The latest installment of our #Greentown10 campaign celebrates our dynamic partner program and the critical role Greentown Labs’ partners have played in our community’s first decade.
In Greentown Labs’ earliest days, when a ragtag group of startups had banded together to split the costs of rent and resources, the entrepreneurs faced a roadblock: they really, really needed Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS software to design and build their climate technologies, and this critical tool was outside of their financial reach.
So, in a true entrepreneur’s hustle and spirit, one of the founders decided that they might as well track down someone at Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS and ask for it. Jason Hanna, the co-founder of Coincident (now Embue), cold emailed Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS to see if the corporate would provide free software licenses to Greentown startups—and much to the budding community’s delight, Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS said yes.
That first bridge between Greentown startups and corporates launched Greentown’s partnerships program. The program fosters the magic that happens when these two groups work together successfully. Many partners provide crucial support for Greentown’s startups by becoming strategic partners, investors, customers, and pilot sites, and others provide valuable resources, services, connections, expertise and mentorship.
Saint-Gobain became a partner in 2014, and has been integral to Greentown and our members ever since. Saint-Gobain has made meaningful contributions to our prototyping lab, installing a materials library and an on-site environmental testing chamber, which led to a project collaboration with Greentown member Building Envelope Materials. Saint-Gobain donated over $1 million worth of products to enable our headquarters and became the presenting partner of the building’s Town Green event space. Now, Saint-Gobain is doing the same for our new Greentown Houston incubator.
All Greentown partners bring value to our community, in a variety of ways—that’s been the ethos of our partnership program throughout Greentown’s first 10 years, from Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS all the way to our 70 partners today. We partner with multinational corporates that have made science-based climate commitments and are dedicated to bolstering innovation. These partners help our climatetech startups, which are largely B2B, navigate the commercial valley of death and bring their much-needed solutions to market.
Want to learn more about how our partnerships program has evolved over the years? Check out a timeline of some key milestones below!
SOLIDWORKS becomes Greentown Labs’ first corporate partner, providing software licenses to the community of cleantech and hardware-focused entrepreneurs.
As Greentown startups move out of their initial warehouse in Cambridge, MA (pictured), Silverman Trykowski Associates designs the new incubator at 337 Summer St. in Boston, MA—in what was just then being dubbed the “Innovation District” in Boston.
Invested Development invests in one of the founding Greentown startups, Promethean Power Systems, and later becomes a Greentown partner, providing a grant to help with the incubator’s move to Boston.
Late in 2011, Wolf Greenfield becomes a partner and provides members with pro bono legal services.
The City of Somerville and Shell are both instrumental in Greentown’s move to Somerville, MA, with the city providing support through its innovation fund and Shell renting extra space in the building. Shell also helps Greentown build the first version of its safety program.
State Street Corporation, a pioneer in ESG with $27T in assets under custody and/or administration—a number that by 2020 grows to $38.8T—becomes the first major financial organization to partner with Greentown.
As Greentown prepares to open its headquarters at 444 Somerville Ave., Saint-Gobain donates more than $1M worth of materials to the building; Shell becomes a naming partner of the prototyping lab; and BASF becomes a naming partner of the wet lab.
DSM leads Greentown member WattGlass’ Series A funding round.
Veolia runs a pilot project with Greentown member Tagup at its Kendall Square Cogeneration plant.
Draper implements its maritime open architecture autonomy technology on all vehicles that Greentown member Riptide Autonomous Solutions sends to the U.S. government.