After months in the making, Greentown Labs, one of the country's only cleantech incubators and workshops, held its first-ever demo day Thursday evening. Starting at 3 p.m., investors, business folk and general startup supporters were ushered into the doors of the incubator's new Somerville offices. The 24,000 square-foot space hummed with more than 45 startups showing off their groundbreaking and green innovations on full display. Stands snaked through Greentown Labs' fully furnished workshop, as entrepreneurs and attendees mixed and mingled.
"What I noticed is that people were looking around and noticing different things that they were interested in, we just let people wander through the space. It was probably better for the entrepreneurs because they could talk to the people that were most excited to see their products," Emily Reichert noted of the non-traditional style of startup demos.
Following the demos, the crowd filtered in to Greentown's event space for some snacks and beverages, before the Labs' Executive Director Emily Reichert took to the mic to extend a warm welcome to approximately 200 guests.
Geoff Chapin, the CEO and founder of Boston-area cleantech success story Next Step Living, along with Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone were the special guests of the evening.
"We need to focus on creating profitable, sustainable economies, and doing social good," Curtatone told the crowd. "And they're not mutually exclusive."
The City of Somerville played an instrumental role in the Greentown Labs management 's decision to move out to the so-called 'burbs from its former spot in the Innovation District's Fort Point. Curtatone came forward with a $300,000 working capital loan on behalf of the City of Somerville back when Reichert and her team were still scoping out new offices. After that, the decision was essentially made, Reichert told BostInno back in September.
"Back in March, the mayor made a point of coming out to Greentown Labs in South Boston to see what we were all about. He came and spent two hours with us in South Boston and met with six of our entrepreneurs. As everyone was putting on their coats, he turned to his economic development team and said, 'Make this work,'" explained Reichert.
Next week Greentown Labs will send two of its startups – plastic water bottle alternative Refresh and heat transfer technology startup NBDNano – out to California to compete in the national Clean Tech Open. In October, Refresh and NBDNano were two of three startups selected from hundreds of green-geared companies as winners of the Clean Tech Open Northeast.
