{"id":10412,"date":"2016-10-28T06:39:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T06:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=10412"},"modified":"2016-10-28T06:39:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T06:39:34","slug":"mit-launches-new-venture-for-world-changing-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/mit-launches-new-venture-for-world-changing-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT launches new venture for world-changing entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Engine will provide funding, space, and expertise \u2014 powering a network of innovation networks.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"MIT<\/a>
MIT President L. Rafael Reif spoke at an Oct. 26 event celebrating the launch of The Engine.
Photo: Andy Ryan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAMBRIDGE, Mass<\/strong>. — MIT President L. Rafael Reif announced the creation of The Engine, a new kind of enterprise designed to support startup companies working on scientific and technological innovation with the potential for transformative societal impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Reif made the announcement at an\u00a0evening event<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at The Engine\u2019s Central Square, Cambridge headquarters attended by entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, and members of the MIT community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine is designed to meet an underserved need. In Kendall Square and Greater Boston, many breakthrough innovations cannot effectively leave the lab because companies pursuing capital- and time-intensive technologies have difficulty finding stable support and access to the resources they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hope for serious solutions to the world\u2019s great challenges, we need to make sure the innovators working on those problems see a realistic pathway to the marketplace,\u201d\u00a0President Reif says.\u00a0\u201cThe Engine can provide that pathway by prioritizing breakthrough ideas over early profit, helping to shorten the time it takes these startups to become \u2018VC-ready,\u2019 providing comprehensive support in the meantime, and creating an enthusiastic community of inventors and supporters who share a focus on making a better world.\u00a0We believe this approach can offer exponential growth to regions that pursue it successfully\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and we want Greater Boston to lead the way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]The application builds on MIT\u2019s recently released Mobius App, which makes the Institute\u2019s labs, maker spaces, and other resources more broadly available to students.\u00a0[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

To fuel The Engine, MIT will seek to attract hundreds of millions of dollars of support and to make available, for entrepreneurs, hundreds of thousands of square feet of space in Kendall Square and nearby communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine will also introduce startups to their entrepreneurial peers and to established companies, in innovation clusters across the region and around the world: it seeks to power a network of innovation networks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Engine builds on work MIT has undertaken in recent years to stoke innovation on and near our campus \u2014\u00a0including standing up the MIT Innovation Initiative in 2014,\u201d says MIT Provost Martin Schmidt. \u201cOur faculty, alumni, and student entrepreneurs directly serve the Institute\u2019s mission of using science and technology to make a better world, because the problems they pursue tend to be the hardest ones they can find.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine, whose launch has been led by MIT Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz, will offer startups \u201cpatient\u201d capital; affordable workspaces; access to specialized equipment; streamlined business services; and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want highly disruptive entrepreneurs to stay in Greater Boston,\u201d Ruiz says. \u201cThis is where the boldest ideas in the world should find their home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A startup as different as the startups it will serve<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine seeks eventually to support in steady state 60 locally based startups, primarily those that are developing \u201ctough\u201d technologies \u2014 breakthrough ideas that require time and patient capital to commercialize \u2014 in a range of sectors including biotechnology, robotics, manufacturing, medical devices, and energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Accepted startups will participate in The Engine\u2019s incubator for up to 12 months. In that time, they will receive financial investments as well as guidance in business planning and access to shared services such as legal, technology licensing, and administrative assistance. Entrepreneurs will be able to take advantage of specialized equipment, services, expertise, and space through an online marketplace developed for The Engine.<\/span><\/p>\n

To financially support startups, The Engine will form a venture-investing arm, which will provide significant, long-term capital support to help startups transition from ideation phases to commercial success. The Engine venture funds will demand less equity in startups than is typical, allowing founders to maintain more control over their companies. The Engine is also actively exploring avenues to support nonprofit startups.<\/span><\/p>\n

To start, The Engine is raising $150 million for a first fund, with $25 million coming from MIT as a limited partner.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine will also provide space to participating startups. Its Cambridge headquarters will offer 26,000 square feet, and MIT seeks to make available in Kendall Square and nearby neighborhoods, as soon as possible, a first wave of additional space, so that participating companies could soon have over 200,000 square feet designed to meet their needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of The Engine, MIT is starting a pilot program with the City of Cambridge \u2014 \u201cPathways to Invention\u201d \u2014 designed to give Cambridge schoolchildren hands-on experiences, at MIT and around the city, that introduce them to the work of invention and to the college and career paths that lead to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Acceleration at two vital stages for startups<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine will support entrepreneurs during two specific stages of innovation: the early \u201cproof of product\u201d stage, when entrepreneurs initially translate a novel idea into a commercializable venture, and the later stage between advanced prototypes and commercial production.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the initial stage \u2014 which includes initial prototyping and product testing \u2014 The Engine will make meaningful investments that will allow participating startups to get off the ground quickly and operate long enough to prove their concepts\u2019 viability. It will also provide shared access to costly infrastructure and resources and foster a community of experts and innovators who can lend expertise to the startups: Building upon lessons learned by the Innovation Initiative in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship on campus, MIT has identified many of the challenges that startups face as they enter these earliest stages.<\/span><\/p>\n

For follow-up stages \u2014\u00a0after the startups have advanced prototypes but haven\u2019t yet demonstrated their products at commercial scale \u2014 it intends to provide increased support to promising startups.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Engine will establish a network of existing and forthcoming shared spaces surrounding the MIT campus \u2014 including offices, labs, and prototyping and maker spaces \u2014 that will enable convenient and cost-efficient sharing of capital-intensive equipment, which is vital to startups aiming to make physical products.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further linking the new facilities, Engine-sponsored transportation will help entrepreneurs and others move among facilities in Cambridge, Boston\u2019s Seaport District, spaces in MIT\u2019s West Campus, and other nearby areas featuring resources that will best serve the needs of entrepreneurs.<\/span><\/p>\n

A marketplace for specialized resources<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To make sharing space and resources easier, The Engine will create an online marketplace for entrepreneurs. A web-based application called the Engine Room will allow entrepreneurs to use or rent specialized resources from each other and from MIT, including office and conference spaces on and off campus, clean rooms, and other facilities and specialized equipment. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The application builds on MIT\u2019s recently released Mobius App, which makes the Institute\u2019s labs, maker spaces, and other resources more broadly available to students. The Engine will work with hosts to establish terms of access, instead of leaving negotiation to each startup. The Engine Room will also serve as a portal to a network of experts and mentors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the long run, The Engine aims to link Cambridge, Boston, and other Massachusetts regions and cities as an interconnected network \u2014 and to link its activities to those of other centers of innovation across the world, such as MIT\u2019s innovation activities in\u00a0Hong Kong and Singapore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIT President L. Rafael Reif announced the creation of The Engine, a new kind of enterprise designed to support startup companies working on scientific and technological innovation with the potential for transformative societal impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",600,399,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",600,399,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",541,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",640,426,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MIT-Engine-01.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Culture<\/a>","tag_info":"Culture","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}