Havell Rodrigues worked as a hedge fund manager for most of his career; Co-Founder and VP of Product Darren Tseng worked at the FinTech startup, Elsen; Co-Founder and CTO, Stephen Diehl previously worked on projects at Wall Street banks; and the company’s COO, Somil Goyal, worked at Deutsche Bank. Adjoint is tackling a market in need of innovation and disruption: B2B enterprise services.
Havell Rodrigues, Co-Founder and CEO of Adjoint
“We are excited about blockchain applications, but we want to focus on B2B,” said Rodrigues. “We want to solve problems as entrepreneurs, and blockchain tech can solve several problems enterprise companies face.”
The platform they developed, Uplink, which is its own blockchain solution built from scratch for the enterprise market, is designed to allow companies to implement private, permissioned blockchains and smart contracts. Rodrigues jokingly describes it as “Wicked Smaht Contracts for the Enterprise market.”
“Adjoint has built a general purpose platform, but it can be tweaked for certain applications for banking, capital markets, insurance, and commodities trading,” he said. “For example, insurance companies can use it to automate transactions between themselves, their service providers and reinsurers.”
While this is the first time Rodrigues has founded a company that works with blockchain technology, he has been intrigued by blockchain since 2012.
“I am enamored with the underlying technology and what it can do,” the CEO said. “There’s a lot of noise and it’s tempting to go down the rabbit hole. For now we are focussed on helping large enterprises reduce costs in their operations or invent new revenue streams ”
The Adjoint team! From left to right: Darren Tseng, Thomas Dietert, Havell Rodrigues, Anthony Sheldon, Stephen Diehl, and Somil Goyal.
Tune in next week...same blockchain time, same blockchannel...for the last time
Throughout the last three parts of this series, our readers have read a handful of predictions on what is to come with the space from both entrepreneurs and investors.
In our grand finale, “Newest Industry” there will be predictions, and even more close insights, about the cryptocurrency/blockchain scene in Boston.
Just about every tech and business conference today have a focus on artificial intelligence. Every industry is scrambling to figure out how to use it and what impact it will have. Fear of competitors capitalizing on the technology and putting distance between non-adopters is a common topic. In addition, marketing departments have inserted the term all over websites claiming to have some.
Working in the legal industry, I’m seeing firsthand the confusion and almost sense of doom that the perception of AI has brought about. There is a feeling that the industry will be disrupted - but where on the scale of efficiency it will take things is a complete unknown. The buzz and possibilities have led to people “just wanting to do something with it”.
Technology’s march over the last 30 years has taught many lessons - one of which is that early adopters often get it wrong. Innovation costs a lot of time, money, effort and emotion. It takes resources away from servicing existing clients and business fundamentals. For most established businesses, it has been far more prudent to allow technologies to develop and get involved in somewhat proven industry solutions down the road. Just not too far down the road - when it is too late.
When to jump in?
Anyone remember this?
This is the trick. If you go too early you will likely get it wrong. If you go too late you might be out of business. Early Internet businesses are a good case study. Amazon built an online marketplace for books when the web was fairly new. What they did was extremely hard, cost a lot of investment capital and for the longest time wasn’t profitable. They won big, however, because their competitors waited too long to react. For the longest time if you wanted to shop online you had only Amazon. The others kept exclusively running their stores - or made a half-hearted attempt at online sales. They had the main ingredients to survive the transition to online retail - operational and logistical science expertise. They just didn’t get the tech until it was too late.
On the other end of the spectrum, you had Pets.com. Everyone’s favorite dot.com disaster. They got the tech and the marketing for sure (see sock puppet). What they lacked was the ability to run a fulfillment business at scale. They infamously went from IPO to bankrupt in a handful of months.
True innovation has typically come from new companies (the Silicon Valley model) or very large companies (think Bell Labs, Xerox). The former have few customers to worry about and the latter have endless resources.
For everyone else - applying the lessons of the past - the best I can figure is to aggressively stay aware of what is happening with new technologies - in this case, AI. Stay plugged into the emerging tech scene and the related successes and failures of your industry. When it gets to the point where there are several successes - it’s time to get in. It feels like the aim should be to be part of the first 15 - 20% of the adoption Bell Curve. By 15% most of the really hard stuff has been worked out. Much after 20% you risk falling too far behind.
Currently, no one really knows what impact AI will have on jobs, revenue, and competition. We do know it will add complexity to almost every facet of business - perhaps similar to the way algorithms have changed Wall Street. When and how to harness this technology may very well decide which businesses survive and which don’t.
Perhaps someone will develop a machine learning system that will tell people what to do in regards to AI.
John Arsneault is the CIO at Goulston & Storrs, a law firm with offices in Boston, New York and Washington DC. He is also active in the tech startup space as a private equity investor.
Blockchain & Cryptocurrency in Boston Tech - Part 2: “One Step At A Time” - What Do the Investors Think?
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If you’ve read Part 1 of our series, then the next time you are at a family gathering and your not-so-tech-savvy family member asks, “What is Bitcoin/blockchain/’this magic Internet money’/etc.?” you can be an unofficial guide for their journey into the cryptocurrency-space.
In Part 2 of this series, I spoke with several investors about how they are involved with Boston’s blockchain/cryptocurrency scene.
Investors have to do their due diligence when it comes to companies utilizing new technology, taking one step at a time to see if a company is worth investing in. And Boston’s blockchain/cryptocurrency industry is no different. The technology is still growing and evolving, which makes their job exceptionally challenging to figure out which companies to invest in and ultimately become market leaders.
Over the course of several one-on-one interviews, I found that nearly all of the investors I spoke with originally only had a passing knowledge and/or interest with Bitcoin. Until they, as Flipside Crypto Partner Dave Balter put it, “Fell down the crypto rabbit hole, and once you get in, you can’t get out.”
The Firms/Services Getting Involved
Underscore VC
Richard Dulude, Co-Founder and Principal at Underscore VC
“It’s fundamentally a real way of designing value flows without a centralized medium,” Dulude said. “Bitcoin ignites the brain with how it works. Not only is it an alternative to money, but it’s fascinating with what other applications can be used.”
Underscore VC invests in early-stage startups with a clear vision. When I spoke with Dulude, he mentioned how he is motivated by the technology behind a company, as well as how their infrastructure is working. Commonwealth Crypto appeared to check off these boxes.
“Being an investor who understands this space, I heard about Commonwealth,” said Dulude. “We’ve been looking for something different, and the entrepreneurs behind the company [Sharon Goldberg and Ethan Heilman] had unique qualifications, and are respected thought leaders in this sector.”
Richard moderated a panel discussion with prominent figures in the blockchain/cryptocurrency space. From left to right: Dulude, Anders Brownworth of Circle, Jeremy Kauffman of LBRY, David Vorick of Sia, Ethan Heilman of Commonwealth Crypto.
Pillar
“It feels like a whole new Internet like it’s ‘94 all over again,” said Pillar Founder Jamie Goldstein. “The anchor companies in this space are being built and that’s what makes it exciting.”
Jamie Goldstein, Founder of Pillar
Goldstein’s firm primarily focuses on early-stage startups that utilize machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other next-generation technology. Pillar is increasingly spending more energy on blockchain/cryptocurrency and has made several investments in the space.
“Boston has a history of ‘hard tech,’" said Goldstein. "If you look at the industries we're known for, like biotech and cybersecurity, we have the technical skills to become leaders in developing new companies that leverage blockchain. Now's the time to dig in."
In 2016, the firm’s founder came across the Manchester, NH-based startup LBRY that was using blockchain-based technology for content distribution, and became interested in what they are doing. As a result, Goldstein got in contact with the company’s Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Kauffman, and their conversation quickly kickstarted his own personal interest in the technology. Pillar later led a seed round for LBRY which totaled $500K.
Pillar’s growing regard for blockchain/cryptocurrency has grown as they've begun to develop a community around the tech in Boston. The firm hosts Proof of Drink, a monthly meetup for blockchain founders and enthusiasts at its office near South Station, and recently teamed up with the Boston Blockchain Meetup to host Proof of Steak, a holiday party that drew over 250 people to District Hall. Pillar also created the Boston Crypto Calendar, consolidating events happening around Boston in one central place.
“We’re trying to get as smart as possible, and part of our role is to evangelize this space,” said Goldstein. “When people think of cryptocurrency, they think of Bitcoin or Silk Road. They aren’t thinking of a decentralized web. There are industries that can be turned upside down through this technology.”
Flipside Crypto
Dave Balter, Co-Founder and Principal of Flipside Crypto
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are not traditional forms of tech, and Flipside Crypto isn’t a traditional firm for investors. Founded in August 2017 by Dave Balter and career software engineer Jim Myers, Flipside Crypto works more as a service provider for three separate areas within the cryptocurrency/blockchain sector.
Balter became interested in Bitcoin when it was still an underground movement, and while his initial thoughts on it weren’t as serious as they are now, his interest quickly grew.
“Everyday you’re asking, ‘What’s new, what’s changing?’" said Balter. “There’s endless learning in this space, it’s almost a quest for learning, so to speak.”
One of Flipside Crypto’s characteristics is the investment clubs, which Balter described as “a decentralized club,” reflecting on the core value of this sector. The clubs are formed with the idea of providing information for interested investors, like which currencies to invest in. Each club is placed in a tier list based on how much money they are willing to invest; for example, clubs one and two, which have recently closed, have a $100,000 or more investment cap.
However, what sets it apart from a traditional investment fund is that there is a flat rate fee for joining. In addition, club members can change their investment portfolios, and they can liquidate it at any time.
Other services Flipside Crypto provides are the GitHub Crypto Index, where clients can look into what ongoing projects and developments are happening in Boston and the Nodes Firehose, which gives analytical data based on various crypto transactions and trends.
Flipside Crypto’s Partner has been active with various cryptocurrency-themed events across Boston and maintains an optimistic view of what’s to come.
“Boston has a chance to be an epicenter of this innovation space,” said Balter. “There’s a lot of big, ‘home run’ businesses coming out. My prediction is that there is going to be two breakout companies by the end of next year.”
Founder Collective
Parul Singh, Principal at Founder Collective
We briefly touched upon Founder Collective’s place in the blockchain/cryptocurrency sector in Boston in Part 1. The firm has been active within this space by not only keeping an eye on the scene but attending various events in Boston. Through these events, the firm has been able to connect with some of the early-stage companies and see what developments could potentially be dominant.
"We’re excited about infrastructure tools that are emerging, but our portfolio companies are also pulling us forward into this space,” said Parul Singh, a principal at Founder Collective. “Civic and YouNow have launched tokens, and we recently invested in two other blockchain companies that are not yet announced. Definitely, watch this space."
Cosimo Ventures
Located right in Copley Square is Cosimo Ventures, a firm dedicated to disruptive technology or what Managing Partner Rob Frasca describes as “deep tech.” And what is more disruptive than decentralized networks and currencies?
Rob Frasca, Managing Partner at Cosimo Ventures
“As an investor, that is what I am interested in. Boston has a tight-knit community with blockchain and cryptocurrency and it’s expanding,” said Frasca. “I’m excited because we’re seeing incredible deals coming in and who the entrepreneurs are in the area. You have to have some ‘deep tech’ chops in this space, and you got to know what you are doing.”
Cosimo was primarily focused on markets overseas, but has only recently started paying attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrency in the United States, especially in Boston.
Similar to Goldstein’s statement about how this sector feels like the early days of the Internet again, Frasca feels the same way. Frasca founded one of the first venture-backed companies on the Internet, Galt Technologies, and has seen this type of energy before.
“I was at a bookstore and saw all these books about blockchain and crypto and that blew me away,” said Frasca. “I immediately remembered being in Palo Alto in the 90s with my business partner at the time seeing books about the Internet and thinking ‘This is going to be big.’”
Frasca compares the companies in this space, not to the early dot-com companies like Pets.com, but rather the ones that came after it.
“When the Internet 1.0 came out, there wasn’t a lot of real thought on how to solve problems or be sustainable,” he said. “But with the Internet 2.0, companies learned from the mistakes others made began to stick around.”
Many of the blockchain and cryptocurrency-based companies that Cosimo is investing in could not be named due to prior agreements, but Frasca did share what upcoming developments might be coming out of this space.
“What can blockchain do that you it couldn’t do before?” he asks. “I think we’re going to see more supply chains through the blockchain. There are interesting ways to manage the economics with each system and what can be better managed using the blockchain?”
What about Ethereum?
Blockchain and cryptocurrency themselves are the core focuses for many investors in the area, but as stated in Part 1, Ethereum still lacks a wide reach.
Ty Danco, angel investor and former Director of Techstars Boston, is an outspoken fan of the crypto space in Boston. A few startups that were in the accelerator during Danco’s tenure were using blockchain technology, including Voatz, Tive.io, and AirFox.
Ty Danco, angel investor and self-proclaimed "crypto enthusiast."
Danco was drawn into the cryptocurrency world as a passing interest based on his background working in FinTech. He’s the former CEO of investment trading company BuysideFX, as well as the Co-Founder of the Boston FinTech Meetup. However, he believes that out of all the developments and types of currency to come out of this space, Ethereum has a greater chance to succeed.
“As an investor, it’s smarter to invest in Ethereum, as it can exist without a company,” Danco said. “Ethereum is designed to do much more than Bitcoin since it is, at its core, ‘programmable money.’”
Danco pointed out several use cases for Ethereum, including smart contracts for sports organizations.
However, he does recognize how much of an impact Bitcoin has, as he told us about how a rather large investment firm has started taking note of cryptocurrency.
“Fidelity [Investments] started to enable charitable giving with Bitcoin and Ether,” said Danco. “They gave customers the option to locate crypto accounts right from their Fidelity dashboard. When a firm like Fidelity is taking note, the impact cannot be ignored.”
And on a final note, as a former Olympic luge racer himself, Danco told me that the United States Luge Olympic team started taking investments in Bitcoin.
Tune in next week… same blockchain time, same blockchannel
The investors across Boston are the ones keeping the close eye on what kind of companies are going to succeed in this space. As you’ve seen, a few companies were mentioned during the one-on-one interviews.
What about the others? Who else is doing something unique with blockchain/cryptocurrency technology?
That is where Part 3 comes in. We will be briefly profiling various blockchain and cryptocurrency-based startups in the area, discussing how they are using this technology. We will also learn how some of these startups became interested in this space.
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