Introduction:

Emily Knight, VP of Operations, at The Engine. The Engine, built by MIT in 2017, is a venture firm that invests in early-stage companies solving the world’s biggest problems through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership. Their mission is to accelerate the path to market for Tough Tech companies by providing access to a unique combination of investment, infrastructure, and community.

Outline:

How’d you find yourself in this role / sector? Has your background always been in operations?

How is The Engine’s team structured? Investors, operations, partnerships?

I read The Engine’s defining principle: To support startups that seek to create material positive impact on society. By prioritizing breakthrough ideas over early profit, The Engine seeks to catalyze new fields and push the boundaries of innovation. Found this very interesting. Can you expand on who and what is ‘The Engine’? How, when, and why was it created?

The Engine has pioneered a new framework for investing in and supporting tough tech startups working on transformative technologies clearing a path to commercialization for companies by providing capital, infrastructure (labs, equipment, office space, and more), and a support network. Can you tell us what a ‘Tough Tech’ company is? What was going on in the market to motivate this being the sector focus and has the philosophy shifted at all since 2016?

What are some of the challenges these tough tech (Climate change, Human health, and Advanced systems and infrastructure) companies face between discovery and commercialization?

The Engine’s three pillars are unique and obviously add immense value to companies so how does it work when a company approaches you to when they are up and running in your facility?

• The Engine Fund: Investing long-term capital in startups that show great potential and impact. It provides founders with entrepreneurial knowledge, first-hand expertise, inspiration, and guidance to support their transition from technical pioneer to company leader. What milestones are you focused on? Defining product-market fit as well as when the startup begins to scale up to commercial production? What are some of the things you do to help the company navigate through the dynamic market times? I.e. entrepreneurial knowledge, events, work sessions, etc.
• The Engine Infrastructure: Early-stage Tough Tech startups require the use of specialized and expensive equipment to run an experiment or build their product. How does The Engine accommodate these needs and what sort of facility footprint do you have today and tomorrow? I imagine the infrastructure you build is flexible to mold to various portfolio companies and customer base?
• The Engine Network: facilitates the creation of long-term mutually beneficial relationships between founders, startups, strategic corporates, policy makers, and investors across the capital stack. How important has the ‘community’ aspect of The Engine been to portfolio companies?

In the world of real estate and operations, your team has experienced incredible demand and growth. How did the decision to expand The Engine’s presence to Somerville as well as in Cambridge come about?

750 Main Street must be keeping you very busy as it’s one of the most talked about projects in Cambridge…how has the renovation process gone and how close are you to delivery? How did you think about the fit-out for the new and amazing 750 Main Street project? How many companies will you be able to accommodate and are you looking for a certain ratio of industry verticals?

Tough Tech VC investing has boomed recently having increased almost 50% year-over-year with close to $100B last year. Given the breakthrough technical advances, growing adoption, expansion of business applications, and macroeconomic factors, such as government policies and shifting regulations, how exciting is this for The Engine as you look ahead? Is there anything you see that is holding it back / what are the biggest challenges you are experienced or think you will experience?

Do you view any other markets as having a positive outlook / potential for growth that you are considering expanding into or is the Greater Boston region the focus long-term?

What have you learned from your time at The Engine that you did not expect going in?

Lastly, what’s your favorite part about being part of The Engine?

Produced by Slice of Media, Inc.