Welcome to this special episode of Hardware to Save a Planet. Joining us today is Laura Teicher, President and Executive Director at FORGE, a nonprofit on a mission to help innovators with physical products navigate the journey from prototype to commercialization and impact—at scale.
Join us as we discuss the challenges and benefits of bringing physical climate tech products to the market. Laura recounts her career shift from politics to innovation support, detailing FORGE’s role in assisting with manufacturing and supply chain challenges. She emphasizes local manufacturing benefits like reduced carbon footprints and better communication.
The discussion covers FORGE’s three support pillars—education, connection, funding, and future service expansions. Laura highlights climate tech growth in renewable energy, electric transportation, and grid connectivity. She advises aspiring climate tech professionals to leverage transferable skills and maintain relationships.
FORGE was created to fill the gap in supporting hardware companies with manufacturing and supply chain challenges. We help innovators with product development, manufacturing strategies, and domestic supply chains.
— Laura Teicher, President and Executive Director at FORGE
About Laura
Laura Teicher, president and executive director of FORGE, leads the 501(c)3 nonprofit on its mission to help innovators with physical products navigate the journey from prototype to commercialization and impact—at scale.
Laura is responsible for organizational impact, strategy, and sustainability as FORGE helps emerging and scaling companies with their physical product development, manufacturing strategies, and localized supply chains. Under her leadership, FORGE has added hundreds of startups to the network it serves each year. Twenty percent of those companies are in mature production today, an incredible number considering that over ninety percent of hardware startups fail.
Laura previously served as executive director of the Boston chapter of TiE – the largest global network dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship. Her unique background includes experience in the nonprofit, private, and public sectors. Before joining TiE, she managed business operations at a growing financial firm while serving as President of the Boston professional chapter of Net Impact. She has also served as an aide to the Massachusetts state senate.
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Key highlights
- 05:37 – The gap in supporting hardware companies: Laura explains that there are multiple layers to supporting hardware startups. One well-intentioned layer uses the lean business canvas, focusing on business planning, team building, and fundraising. However, it overlooks the unique challenges of manufacturing physical products. This approach, informed by software growth, must recognize that hardware requires additional support. The innovation ecosystem often prioritizes ventures with rapid growth potential, which is more challenging for hardware, especially climate tech startups that need longer timelines for deployment. Only 3% of investment goes to hardware. Building new products demands extensive expertise and resources, which private sector services don’t adequately match. As a nonprofit, FORGE bridges this gap, providing early, targeted support to avoid pitfalls and ensure readiness for scaling. Small interventions from FORGE help startups become investable, scale, and deploy, often finding alternative paths to profitability.
- 16:33 – The importance of local manufacturing: Laura mentions that FORGE was created to help innovators build their products. Initially, FORGE focused on a cluster of climate tech companies at Greentown Labs and the advantages of leveraging the robust New England supply chain. By connecting innovators with local supply chains, FORGE unlocked significant competitive advantages. Before the pandemic, visiting local production lines and maintaining direct communication was invaluable for early-stage innovation. FORGE also supported companies in highly regulated markets with specific expertise needs. Many companies initially assumed they had to source overseas, but 75% continued using local supply chains after working with FORGE. The pandemic highlighted the resilience of localization, reducing supply chain disruptions, communication challenges, and carbon footprints. Hyperlocal supply chains speed up production, save costs, and lower emissions. Innovators often focus on sustainable production but overlook supply chain impacts. Increasing investment and awareness in this area enhances outcomes for startups, local manufacturers, and the environment.
- 23:03 – The three support pillars at FORGE: Laura highlights that FORGE supports innovators through three main pillars. The first is education, which includes interactive workshops, workbooks, factory tours, and peer-to-peer learning through meetups. Early exposure to these concepts can be transformative, even at the idea stage. The second pillar is connection, where Forge makes curated introductions to supply chain partners and ecosystem collaborators. This is more selective, ensuring startups are ready, have accurate information, and have a budget for supplier engagements. The third pillar, still developing, is funding. Forge offers non-dilutive grants for product development, bridging gaps and enabling startups to create more sophisticated prototypes, unlocking significant opportunities with small cash injections.
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