Spring Startup Showcase 2025: FORGE 10th Anniversary

Apr. 22, 2025 – FORGE’s Spring Startup Showcase celebrated some of the leading hardtech startups in our local innovation ecosystem, as well as 10 years of the FORGE Manufacturing Initiative.

Tickets for the Showcase sold out early, so the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, MA was packed with enthusiastic attendees. Local startup founders, suppliers and manufacturers, entrepreneurial support organizations and investors crowded the space, ready to connect, demo, and celebrate our 10-year anniversary.

The museum, sited in the former factory building Francis Cabot Lowell Mill, is focused on educating the public about American industrial history and inspiring innovation through artifacts, cultural insights and stories related to local manufacturing. With its collection of historical physical products and the tools used to make them, it was the perfect setting to explore innovative hardtech and reflect on a decade of growth for FORGE.

Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation

Physical product startup demonstrations

We kicked off the night with tabletop demonstrations from the startups and FORGE partners, networking, food and drink. The following startups demoed:

Aeroshield Materials Inc.

AeroShield Materials Inc. is making super-insulating, transparent materials to enable the next generation of energy-efficient windows. Just 4mm of its patented aerogel can make windows up to 65 percent more energy efficient.

Atlas Urban Farms

Atlas Urban Farms is using hydroponics, IoT, and machine learning to optimize crop growth. Through its proprietary growing algorithm, it helps others grow food with more nutrient density, fewer CO2 emissions, and stronger flavor.

Barn Owl Technologies

Barn Owl Technologies is equipping agricultural workers with real-time pest data for proactive crop protection and reduced chemical use. Its modular devices scale to the farm’s needs and allow for targeted pest monitoring.

Cool Amps Energy Solutions

Cool Amps Energy Solutions’ lithium battery recycling technology enables a sustainable domestic battery ecosystem through lower-cost, more efficient, and greener extraction methods. This lessens costs associated with the safe shipment of end-of-life batteries.

florrent

florrent supercapacitors provide power quality and reliability to commercial, industrial, and grid sectors at a lower initial cost and lower total cost of ownership compared to incumbent technologies (lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries). florrent’s business model valorizes agricultural waste streams and provides economic flow to underrepresented communities in their supply chain.

KARSA

KARSA is a Connecticut-based minority-owned business with a mission to provide innovative solutions in the health and wellness space.

Periodic

Periodic strives to empower menstruators by providing quality and easy-to-access period products any time, any place, with pad and tampon dispensers of varying sizes and complexities. These dispensers are traditionally available in restrooms or common spaces and dispense pads and tampons for free, just as a paper towel or soap dispenser would.

Phoenix Tailings

Phoenix Tailings is on a mission to be the world’s first clean mining and metals production company, eliminating harmful waste from the environment while sustainably creating valuable materials.

SedMed

SedMed is empowering bathroom safety in hospitals and elder care. The company intends to reduce staff injury risk by providing mechanical assistance during toilet transfers, while also instilling independence and confidence in older adults.

Sunny

Sunny is a self-care brand delivering earth-friendly products, inclusive education, and global impact. It invented the Sunny Cup + Applicator, the first and only FDA 510k cleared reusable period cup and applicator that inserts like a tampon. Currently raising $1.5M with a lead investor and 60% closed!

Optimal Human Motion

Optimal Human Motion’s tech redefines training by enabling users to express variable force through complex, functional, multi-planar movement. OHM is Innovation in Motion.

FORGE partners also set up tables to connect with the innovation and manufacturing ecosystem. Thank you to all of our sponsors!

Burt Process Equipment — Alternative Manufacturing Inc.

FORGE partners for the Spring Startup Showcase

Local manufacturing and innovation discussions

FORGE Program Director David Thompson launched the speaking section of the showcase, saying, “Tonight is a celebration of FORGE’s community. Thank you for being a part of this milestone.”

Early program highlights included kickoff remarks from Art Trapotsis, Entrepreneur/Founder and Co-Owner of Consolidated Sterilizer Systems and FORGE Board Chair. Joe Hastry, MSA CPA, co-founder and Director of Finance & Operations at florrent, shared the story of how his company has worked with FORGE over the years, transitioning from Zoom calls between Massachusetts and Oregon to opening a manufacturing facility in South Deerfield, MA.

Hastry said, “FORGE has been a great partner since day one. Ever since then, the entire FORGE team have been incredible champions for us.”

A powerhouse panel of local manufacturing and innovation experts

The FORGE Spring Startup Showcase panel — L-R: Jessica Dodge, Carolyn Kirk, Paul Lavoie, Ashley Stolba

Teicher announced our panel discussion, FORGEing Bridges – How to Build & Connect Startup & Manufacturing Ecosystems. The panelists were:

Massachusetts Interim Secretary of Economic Development Ashley Stolba
Connecticut’s Chief Manufacturing Officer Paul Lavoie
Connecticut’s Office of Innovations’ Jessica Dodge
MassTech Collaborative’s CEO Carolyn Kirk

The panelists discussed economic development, the Massachusetts’ LEADS Act, investments in life sciences and cleantech, the unique role of state Chief Manufacturing Officer in supporting the Connecticut manufacturing ecosystem, the challenges for local businesses from tariffs, emerging opportunities in AI and Quantum, and more.

The panel highlighted several resources for local manufacturing and innovation:

FORGE keynotes

Massachusetts Interim Economic Development Secretary Ashley Stolba delivered remarks, on her first day in her new role. Stolba spoke to her vision for the Commonwealth, saying, “Through the Mass Leads Act, we are investing in a strong future in technology and manufacturing for Massachusetts. We are proud to have innovative companies like FORGE connecting startups and manufacturers with the tools and resources they need to grow and succeed.”

FORGE Executive Director Laura Teicher delivered remarks highlighting 10 years of impact and over 10,000 jobs supported, the critical importance of manufacturing and supply chain support for product innovators in a time of global supply chain disruptions, and what lies ahead for FORGE. saying, “Over the years, we’ve built a regional network of hundreds of manufacturers and suppliers that trust FORGE to get startups ready to engage. Access to nearshoring is becoming existential. At FORGE, we make this possible through collecting data, bridging gaps and building the trust needed to catalyze local production partnerships. Physical innovation is essential to real world problem solving.”

After the event, some attendees continued the celebration at Gustazo Cuban Kitchen & Bar, while others crossed the footbridge over the Charles River to begin their journey home.

We are so grateful to everyone who attended and joined us to celebrate 10 years of the FORGE Manufacturing Initiative, especially our startups, local manufacturers, partners, and ecosystem collaborators! The support of our local innovation and manufacturing communities has empowered us to serve more than 1,000 emerging hardtech companies over the past ten years. We can’t thank you enough.

If you’re a startup, manufacturer, innovation ecosystem organization, or potential sponsor interested in learning more about or getting involved with FORGE, contact us today.