In this post, I share a "fireside chat" I was part of at the Housing Innovation Summit held on April 29th at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The conversation was moderated by the UMass Lowell Vice Chancellor Anne Maglia. I was joined onstage by Kei Hayashi, Principal at BJH Advisors. Kei spent much of her career at New York City's Economic Development Corporation, and is a housing expert. We discussed why housing is one of the hardest and most important innovation challenges in the United States, and what we might be able to do about it leveraging the concept of innovation hubs. Other speakers included the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Liveable Community, Juana Matias and the Chancellor of UMass Lowell, Dr. Julie Chen, and a slew of experts and technologists in the field. The full program can be found here: https://www.uml.edu/research/buildsmart/events.aspx.

Our home state of Massachusetts, like many places around the world, does not have enough homes that people can afford. We explored why housing has been so resistant to innovation, even while sectors like software, biotech, finance, logistics, and advanced manufacturing have changed dramatically. A big part of the problem is that housing is not just one industry. It is made up of layered disciplines, including construction, finance, land use, zoning, policy, materials, community needs, workforce, infrastructure, and local politics all wrapped together. That makes it hard for startups and new technologies to break through. But it also means that the opportunity is enormous, if we can "fix" it.

In this conversation, we explore whether it might be possible to build an innovation hub focused on reducing the cost of delivering new houses. We talk about some of the technology solutions, such as modular housing, factory-built construction, AI, robotics, advanced materials, new financing models, public-private partnerships, and the role of universities and cities in creating places where new ideas can actually be tested, but also some of the possible solutions in other areas such as housing finance.

I share some of my learnings from co-founding CIC, LabCentral, MassRobotics, and other innovation hubs. I make the point that innovation ecosystems need not happen simply by accident: we can build them. Of course, they require strong people, shared tools, convening power, trust, capital, and a reason for the best people in a field to gather in the same place. That is true in life sciences in Kendall Square. It is true in film in Hollywood. It is true in finance in New York. And it may now be possible to create something similar for housing innovation in Lowell.

Kei brings a thoughtful real estate and planning perspective to the conversation. She talks about the barriers that make housing hard to innovate in, the importance of public-private partnership, and the need to think not only about the cost of housing, but also about the quality of life inside the home itself. As mentioned, we also discuss a possible new model for financing housing innovation. New housing technologies often struggle because banks do not want to finance what has not yet been proven. That creates a gap between invention and deployment. One idea we discuss is whether public capital could help bridge that gap in a way that supports innovation, gets repaid (as opposed to a subsidy), and helps bring down the cost of housing at scale.

This episode is about housing, but it is also about a larger question at the heart of this show: How do we build places where entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, builders, investors, and communities can work together to solve problems that are too big for any one organization to solve alone? Housing may be one of the oldest industries in the world. It may also be ready for one of the biggest waves of innovation it has ever seen.

In this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I sat down with Bekir Polat, Vice President of the Investment and Finance Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye. Bekir and his team were visiting the Boston area to meet with political and venture leaders. I had met Bekir's boss, Burak Dağlıoğlu, the President of the Investment Office of the Presidency of Türkiye, at Websummit in Doha and was looking forward to meeting him and showing him CIC.

The role of Bekir and his team is to work to help international companies, investors, venture funds, and startups understand the opportunity in Türkiye. We recorded this conversation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at CIC.

I have long thought of Türkiye as one of the most exciting countries in the world for innovation.

It has a young and highly educated population, strong engineering talent, deep connections to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. With its largest city, Istanbul, sitting literally on the border between Europe and Asia, it is incredibly centrally located. It is made more-so by Turkish Airlines, which boasts more non-stop fights than any other airline in the world, thus connecting Turkey extremely well all over the planet.

Bekir and I talk about why Türkiye is increasingly important for venture capital, startups, and international companies.

He explains Türkiye’s core value proposition, including its large and growing economy, young and tech-savvy workforce, strategic location, major infrastructure investments, and focus on improving the investment environment for companies already operating there.

We also discuss some of Türkiye’s most interesting innovation sectors.These include defense technology, drones, gaming, fintech, SaaS, artificial intelligence, life sciences, logistics, fast delivery, and advanced manufacturing.

We talk about Bayraktar drones, Türkiye’s growing role in defense exports, Istanbul’s strength in gaming studios, the rise of Turkish “Turcorns,” and the acquisition of Trendyol Go by Uber.

Bekir also shares why Türkiye is working to connect more of its startups with global venture capital, especially at later funding stages.

We discuss the importance of international conferences and events coming to Türkiye, including NATO, NATO Edge, COP31, GITEX AI Türkiye, TEKNOFEST, Take Off Istanbul, and SAHA.

Along the way, we also talk about Türkiye’s soft power.

Bekir points to Türkiye’s global diplomatic network, its role as a regional education hub, its humanitarian activity, its tourism industry, and even the worldwide popularity of Turkish television dramas.

I also share a personal story about working with a Turkish packaging supplier for my wife Aya’s food business, and how impressed we were with the quality, service, English fluency, and reliability of the team we worked with in Istanbul.

This conversation is about Türkiye, but it is also about a larger question at the heart of this show.

How do countries build the conditions that allow talented people, ambitious founders, investors, universities, companies, and government institutions to turn potential into global innovation success?

Featured guest: Bekir Polat, Vice President of the Investment and Finance Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye

Host: Tim Rowe, Founder and Chair of CICWhere Innovation Happens explores the people, places, and ecosystems that help entrepreneurs thrive — from startup hubs and innovation districts to the communities that make ambitious new ideas possible.

For this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I spoke with Bartosz “Bartek” Lipnicki, Managing Director of Endeavor Poland, about Poland’s fast-growing innovation ecosystem and the role Endeavor is playing globally in helping ambitious founders scale.

Poland has become one of Europe’s most interesting startup markets, building on one of the region’s most impressive long-term economic growth stories since its transition to a market economy. Today, that momentum is showing up in a new generation of globally ambitious companies, including ElevenLabs, the Polish-founded AI voice company that recently crossed the decacorn threshold with an $11 billion valuation.

Bartek gives us a window into what is happening on the ground in Poland: the founders, the ecosystem, the opportunities, and the growing confidence that world-class technology companies can be built from Warsaw and beyond.

He also introduces us to Endeavor, a remarkable global nonprofit and founder network that supports high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. Endeavor describes itself as a global network “of, by, and for entrepreneurs,” focused on helping founders dream bigger, scale faster, and multiply their impact. Its model is built around the idea that successful entrepreneurs can transform economies not only by building major companies, but also by creating jobs, mentoring others, investing in the next generation, and inspiring future founders.

In our conversation, Bartek explains how Endeavor works with companies that have found product-market fit and are ready to scale internationally. He describes Endeavor’s founder-to-founder support model, its global selection process, and the “multiplier effect” that happens when successful entrepreneurs return value to the ecosystem around them.

We also discuss Polish success stories including ElevenLabs, ICEYE, Docplanner, Booksy, and CampusAI, as well as the broader question of how entrepreneurial ecosystems develop outside the usual startup capitals.

I feel an immediate warmth toward Endeavor’s mission. It shares a core philosophy that has shaped much of my own work at CIC and Venture Café: that innovation can help fix the world, and that with the right support, great entrepreneurs can thrive far beyond the usual centers of venture capital.

This conversation is about Poland, Endeavor, and a bigger idea: how we build innovation ecosystems in places where talent is abundant, ambition is rising, and the next generation of world-changing companies may already be taking shape.

Topics include:

Poland’s startup ecosystem

Endeavor’s global model

High-impact entrepreneurship

ElevenLabs and Poland’s first decacorn

ICEYE and Polish space technology

Founder-to-founder support networks

Product-market fit and global scaling

The multiplier effect in entrepreneurship

How innovation ecosystems grow outside the usual startup capitals

In this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I sit down with Patrick Walsh, CEO of Dogpatch Labs, one of Ireland’s most important startup and innovation hubs, based in an historic building in Dublin’s Docklands.

Dogpatch Labs sits at the heart of Dublin’s technology ecosystem, surrounded by the European headquarters and major offices of companies like Google, Meta, Stripe, HubSpot, OpenAI, and Anthropic. But as Patrick explains, Dublin’s innovation story is not only about big tech. It is increasingly about the founders, engineers, investors, and young builders who are emerging from that ecosystem to create the next generation of Irish startups.

Patrick and I discuss how Ireland’s innovation economy has evolved, why Dublin has become one of Europe’s most concentrated centers of international tech talent, and what still needs to change for Ireland to reach its full entrepreneurial potential. We talk about startup policy, stock options, angel investment, pension fund capital, and the kinds of physical infrastructure — including wet labs, hardware labs, and larger startup campuses — that can help founders build more ambitious companies.

We also explore how Dogpatch Labs is supporting founders at multiple stages, from teenagers in its Patch youth program to deep-tech and biotech startups such as Meta-Flux, a Dublin-based company using AI to model disease biology and improve drug development decisions.

Along the way, we compare Dublin with other innovation ecosystems including Paris, Boston, Cambridge, and Silicon Valley, and discuss how AI is changing the path of entrepreneurship itself. Patrick offers thoughtful advice for people considering whether to become founders, including why grit, resilience, optimism, and a genuine need to solve a problem matter more than simply wanting a “cool” startup career.

This conversation is about Dublin, but it is also about a larger question at the heart of this show: how do we build places where entrepreneurs can do their best work, take bigger risks, and solve problems that matter?

Topics covered: Dogpatch Labs and Dublin’s startup ecosystem

Ireland’s big tech presence and its impact on founders

Google, Meta, Stripe, HubSpot, OpenAI, and Anthropic in Dublin

The role of startup hubs in building innovation economies

What Ireland can learn from Paris, Station F, Boston, and Cambridge

Startup policy, stock options, angel investment, and pension capital

Why physical innovation infrastructure matters

Wet labs, hardware labs, biotech, and deep tech in Ireland

Youth entrepreneurship and Dogpatch’s Patch program

AI-native startups and the changing founder journey

Meta-Flux and the intersection of AI and pharma

Why entrepreneurs matter for solving global problemsFeatured guest:Patrick Walsh, CEO of Dogpatch LabsHost:Tim Rowe, Founder and Chair of CICWhere Innovation Happens explores the people, places, and ecosystems that help entrepreneurs thrive — from startup hubs and innovation districts to the communities that make ambitious new ideas possible.

This is the core episode in my entire podcast. It is a deeper (~40 minute) version of the ~10 minute Episode 1 that I launched this show with.I share the entire sweep of my work, starting with the foundations of CIC to the work I am focused on now, and how we see innovation hubs evolving in the future. In this episode I introduce for the first time the concept of "innovation meccas": the ideal type of innovation hub. Please share this video with anyone interested in innovation hubs, and please leave your thoughts, questions and comments!

In this bonus episode, I share a panel discussion from WebSummit Qatar this year entitled "From Hubs to High Growth".

I was pleased to appear on stage alongside Mohammed Al Emadi, the head of Investment and Incubation at Qatar Development Bank, and Burak Dağlıoğlu, the President of the Investment Office of the Presidency of Türkiye.

We explored what is happening in the gulf, and around the world in terms of national innovation policy.

Mohammed is a key player in Qatar's national innovation strategy. He drives Qatar's entrepreneurial ecosystem by overseeing venture capital investments, startup incubators, and specialized hubs. He manages a $100M+ VC fund, leads the Startup Qatar Investment Program, and manages incubators like QBIC and Qatar FinTech Hub, supporting over 450-600 startups.

Burak leads national efforts to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to Turkey. He focuses on high-value, sustainable sectors, including technology, energy, and e-mobility, while serving on the Board of the Türkiye Wealth Fund.

We were fortunate to have Hamoud Almahmoud, Editor in Chief, Harvard Business Review Arabia, as our moderator.

We framed the topic of the panel as follows:

"Innovation no longer happens in isolation. Today’s most successful startups emerge from connected ecosystems where founders, investors, innovation hubs, corporates, and policymakers interact deliberately and at scale.

This session brings together seasoned leaders from across the startup and investment landscape to explore how entrepreneurial ecosystems are evolving, where capital is moving, and what truly enables startups to grow and scale in an increasingly complex global environment."

This episode is a conversation recorded live in Tokyo with two of the world's most vibrant innovation driving organizations: France's Station F and UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).

Station F is the world's largest accelerator program, supporting over 1,000 companies per year. Its striking physical facility is a converted railway freight station. It comprises over 34,000 square meters of innovation space, making it the physically largest innovation facility in Europe. Since its opening in 2017, Station F has set the standard for what a national innovation hub should be, and it has inspired many heads of state to consider building similar facilities. In the interview, we hear from Station F's International Partnerships Lead, Joanna Gruau.

ARIA stands for the Advanced Research and Invention Agency. It is the UK's so-called "moonshot agency". ARIA is actively deploying roughly 2 billion British pounds to advanced frame-breaking, over the horizon, innovation across 14 "opportunity areas". Its goal is to make all of our lives better, while strengthening the UK economy. ARIA is one of the most daring and exciting national innovation efforts anywhere in the world. Representing ARIA is Muji Ahmedi, who leads ARIA's Product Operations.

In this episode of Where Innovation Happens, I speak with my new friend, the mononymous Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub.

Located in Hyderabad, India. T-Hub is the largest single-building startup innovation space I am aware of anywhere the world, and is one of the "big four" largest innovation "campuses" (including multiple affiliated buildings) I know of worldwide. The others for reference are Station F, in Paris, LaunchPad in Singapore, and CIC's affiliated collection of facilities in Boston/Cambridge USA. Each legitimately lay claim to being "the biggest" innovation hub on some dimension (number of companies, funds invested, etc). What is important is the great things each does. I plan to cover each of them in depth, as well as many other great hubs around the world, in future episodes.

In this episode I introduce both Kavikrut and the space of T-Hub itself (sharing some images of it), we learn about its origins and goals, and then Kavikrut and I speak broadly about what's changing, and what's important, for founder's in today's fast-changing world.

For the past 27 years, I’ve been building and operating places where innovation happens: hubs housing hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of startups at the heart of their cities’ innovation ecosystems. On this channel, I will share what I’ve learned and introduce the people shaping startup ecosystems around the world.

I’m the founder of Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), and I also co-founded LabCentral and MassRobotics. Each is the largest of its kind in the world. Over the years, I’ve worked on major innovation hub projects in the United States, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, and beyond — and I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about what makes startup communities thrive.

On Where Innovation Happens, I share what I’ve learned and introduce you to some of the extraordinary people building innovation ecosystems around the world. You’ll see inside leading innovation hubs, hear from the people who run them, and explore ideas about startups, cities, real estate, research, community, and the environments that help innovation grow.

This first episode, Session 1, is a solo introduction: who I am, why I’m starting this show, and some of my core thinking about innovation hubs. This episode is just an intro to my work, and is a little over 10 minutes. My fourth episode, called "Innovation Meccas", comes in at just under 40 minutes. You can think of it as an expanded version of this intro. It goes into all of these topics more deeply.

If you care about entrepreneurship, startup ecosystems, or how to build stronger places for innovators in your city or country, I think you’ll enjoy it.