Five Questions With: Barb Finer

BARB FINER IS CEO of TechSandBox, a science- and technology-based startup incubator based in Hopkinton, Mass. / COURTESY BARB FINER
BARB FINER IS CEO of TechSandBox, a science- and technology-based startup incubator based in Hopkinton, Mass. / COURTESY BARB FINER

Barb Finer, CEO of TechSandBox, a science- and technology-based startup incubator based in Hopkinton, Mass., talks about its recent pitch competition and how the incubator got started.

PBN: Tell me how long TechSandbox has been around and how it started.

FINER: I incorporated TSB in 2012 after a lot of market research so we’d be ‘official.’ I then started letting my network know and called meetings; we met virtually (at coffee shops and town halls) to gather interest and committee volunteers. Then, Becker College (Worcester) came forth with an offer for free use of some of their unused space in Southborough in April 2013. We opened right after that; then we found and moved into our current space in September 2013 (8,700 square feet).

I grew up in Boston, and had moved to Hudson, Mass., but was spending a lot of time in Boston/Cambridge helping startups. A lot of us were on the Mass Pike at 7:30 a.m. heading in the same direction, so I asked myself if some of these were startup founders … and if they’d prefer to get back the lost 20+ percent of their day by having a supportive startup ecosystem more convenient to home base. And, with all services fairly consolidated – one-stop shopping!
PBN: How did you get involved with TechSandBox? What interests you in entrepreneurship?
FINER:
I founded it, though, as a nonprofit, I don’t ‘own’ it. Technically, I’m the only employee right now, though we are fundraising to bring in a few more people so we can fulfill our mission even more!
I left my first large company in my late 20s at Digital Equipment Corp., where I was an engineer, because I felt lost (even though it was a great company, it was big). I decided to try my first startup – there were about 50 people. I got to see what it takes to run a company, had a lot of opportunities to grow (I took over marketing) and fell in love. I’ve started a few tech companies since, written business plans, gotten funding, mentored and even invested a bit.
PBN: How many pitch contests do you hold a year?
FINER:
We have been partnering with 128ICG and its Piranha Pond Program every summer. This one [Piranha Pond] also gets startups in front of investors to practice, but there’s no money involved. The practice and visibility matter. The good ones stay on the investors’ radar, believe me! We also hold StartupLinkup programs about three times a year where startups pitch for mentors, advisers and investors. It’s more casual and organic with no judging. Then, we hold the big Pitch Fest the second Thursday of December every year – planning starts in August! Sponsors welcome! As an incubator, we do hold many other educational programs with a few every month.
PBN: Can you talk about some success stories?
FINER:
Sure. Content Raven got funding and fledged to Framingham, and Connected2Fiber received funding, has added four more people and is building out their facility in Milford, Mass., for a January move (sniff). It’s what we’re trying to do, but we miss them when they’re gone. We do have plenty of space!
PBN: Does the R.I. startup community typically participate in your events? Are you trying to reach out more to R.I. startups?
FINER:
Oh yes! We’ve also had some professors and post-docs on panels. To most of us, New England is just so small that it’s silly to draw borders so artificially. Most of the resident entrepreneurs are within 15 or so miles of here but not all – some people (Nashua, Providence) prefer driving here versus Boston, as the drive is a little shorter, the resources are here in one place with a very low fee and parking is free. It’s a very supportive community, which helps with connections and the loneliness/stress of starting a business.
For the educational programs (clean tech, IoT, medical devices, robotics), we welcome the public and, since these are monthly, people come from further away. One Washington, D.C. person came for a program because we were the only ones he’d seen with the topic (I think it was thermal wells)!
We would be pleased to have more participation from people based in Rhode Island even if they end up locating their company back there after we help them grow! That would be just wonderful!

- Advertisement -

No posts to display