Innovation agency SecondMuse and NYCEDC brought back the citywide Futureworks Incubator this January with a cohort of 15 Fellows and 50+ Entrepreneurs. The Futureworks Incubator is one of America’s largest urban hardware programs and gets startups investor-ready through expert mentorship, a series of essential workshops, and a community of supportive founders that help each other scale.
Futureworks Incubator Fellows include a diverse group of hardware-product startups. From glass solar panels and a revolutionary drum kit to at-home dry cleaning and autonomous robotic boats, Fellows address the diversity of NYC’s needs. The 15 Fellows are in three smaller cohorts where they’ll focus on core needs, including Crowdfunding to Retail, sponsored by Greenpoint’s Kickstarter and Sunset Park-based UncommonGoods, Sales and Marketing, and Manufacturing.
Futureworks Incubator Entrepreneurs is already supporting more than 50 startups and founders, and applications are still open for this portion of the program! As a part of the Entrepreneur cohort, you’re invited to a series of workshops and summits designed to help your hardware startup get off the ground. Evening workshops and all-day summits are led by New York City founders from companies like Tomorrow Lab, Genimex and more. They’re free and open to the NYC hardware community. Apply here!
Other sponsors and partners of the program include SolidWorks, Octopart, GT’s Kombucha and SecondMuse’s M-Corps.
Futureworks Partners help strengthen NYC’s hardware economy by supporting The Futureworks Incubator and startups through donations and in-kind contributions. Futureworks Sponsors work closely with participating startups and entrepreneurs, government leadership, mentors and the wider NYC community. Reach out here.
If you have experience in manufacturing, business, legal, marketing or other fields that can help hardware startups, apply here to join the Futureworks Incubator program, which is currently running and goes through the end of the year.
I’m keen to provide guidance and support to growth companies looking to hire and engage with the right talent. Also interested in supporting businesses who are trying to solve tough recruitment challenges and use my expertise to connect with foundersl to help them on their mission to scale.
I hope to foster a vibrant and world-beating community of manufacturers and technologists in the greatest city in the world.
Having gone through the program with Duro UAS autonomous technologies, I thought it would be good to give back. It will also allow me to meet more people in our space.
I’ve worked with startups in a range of roles (founder, banker, VC, advisor, mentor) for many years, and love them all. Over the past several years, I’ve been focusing more time on mentoring, through Score and other organizations, and it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done. I love watching founders learn and companies grow – and I learn so much. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a couple Futureworks members. It’s a terrific program, and I’d like to be more involved.
My interest in being a Futureworks Mentor is my love of advancing technology and supporting the teams who do that work. I’ve always been at the apex of new technology and hope to continue to broaden my understanding of what is cutting edge in the world of advance manufacture. I also hope to share my experience in the world of hardware and materials to help teams get off the ground. Scale, funding, leadership are all potential killers for teams and businesses.
I’m a New York City resident and member of the tech community. I think mentorship is a critical factor in startups successfully scaling.
As a Futureworks alumnus, I found the program and the mentoring invaluable. Through mentoring and networking, I met some really wonderful people. I would love to be able to give back to the community, share experience, and help make other companies successful. Along the way, I hope to learn some new ideas, meet new people, and stay in touch with entrepreneurs.
I enjoy helping entrepreneurs think about how to develop their solutions for their customers and get it in front of them. It also helps me come up with creative solutions I can use in my own business. Besides that, I am always expanding my network of people and connecting people to each other to help move their missions forward.
Jamie is Senior Buyer of New Business Development at UncommonGoods, a founding B-Corp that offers remarkable designs by independent makers with a positive impact on both people and planet. She is currently leading UncommonGoods’ outreach efforts in the design community.
Futureworks does a great job of connecting people to the broader hardware network in New York. Voltaic has benefited from that, and we want to continue to make those connections and hopefully help build the network further.
I’m head of NY Strategy & Development at Nomad Financial. I enjoy helping emerging companies scale. I hope to help founders and folks in the startup ecosystem.
Every professional opportunity I have had is because of the NYC business and startup community, and I’d like to do more to give back to it. Throughout my career I’ve helped commercialize new-to-market products and it’s what I find most exciting. My mix of experiences would be helpful to companies starting this journey and I find fulfilling to help early stage companies and founders find success.
I’m interested in gaining visibility into the startup world. I hope to gain new connections with motivated, entrepreneurial individuals. In addition, I would like to be a contributing factor to these company’s growth.
I want to help mentees determine whether intellectual property protections apply to their inventions / businesses, and also to help them navigate the product commercialization process. It’s often said that the best way to learn something is to attempt to teach it to someone else. Also, I’d like to broaden my network of engineers / inventors to gain access to and be more mindful of other areas of manufacturing expertise.
I’ve always loved being mentors and supermentors to many of the companies to help them grow, work through fundraising strategies, and give help from the eyes of an investor!
I am passionate about helping high-potential technologies access the tools required to effectively mature their products and scale their business. Having worked in finance, start-ups, and now in venture advisory, I understand the challenges faced by early stage companies and hope to provide support and insight as they face their own unique challenges and critical decisions. My main area of domain expertise is defense and national security applications.
Daniel Gross is an intellectual property attorney at Myers Wolin. Daniel’s research experience as WIPO Senior Fellow for Fordham Law School’s Center on Law and Information Policy gives him a unique perspective on the technical aspects of invention and innovation.
I am looking to help the hardware startup community understand that they exist in a regulated space. I will help to prepare them for the regulatory challenges that exist for products that are sold to consumers in the US and in other countries. Tech startups need the basics of these regulations upfront rather than getting surprised as they grow.
I hope to contribute as a listener and supporter to a hardware startup founder at the early stages of building a product and a company. I’d also like to to share the experience and knowledge I’ve gained working as a Product Manager at MakerBot at LittleBits to help them build testable prototypes and operational blueprints for reaching market.
I am the Group CEO for Genimex, a design, engineering and manufacturing company with offices based in Taipei, Shanghai and NYC. We have an in-house team of industrial designers, engineers, quality control and account management that handles your project from concept design to production.
Having participated in the program last year as a member startup, I really enjoyed all of the programming and found a lot of the information and connections to be very helpful. As a mentor for this cycle, I hope to be able to share some of the things I learned last year and help facilitate connections between up-and-coming startups and other groups and companies in the NYC area.
I enjoy helping the future businesses of the world to excel and become great places to work. Among the keys to the realm are having the right narrative, having the ability to innovate, and attracting, retaining, and developing the right people. From a professional standpoint, I’m looking to gain more experience in startups and their challenges, build my brand as a mentor and specialist, and do some solid networking.
I want this city to overtake Silicon Valley as the place that hardware engineers think of as the place to be. I’ve witnessed the growth of tech in NYC the last few years, specifically with places like New Lab, and I want to help out in that progress. I’ve worked full time for startups the last three years and started a consulting business in my free time to help hardware startups succeed.
When I was starting off, I was lucky to have good mentors, and I would like to pass it forward. As a Brooklyn native, I’d really like to contribute to the local hardware scene.
I hope to provide the benefit of my 20+ years in engineering and business development to help manufacturing startups grow and thrive in the NYC metro area. Ultimately this will provide rewarding and good paying jobs for the people of NYC.
I’m looking forward to working with a broader range of hardware startups, while also working with a program that has statewide impact.
I have been really inspired by Futureworks Incubator program’s mission to support early-stage hardware entrepreneurs and advanced manufacturing. I learned from many hardware founders that it’s very hard to have enough space, support and shared data at the early stage phase. I understand that being an innovator in the hardware space is extremely challenging and founders need to be more dynamic.
I love to mentor, coach, and foster innovation. I have worked with the likes of start-ups, VC funds, and Innovation centers such as Angelhack and Galvanize. Whether data science, AI, or business development, I would be proud to offer my expertise for startups.
I look forward to mentoring in order to be another asset for ambitious founders’ goals whether through fundraising help, user acquisition creativity, business strategy, partnerships brokering or personal support.
Jessica Califano is the Director of Community, Support and Publishing at Adafruit, a woman-owned electronics manufacturing company. She establishes marketing and branding strategies for the company. Jessica graduated from NYU with a degree in Media, Culture, and Communications.
Working with the Futureworks Incubator for early stage companies provides me with a unique snapshot of innovation in various sectors, and informs me to the corresponding legal challenges that we can anticipate.
As a leader in EY’s Advanced Manufacturing and Mobility practice, I have personal commitment to actively cultivating and harnessing the power of the broader advanced manufacturing ecosystem and its stakeholder across government, professional community, large corporates and startup community stakeholder groups.
I enjoy helping entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes I made and helping them recover quickly from the ones they make on their own.
I participated as a mentor last year and really enjoyed the experience of helping early stage startups think through some of their customer and go-to-market questions. I also enjoyed getting to know the incredible group of fellow mentors. This is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the NYC startup community.
My team participated in Futureworks last year. It was worthwhile and I would love to give back. Mentoring is helpful for me/us, as we remain engaged in the Futureworks community.
I am interested in applying my strategic and service design expertise in the development of new manufacturing based business models.
In the past few years I have contributed to transform the largest French e-commerce company supply chain, bringing automation and robotic solutions to improve processes and performance. I am passionate about what is going on in this field, and I want to spend some time helping entrepreneurs define their products and adjust their go-to-market strategy.
I hope I can keep building an interesting network among brilliant engineers who share my interest for automation and robotics. I hope to learn as much as I can in this field.
I’ve always been passionate about connecting with people who are supporting or developing compelling hardware products. As someone who has lived in the city on and off since 2007, I’m particularly excited to help companies eager to build in New York City. By participating in the Futureworks Incubator, I hope to not only contribute my expertise to the burgeoning hardware manufacturing industry in NYC, but also learn from the other entrepreneurs and mentors and grow my network of NYC-based hardware and design enthusiasts.
I enjoy mentoring teams wrestling with tough problems, particularly with customer discovery in defense and dual-use technology markets. I want to see talented entrepreneurs and technologists building successful businesses around products that solve big national security challenges.
At littleBits, our mission is to empower inventors and change-makers, and my favorite part about the work I do is seeing what people are able to create with our platform of electronic & digital building blocks. I lead a team of designers and very much enjoy providing mentorship for their careers as well. This passion for empowering inventors and innovators also extends beyond my job. I love talking through new ideas with others and sharing the learnings I have experienced working at a startup. In turn, I always walk away inspired by what others are doing.
By participating in this program, I hope to provide meaningful feedback that will help participants take the next step for their companies. I am personally looking forward to meeting new people, riffing on ideas, improving my mentoring skills, and continuing to build out my growing network of change-makers in NYC.
Last year in the program I noticed a strong need for more tangible information about how and where to get feedback, survey creation, etc. I helped several Incubator companies with messaging and copywriting, surveys, even running workshops (RaceYa). I’d love to continue doing that.
Harlan Milkove is a product-minded software engineer and veteran startup founder. Prior to forming Foundational, he was the founding software engineer at Astro, the maker of Twist Home, and a founder at Reonomy.
I am interested in technologies behind renewable energy systems, an opportunity to meet like-minded people, and to learn more about the challenges faced by startups. I believe in building renewable energy and sustainable technology. I would like to contribute my knowledge in engineering to help bring these innovative ideas to fruition.
New York has a vibrant and diverse community of creators and innovators who are collectively keeping the city on the bleeding edge of technological progress. Members of the Futureworks Incubator are primed to become the next generation of leaders in the hardware space through the creation of novel products and businesses that solve real-world problems. My unique skillsets can help Futureworks Incubator companies achieve and exceed their goals and I’m excited to be able to help elevate the community. Given my experience with Futureworks Shops last year, I am hoping that acting as a mentor will allow me to become even more deeply ingrained in the wider hardware and technology communities in New York.
I’m an industrial designer from NYC working at Tomorrow Lab to help innovators develop their ideas into production ready products. I’m interested in Futureworks’ collaboration with a diverse intersection of NYC’s design and hardware community. During my recent trip to CES I noticed a lack of diversity among the designers, representatives, and decision makers that I met. I have a feeling that the lack of innovation I witnessed might be related to the lack of people with varied backgrounds being in positions to tell their stories and answer new problems. I’d like to work with Futureworks to enable them to do so.
I am interested in helping grow the hardware and manufacturing community in NYC. Attending and presenting at hardware meetups has shown me how eager and willing this community is to collaborate and help each other. I’d like to continue being a part of that community and would like to share my knowledge with the Futureworks Incubator Fellows. The Futureworks Mentor program presents a mutually beneficial opportunity. My experience at littleBits, as it has grown from a 20-person startup in 2013 when I joined, has given me a unique perspective to share with the Incubator Fellows. In return, my participation will allow me to grow my own professional network and connect with the fellows, other mentors, and alumni of the program.
My last company was a hardware startup that benefited tremendously from the incubator experience at Highway1. Now that i’m based in NYC, I’m hoping to contribute to the community with my experience and expertise in the field.
Throughout my career, I dealt with many of the different aspects of the design world. Focusing mostly on physical products, I am familiar with the various phases and different stages of the product development processes. From gathering concepts using design methodologies like universal and inclusive approaches to the technical aspects of a CAD file, problem-solving and prototyping.
Futureworks, as the hub of hardware design and advanced fabrication promote talents and potential products, is an excellent fit for me, as a Brooklyn based designer, to mentor, interact and network.
I’m interested in taking part in the development and fulfillment of innovative projects. I’m excited to be integrated into a community of great thinkers and makers and enlarging my professional network. I’m also interested in being exposed to professionals from different disciplines.
I love helping teams and individuals navigate the difficulties of developing and scaling hardware. I moved from Pittsburgh to NYC just recently and so I am looking to get involved in the NYC hardware startup community and Futureworks seems like a great opportunity to do this!
StrongArm Technologies, a 2015-16 Futureworks Incubator company, is a brand for industrial workers, or better, industrial athletes. StrongArm builds technologies and human performance equipment for the under-served and over-worked to simultaneously boost productivity and safety.
PourSteady, a 2014-15 Futureworks Incubator company, is a Brooklyn-based startup that is building a robotic coffee system to make the perfect cup of pour-over coffee. Combining precision motion-control, elegant design, and beautiful fabrication–our system makes up to five cups of pour-over coffee simultaneously with a single barista at the helm.
Dog Parker, a 2015-16 Futureworks Incubator company, believes you and your dog are happier when you're together. So we’re building a network of pay-by-the-minute neighborhood doghouses for use outside of stores and restaurants to make it easier to have your dog with you before, after, and in-between all your errands. Dog Parker wants to be the go-to solution in those moments when you’re out and about with your dog, want to run an errand, and need a secure place to park your dog.
RPR, a 2013-14 Futureworks Incubator company, is a design and engineering boutique specializing in kinetic furniture. As designers and technologists, our team integrates aesthetics and robotics into decor to enhance versatility and functionality without subscribing to the sterile appearance of sci-fi lore: think Charles Eames’s and Judy Jetson’s wedding registry.
Sunhouse, a 2014-15 Futureworks Incubator company, builds expressive instruments for the modern musician. Through signal processing, machine learning and sensor technologies, we are bridging the gap between digital sound and human expression. Our first product, Sensory Percussion, combines the expressive power of an acoustic drum with the flexibility of an electronic drum to bring the art of drumming into the digital age.
Kinograph, a 2014-15 Futureworks Incubator company, was founded in 2012 by Matt Epler as an experiment in open-source film digitization. As a solo founder, Epler was hungry to work with a New York-based hardware team. He joined Human Condition Safety as lead creative technologist and then UX/UI designer.
Capacita, a 2014-15 Futureworks Incubator company, is an accessible game controller for individuals with physical impairments. This game controller can be used by people that have experienced a disability or have a long standing impairment that affects their ability to participate in gaming through a traditional controller.
BlackBox Manufacturing, a 2014-15 Futureworks Incubator company, was founded in 2013 by Will Watts. Based in New York City's Brooklyn Navy Yard, BlackBox designed and built custom composite parts using additive manufacturing techniques. Founder Will Watts joined Tesla in 2016 and is now their market lead for charging infrastructure based in New York City.
Thimble, a 2015-16 Futureworks Incubator company, is a subscription service that delivers a monthly electronics project right to your doorstep. These projects contain components to teach kids and adults how to build fun, workable devices: from hardware design through firmware and application software, in a creative and accessible way.
blink blink was a 2015-16 Futureworks Incubator company. Its Creative Circuit Kits provide the tools to engineer arts, crafts, and fashion projects embedded with lights, simple electronics, and circuits; our kits are designed with empathy for girls ages 8-18. blink blink kits include a circuit building guide with project tutorials and introduction to basic circuit theory, creative circuit materials, and traditional electronic components.
WearWorks, a 2015-16 Futureworks Incubator company, is a haptics design company. They design products and experiences that deliver information through touch. WearWorks' first product is a wearable haptic navigation device for the blind and visually impaired called WayBand. It guides users to an end-destination using only vibration. Offloading this from the eyes and ears delivers information without a display in a more intuitive way.
Applications are currently open! Apply here by October 31. For other updates on the program, sign up to our newsletter.
Futureworks Incubator works to support the growth of hardware and advanced manufacturing startups and entrepreneurs in New York City. Through committed mentorship, expert-led workshops, a devoted alumni network and a passionate community of founders, we make building a company easier, cheaper and faster.
Futureworks Incubator builds on the success of its 2017-18 program year. Join the community as a Mentor, Startup, Partner or Sponsor and become embedded in a versatile and growing community of startups, local manufacturers, investors, and production spaces. We take no equity, and there’s no cost to participate for companies who apply. Futureworks Incubator is led by Brooklyn-based collaboration agency SecondMuse.
How can the program help me grow?
Within the program, every accepted startup will develop a plan to identify priorities and address the specific needs and challenges they are facing. Startups will have access to a network of Mentors, programming specifically designed for your company’s stage of development, and opportunities to showcase their product at networking and public-facing events.
Workshops: Futureworks Incubator will host a workshop series on what you need to know to launch your own product startup ranging from business planning and exploration of business models, to design for manufacturing, to legal, to prototyping and manufacturing, to understanding how to bring your product to market. Preference for these workshops will be given to those that apply to be a part of the program, but we will reserve a small number for the general entrepreneurial public as well. Here is a summary of our 2017 Workshop on Connecting to Manufacturers at A/D/O, as well as of our 2017 Workshop on Understanding Users: Testing Products & Prototyping at Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator.
Summits: Curated, full-day events that offer teams the opportunity to pitch, build relationships with mentors, prototype, and receive support from a group of experts with a specific challenge facing their business. Check out our 2017 Kickoff Summit at Kickstarter.
Access to Mentors: Our Mentor network is made up of alumni companies and experts in design, business, legal, manufacturing, marketing, and more. Our Mentors are invested in and eager to grow the NYC hardware ecosystem. They have started and sold businesses, successfully launched and scaled products or companies, received prestigious awards, and even established entirely new markets. They are bound in their commitment to help NYC-based hardware and product entrepreneurs along their journey to success.
Additional Events and Showcases: Throughout the Incubator experience, participating entrepreneurs and startups will have access to opportunities to showcase their company and product to the public alongside other Futureworks Incubator companies. Here is a link to our 2017 closing event at Electropositive.
As long as you are working on a hardware startup in NYC, then we have a place for you! We consider startups and entrepreneurs in every stage along the journey.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old and be a student in, resident of, or have a business located in New York City. Only one application per business or product will be accepted.
If I applied or participated in the past, may I apply again?
Yes! We are offering more opportunities to learn from, connect with and engage in an expanded set of materials and experiences highlighting people, places and resources relevant to your business. The short answer is: if you think you have something to gain and contribute to the Futureworks Incubator, absolutely apply.
Are there any requirements to participate in the program? What restrictions apply?
Who will be selecting Futureworks Incubator startups and entrepreneurs?
Startups and participating entrepreneurs will need to submit an application via the program website. The organizing team (SecondMuse and NYCEDC) will assess whether or not applicants meet requirements and selection criteria.
What is the criteria being used to select Futureworks Incubator entrepreneurs and/or startups?
If I apply to the Futureworks Incubator, will my IP be safe?
Reviewing the USPTO information for inventors.
What are the submission terms for Futureworks Incubator?
I hereby agree and acknowledge that: (i) I am submitting to the Futureworks Incubator program only non-confidential and public domain materials in the sections of the form marked as NON-CONFIDENTIAL; (ii) I am authorized to submit this response to the Futureworks Incubator program and indemnify all Futureworks Incubator program participants, partners and organizers from any and all claims related to my intellectual property; (iii) I retain full rights over respective intellectual property; and (iv) I grant Futureworks Incubator program participants, partners and organizers the right to share and distribute the NON-CONFIDENTIAL portions of my submission materials for review purposes and for the marketing and promotion of the Futureworks Incubator program.
Submissions for the Futureworks Incubation program may be rejected at the sole discretion of the program organizers, either in part or in their entirety, if it is deemed to be obscene, defamatory, likely to incite violence or illegal activity, in violation of any third-party’s rights, or is otherwise deemed to be inappropriate. The program organizers reserve the right, without liability, to cancel, suspend, amend or modify the program, or any part of it, at any time.
All applications must be submitted in English. Given this is a community-based program, it is critical that participants have a strong proficiency in the English language in order to engage with and benefit from others in the community.
What’s unique about the Futureworks Incubator program?
In short – the spirit of collaboration! Futureworks Incubator is an unprecedented citywide initiative to support the advanced manufacturing and hardware ecosystem: startups, innovators, manufacturers, service providers, institutions of higher learning, etc. More than 50 organizations and individuals were consulted for the initial design of the program called Next Top Makers in 2013. Over the past several years, the community has continued to grow and evolve with changes in technology, funding, and the hardware and manufacturing landscapes of the city.
If I am only in NYC part-time (i.e. I am a student) can I apply?
As long as you are in NYC for key program dates and have an interest or plan to build your business in the city, we encourage you to apply!