Last week, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren visited Greentown Labs to meet entrepreneurs, see innovative technologies and understand how Greentown Labs works to support these hardware startups.

The Senator was joined by Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and State Representative Denise Provost as they toured the prototyping space to see what cutting-edge solutions our member companies are developing.

After a quick refreshment from the Bevi, Senator Warren met with Grove Labs Co-founder and CEO Gabe Blanchet, who described the aquaponics-based indoor ecosystem to grow food in your own home. The Senator was captivated by the idea of being able to grow organic vegetables indoor, year-round.

 

Next, the Senator met with Ben Glass, Co-founder and CEO of Altaeros Energies, which is commercializing the world’s first airborne wind turbine. Senator Warren asked questions ranging from the underlying physics behind the technology to potential markets and applications, scale-up strategy, success in fundraising and environmental impacts of this technology.

 

Finally the delegation reached Voxel8’s lab space. Co-founder and business lead Daniel Oliver discussed the origin of their technology, which enables multi-material 3D printing of electronics. Senator Warren was captivated by a demonstration of one of their 3D-printed quadcopters, and asked questions about the future possibilities of what can be 3D-printed with Voxel8 technology.

As the Senator’s tour came to an end, she gathered with the Greentown team, turned to

CEO, Emily Reichert and said, “What you guys are doing here will make a difference in the world…..a positive difference.”

That’s  our mission and what fuels all of our member companies to come here every day and work towards creating technology that solves the world’s unsolvables.