Start-Up Activity Continues at DEC's Old Mill

My most recent Globe column focuses on a hardware start-up, SiCortex, that is based in the Maynard mill complex that was once home to Digital Equipment.

From the piece:

If you want to understand the phenomenal regenerative ability of Massachusetts' innovation economy, head for the hulking brick mill in Maynard, close by the Assabet River. Carpets were made there in the 1840s, until an economic downturn, sparked by bank failures, killed that company. A new textile firm at the mill made blankets and uniforms for the military during the Civil War. That business failed in 1898, and was replaced by American Wool Co., which shut down its production facility in Maynard in 1950.

Starting in 1957, for more than three-and-a-half decades, the mill was Digital's world headquarters. In the 1990s, the career site Monster.com made the mill its base. And more recently, it has been home to dozens of start-ups, including the video game company 38 Studios, founded by Curt Schilling, and SiCortex, founded by Leonard and two fellow Digital alums, Matt Reilly and John Mucci.

Here's the video, which features SiCortex CEO Christopher Stone talking about the energy-efficient design of his products.



You can find out more about the mill's history here... and there's still an active group of DEC alums with a site here.

Sunday's column: Georges Doriot and the Origins of Venture Capital

Today's Globe column focuses on Georges Doriot, the founder of the modern venture capital industry...and the subject of a new book, "Creative Capital", by BusinessWeek editor Spencer Ante.

The opening:

Without him, Digital Equipment Corp. might never have gotten started, and the electronics-testing company Teradyne Inc. might not have survived beyond infancy.

He backed an oil rig-manufacturing company run by George H.W. Bush. The current Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman, once worked for his Boston firm. And a half-century ago, he put $50,000 into a company called Ionics Inc. that was trying to find new ways to desalinate seawater; GE bought the company in 2004 for $1.1 billion.

Georges Doriot is the forgotten grandfather of the modern venture capital industry. His Boston firm, American Research and Development, or ARD, helped lay the foundation for the Route 128 technology cluster.

Here's the video:



One correction to the column: Ante notes on his blog that the total amount ARD invested in Digital was more like $400,000; $70,000 was just the initial tranche.