Is Hayward the Bay Area's next up and coming startup scene?

Hayward is on the cusp of becoming a different kind of startup hub, one where people come to make things. Drawing upon its industrial roots, the city is attracting later stage startups and biotechs that need space to bring their ideas into the physical world. We sat down with the city’s economic development officer, Paul Nguyen, a veritable civic cheerleader, to discuss this transformation.

What are some innovative companies that have come to Hayward recently? First of all, Veev, which has three different operations in the Bay Area like HQ, distribution and R&D/manufacturing, all over the East Bay. They’re consolidating all arms into a building on West Winton in Hayward, which will be their corporate HQ. They’re moving into a 250,000-square-foot building to consolidate all their operations. You’ve heard a lot about modular homebuilding companies before, but the amount of innovative engineering and technology they’ve implemented into their manufacturing process really addresses everything in terms of meeting sustainability goals and hedging against supply chain disruptions.

Another really cool company that’s moving to Hayward that’s opening offices that I’m really excited about is Bonneville Labs. It is this really cool company out of Berkeley that is essentially like a WeWork for lab space. They already have space in Berkeley and South San Francisco and so they’re opening up their third Bay Area location in Hayward.

What is Hayward doing to attract startups? We often work to get the word out to publicize to the broader community what companies are already here and whyl, because most companies want to be near like minds. That’s why you see clusters of certain industries in certain communities. So we do that through telling the story about what kind of innovative companies are here. 

But we also work hard to tell the story about what amenities Hayward has to offer, what educational opportunities, what schools, what recreational opportunities are here, because businesses want a place to do business, but they also want a place that their employees can live, work and play in. 

On the development side, we talk to developers and property owners to encourage them to invest and create new buildings and modern spaces that these labs and manufacturers are looking for.

Hayward is trying to make a transition from simply offering warehouse space to being a place for advanced manufacturing. Does that fit into that theme? Yeah, so we started picking up on that. Our city’s motto is the “Heart of the Bay,” because we’re centrally located and super connected to highways, ports, airports and public transit. And so we’re kind of like the crossroads of industry in the Bay Area, and historically we were a blue collar, industrial community. As we see people start companies and people that work for those companies start moving into Hayward, we’re seeing our industrial area transform itself to attract these advanced industries. And so we’re trying to be as supportive as we can to encourage additional investment in our industrial district that creates job opportunities for the people who live here.

How do the city’s educational institutions factor into this? So Cal State East Bay is making a lot ofheadway in the entrepreneurial world. They just opened the Smith Center for Entrepreneurial Studies that has a number of investors and curriculum and space for people with ideas to connect with one another. And then they also certainly provide that workforce pipeline as well.

So if you were to say there was a burgeoning sector in Hayward, what would that be? Right now in the last couple of years, I would say two really, we’re seeing life science or biotech — people who are making drugs, innovating, making medical devices, cell research. And then on the other side, we’re starting to see manufacturers who are here continue to grow along with new manufacturers like Veev who make modular homes in a very innovative manner.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

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