ABOUT US
WE EMPOWER AND BOOST THE GROWTH AND SCALING OF INNOVATIVE STARTUPS
OUR STORY
Robert J. Crowley
Forward-Thinking established in 1986
The idea of a program discovering, supporting and nurturing Innovation in the Bay State began in the late 1970’s with Robert J. Crowley, a prominent advocate of entrepreneurship, prolific supporter of innovation, and one of the most experienced venture capitalists in technology start-ups at the time.
Bob was convinced that economic prosperity and well-being of a region is, and will always be, directly tied to Innovation. His distinguished and fundamental presence in the forward-thinking business environment of the time (he served as Chairman and CEO of MTDC -now MassVentures-, Chairman of the Smaller Business Association of New England or SBANE, and Chairman of MIT Enterprise Forum), offered him intimate knowledge of the area’s cutting-edge technologies and up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Celebrating the First "Evening of Innovation"
© 2013 - The Boston Globe
In 1986, he organized an “Evening of Innovation” as a kick-off event to a Trade Show he was organizing. The event served as a recognition platform of small- and medium-sized trail-blazers and avant-garde problem solvers. Ben & Jerry’s and Staples were two of the evening’s Innovation Winners. Many of the start-ups that won an Innovation Award through the years are now household names, industry leading giants like Genzyme, Vistaprint, HubSpot, iRobot, zipcar Keurig, Nantucket Nectars, Carbonite, E-Ink, MassChallenge, Nantucket Nectars, Tom's of Maine, and so many more... Over 3,500 startups have benefited from the Eddies, and nearly 300 have won the prestigious award through the years. For an alphabetical list of winners, click here
Photo Credit: Staples.com
An Innovation-Boosting Competition: The Eddies
Today, almost 40 years later, the initial "Evening of Innovation" has evolved into The Eddies, our signature program. The Eddies is a 35-week innovation-boosting timetable, providing individualized one-to-one mentoring, strategic guidance, entrepreneurial education, and connections to resources that help boost the commercialization and scaling journeys of start-ups (mostly Seed to Series B stage). Although still an innovation competition at heart, the Eddies' true benefits are found on the 35-week development aspect of the program, not just the prestigious Award and its monetary Prize.
Each year, the program is different from the previous one; each year's offering is designed from scratch, to respond to the specific objectives and challenges of its current cohort.
The Global Eddies came about shortly after the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, as a direct response to international startups interested establishing a new home/base in the U.S. and have selected Massachusetts as their preferred state. The Global Eddies is a 10-week Integrator Program, facilitating the soft-land or hard launch program of international startups. The program offers basic knowledge on business practices, taxation and legal considerations, business tips, connections to the ecosystem and local markets understanding, elements necessary to make their transition to a new country smoother.
"Such a fantastic program offered, at no cost to entrepreneurs with invaluable resources, networking and mentoring!"
Ray Hamilton
Co-Founder & CTO of InvisaWear