We hosted our first Boston TECH WEEK by a16z event this week, bringing together founders, investors, engineers, and city leaders for a conversation on full-stack factories.
The panel featured four very different companies rethinking how physical products get made. Our moderator Emily Batt captured the range perfectly: we’re restoring plant species, cooling data centers, reshaping clothing production, and accelerating drug discovery.
A few things that stuck with us:
🏭 Full-stack is discovered, not designed.
Ali Forsyth PhD shared how Alloy Enterprises Inc built deeper into the stack over time, adding capabilities as customer needs revealed what had to change.
🧵 Customer discovery only works when teams stay close to the problem.
Alex Zimmer spoke about the importance of spending time on factory floors, understanding how production actually works, and building Topologic around what customers truly need.
⚡ Owning the whole stack is a speed unlock.
Our co-founder and CEO Joshua G. shared how Parallel Fluidics’ control over hardware, software, and manufacturing helps turn new product concepts into working devices in weeks, not years.
🌱 Some problems need a first-principles rebuild.
Dr. Ashley Beckwith of Foray Bioscience spoke about growing plant products from single cells, including work to bring the American chestnut back to our forests.
Thank you to J2 Ventures for partnering with us, to the City of Boston for the warm welcome, and to everyone who joined us for the conversation, facility tours, and a great night in Boston.
#BOSTechWeek #DeepTech #Manufacturing #Automation #Innovation