Cambridge Innovation Center

I also got to tour the Cambridge Innovation Center at Kendall Square today. Very cool place. Here's the info from their site:

Overlooking the Charles River and the MIT campus, and literally across the street from the MBTA Red Line station in Kendall Square, Cambridge Innovation Center is the area's largest and most popular flexible office space facility for small and growing companies.

In contrast with traditional executive suites offerings, which have traditionally served as homes for satellite operations, CIC's services are designed to meet the needs of technology-oriented companies where the entire company, including the senior people, are located at our center. Our award-winning facilities and state-of-the-art business and technical services deliver: CIC tenants, many starting out with just one or a few people, have raised over $290M in venture capital since we started keeping track in 2001.

At Cambridge Innovation Center we enable you to focus on making your business successful. The Center provides 'instant on' facilities and enterprise-class services at rates that are more cost-effective for small companies than traditional leases (and, to boot, we don't lock you in to a lease!). Our residents are mostly growing technology companies, service firms, and venture capitalists.

Our tenants frequently tell us that shoulder-rubbing among the investors and emerging companies located in the center makes CIC an enjoyable place to work. While there is no expectation to do so, we find tenants frequently choose to interact and leverage each other's expertise and networks to uncover new opportunities and build new relationships.

History
CIC was founded in 1999 by Tim Rowe and Andy Olmsted, and were joined shortly thereafter by Geoff Mamlet. Over the years, Tim, Andy, and Geoff refined their knowledge of what growing companies needed. CIC's services evolved a level of quality and cost-efficiency that enabled CIC to attract many of the best-known and best-funded new companies choosing to locate in the MIT/Harvard technology cluster. Today CIC is a full-fledged managed office services firm, with customers on 7 floors in One Broadway. CIC offers a wide range of space configurations and price points to meet every need.

CIC has a vested interest in the financial strength of the entrepreneurs at the center. There are a number of venture capital firms located at the center that may seek to contact tenants here. Amongst those, two CIC managers, Tim Rowe and Geoff Mamlet, have part-time direct involvement with the DFJ New England Fund, located within Cambridge Innovation Center. DFJ NE is a $45M early stage venture capital fund that actively seeks technology investment opportunities in the New England area, including among the residents and prospective residents of CIC. Other than the personal involvement of Tim and Geoff, DFJ NE is unaffiliated with CIC.

I got into an interesting conversation with Tim Rowe and Dan Williams. I'm checking with them first if I can blog it.