Massachusetts nonprofit supports local startups, ‘innovators’ across industries
February 27, 2023
LOWELL — The vast majority of startups — possibly up to 90% — are said to fail. For rising entrepreneurs and creatives, that number may be discouraging.
Enter FORGE, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that helps startups and other innovators succeed. That looks like making meaningful connections between companies and local suppliers and experts, hosting workshops around “manufacturing readiness,” awarding product development grants and supplying the support and wisdom a new business seeks, Executive Director Laura Teicher said.
FORGE served more than 300 startups in 2022, Teicher said, when the year prior, they worked with only one-seventh of that.
“We’ve seen global disruptions over the past few years for a myriad of reasons, from COVID shutdowns to a blocked Suez Canal,” Teicher said, “and this has really ramped up attention to the benefits of a more localized supply chain, and that’s the intersection where FORGE is facilitating that.”