Every upcoming startup, investor and founder event we track in Cambridge, in date order.
Presented by SevenTrain Ventures ABOUT THE EVENT Fault-tolerant quantum computers (FTQC) are still years out. Quantum companies are already booking revenue in software, components and sensing. The Quantum Portfolio asks where that value is accruing today, who captures it, and how investors position before the machines arrive. SevenTrain Ventures convenes quantum founders, capital allocators and researchers for a candid, moderated conversation across three verticals: I. Application Layer: Quantum software earning revenue on classical hardware today, owning the customer before fault tolerance arrives. II. Enablement Layer: The picks and shovels addressing bottlenecks and closing the gap between today’s computers and FTQC. III. Quantum Sensing: The vertical already shipping hardware, with no fault-tolerant computer required. SPEAKERS Abhishek Chopra, Founder & CEO, BQP Shankar G. Menon, Co-Founder & CEO, CavilinQ Johannes Galatsanos-Dueck, Co-Founder & CEO, Diffraqtion Keynote: Vikal Kapoor, Founding Partner, SevenTrain Ventures Moderator: Mats Løkebø, Quantum Investment Lead, SevenTrain Ventures AGENDA AT A GLANCE 5:30 PM Doors open 6:00 PM Welcome and keynote 6:15 PM Founder conversation across the three verticals 7:15 PM Audience Q&A 7:30 PM Networking reception THE SERIES This event is part of SevenTrain’s recurring forum on where quantum value is created, who captures it, and where the technology stands. The first edition, in Cambridge last spring, brought together Christopher Monroe (IonQ), Yudong Cao (Zapata), Bharath Kannan (Atlantic Quantum) and more, with a BS horn on hand for calling out hype. The next edition follows this winter. ATTENDANCE Space is limited and attendance is curated. Every RSVP is reviewed by the SevenTrain team. SevenTrain Ventures is a New York-based venture firm investing in AI and quantum. seventrainventures.com/quantum
Prelude Ventures is one of the earliest deep tech venture firms, backing founders building in energy, industry, mobility and the physical economy. Partner Juan Pablo Soulier and the Prelude team are in Boston for Tough Tech Week and excited to meet the people building and investing in hard tech at Harvard. Come talk about: What Prelude looks for in deep tech and climate founders Building and financing companies that move atoms, not just bits Where the openings are across energy, physical AI, and infrastructure Space is limited, so RSVPs are approved on a rolling basis. Open to students, faculty and staff at Harvard.
Join Foray Bioscience and the Massachusetts AI Coalition for a two-mile walk bringing together founders and company leaders working at the intersection of AI and Tough Tech. We’ll meet at Area Four in Technology Square, walk to the Charles River and back, and finish with coffee. The goal is to step away from the screen, enjoy the fresh fall air, and make space for thoughtful conversation about what it takes to apply AI solutions in the real world from science and engineering to manufacturing, infrastructure, and the physical economy. This will be an opportunity to meet fellow founders and leaders to explore the opportunities and challenges that emerge when AI moves beyond just software and into the systems around us.
Tough Tech Demo Day is an afternoon showcase of 60+ Tough Tech startups building breakthrough solutions across climate and energy, advanced robotics, biotech and life sciences, AI, quantum, and advanced manufacturing. Co-hosted by The Engine, Activate, Greentown Labs, MassChallenge, and MassRobotics, Tough Tech Demo Day gives investors, operators, and ecosystem leaders a firsthand look at the companies and teams advancing Tough Tech toward real-world impact. This is a showcase-style event, designed for attendees to explore the startups, meet the teams, and learn more about the technologies shaping the future. Tough Tech Week is a week-long celebration of transformational science and engineering, hosted by The Engine and more than 50 partner organizations across Greater Boston and beyond. The week convenes Tough Tech startups building breakthrough solutions alongside the investors, government leaders, academic institutions, and ecosystem organizations funding and supporting them. Last year’s Tough Tech Week featured 65+ ecosystem events. To learn more and register for the full calendar, visit luma.com/toughtechweek or engine.xyz/toughtechweek.
The teams at Fidelity Private Shares & Wells Fargo are excited to gather the founder & investor community in Kendall during Tough Tech Week: Who: Tough tech founders, investors, and supporters What: Intimate happy hour in one of Cambridge's coolest spots, close to The Engine, Greentown Labs, LabCentral, MIT, and more Where: Area Four in Kendall Square, Cambridge Why: Because serendipity & connection often drives startup success Fidelity Private Shares Fidelity Private Shares helps private companies manage equity with clarity and structure with our cap table management and data room platform. Cap tables, 409a valuations, governance, and planning tools work together in one system so founders and operators can stay investor-ready and manage ownership as complexity grows. Wells Fargo Wells Fargo's Technology Banking Group partners with innovative startups and growth-stage companies, providing treasury, lending, capital markets, and strategic banking solutions to help businesses scale. Through our dedicated Sustainability practice, we support companies developing tough tech solutions across climate tech, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, water, and agriculture. By combining deep industry expertise with the resources of a leading global financial institution, we help founders and operators navigate growth, access capital, and build lasting businesses.
**We're almost at capacity! Only founders, investors, and PhDs/Postdocs will be approved from the waitlist at this point** Quantum + Neurotech Happy Hour 🧪 Recipe: 👩🏽🍳 Mix a spoon full of quantum satellite cameras seeing further & faster—add dash of BCIs addressing vegetative states—& top off with a sprinkle of climate warriors. Result: A full on hope dose. Join us in Boston during Tough Tech Week on 10/28 from 5-8pm in Cambridge! Max capacity is 100, so RSVP ASAP! ✅Free Drinks 🚫Panels ✅Free Food ✅Badass founders 🚫Boredom ✅Money Huge shout out to event co-hosts: ⚡️Axoft ⚡️CopiaVC ⚡️Diffraqtion ⚡️Goodwin Procter ⚡️Ground State Ventures 🦹🏽♀️ Are you a quantum or neurotech company and want to do a lightning introduction in front of the crowd?!? 🧑🏽💻 APPLY HERE ASAP 👈🏽
Physical AI is being built and deployed for every terrain and application. Drones inspect infrastructure beyond visual line of sight, autonomous vessels run survey and cargo routes, and ground robots are moving from demos to double shifts. Every domain will go through the same lineage of problems; first being: can we make our thing work? and then: how do we make it viable, reliable, and productive at scale? The three domains of systems for AIR, LAND, and SEA rarely compare notes. This event brings us all together. Whether you're working on humanoids, drones, submarines, industrial automation, or anything else that relies on sensors and compute to operate in the physical world, this event is for you! Join founders, operators, and investors building autonomy in the air, on the ground, and on the water for a panel on what it takes to field learned systems in the physical world — measuring performance, debugging failures, earning trust, and more. Followed by drinks and conversation with a room of like-minded people. Massa Products Corporation and LeafLabs are excited to co-host this event together. Find out more about the hosts here: www.massa.com www.leaflabs.com Agenda 4:30 – 5:30: Registration, Networking and Cocktail Hour 5:30 – 6:00: Welcome Remarks 6:00 – 7:00: Panel 7:00 – 8:00: Networking Tough Tech Week is a celebration of transformational science and engineering and the companies bringing it to the world, alongside the ecosystem supporting their path to impact. Explore the full calendar of events, including demos, pitches, workshops, and networking opportunities with investors, partners, and government, at luma.com/toughtechweek.
Join us for a happy hour during Tough Tech Week, bringing together founders and investors working on hard science and engineering. Hosted by Rho and DLA Piper, this is a casual evening to connect with Boston's deep tech community over drinks. Meet the hosts: DLA Piper is a global, full services law firm whose nationally-ranked startup team works with founders, high-growth companies, accelerators, and investors alike. DLA's Boston-based team specializes in working with startups across matters such as formation and financing, technology transactions and university licensing, IP, and M&A. Rho is the all-in-one banking platform for startups and the accountants supporting them. With banking setup in minutes, cashback cards, and tools for managing spend, paying bills, and closing the books, Rho helps high-growth startups move fast and stay focused, backed by support that goes to the end of the earth to help you win. Rho is a fintech company, not a bank. Checking and card services are provided by Webster Bank, N.A., member FDIC; savings account services are provided by American Deposit Management Co. and its partner banks. #boston
Join The Engine for the culminating showcase of the Fall 2026 Blueprint by The Engine™ cohort, our eight-week program for graduate students, postdocs, and research scientists exploring the commercial potential of their work. This cohort is made up of early-stage, pre-seed teams working to translate research into real-world opportunity. Over eight weeks, they have worked through technology risk, market discovery, IP strategy, and storytelling to prepare for this moment. Who Should Attend? The Showcase brings these teams in front of investors and ecosystem stakeholders for direct feedback and connections, and this year it is taking place during Tough Tech Week — creating a timely opportunity for these teams to meet the investors, partners, and builders shaping the Tough Tech ecosystem: Tough Tech founders and operators The Engine residents, Blueprint alumni Investors & corporate partners Ecosystem builders & Tough Tech enablers Accelerators, incubators & support organizations Scientists, Engineers & Innovators Tough Tech Week is a week-long celebration of transformational science and engineering, hosted by The Engine and more than 50 partner organizations across Greater Boston and beyond. The week convenes Tough Tech startups building breakthrough solutions alongside the investors, government leaders, academic institutions, and ecosystem organizations funding and supporting them. Last year’s Tough Tech Week featured 65+ ecosystem events. To learn more and register for the full calendar, visit luma.com/toughtechweek or engine.xyz/toughtechweek.
As a part of The Engine's Tough Tech Week we're excited to be back at LeafLabs with sponsorship support from our friends at Peridio, PTC, and CircuitHub! Join us for our standard talks and open mic plus a bar, food, and TBA Tough Tech Week features! 🤖 Bring your latest builds, demos, announcements, or asks to share during our Open Mic! SPEAKERS + FEATURES Speakers TBA Community Open Mic - As always, jump on the mic at the end of the meetup for your own chance to show off, pitch, ask, or demo! Agenda 6:00-6:45p - Arrival and networking 6:45-6:55p - Welcome and introduction 6:55-7:40p - Guest speakers and audience Q&A 7:40-8:00p - Community open mic 8:00-10:00p - Mix + mingle About Boston Hardware Meetup Hardware Meetups happen across 30+ cities around the world, bringing together hardware professionals to network, share knowledge, and support each other and the larger hardware ecosystem. The Boston Hardware meetup has been happening since 2013 and is one of the largest local communities inside the global Hardware Meetup network. Thanks to our hosts LeafLabs is an engineering consulting firm specializing in embedded systems. The company designs and develops hardware, firmware, and software systems for intelligent devices (robots, IoT, scientific instrumentation, and more). Thanks to our sponsors Peridio makes embedded Linux simple for teams building edge AI and connected devices. Peridio makes Avocado OS, a production-ready, Yocto-based Linux distro with pre-built support for popular hardware like NVIDIA, NXP, Qualcomm, and RasperryPi. Avocado OS enables developers to ship application code and AI models on day one without having to become operating system maintainers. Peridio also makes Avocado Connect which manages the device fleet, supporting OTA updates, remote access, private packages feeds, and CVE tracking. CircuitHub is an electronics manufacturing company that has reimagined the SMT process through their innovative smart factory. CircuitHub consistently turns
IIA Physical AI Summit at MIT: the researchers, founders, and builders behind physical AI, at the place where much of it was invented. Friday, October 30, 2026 MIT Samberg Conference Center, Cambridge Keynotes, firesides, panels, live robot demos With MassRobotics, MIT CSAIL, MIT LIDS, and TEDxMIT, part of The Engine's Tough Tech Week, with the MA AI Coalition Capacity is limited; every registration is reviewed by the hosts Details and speakers: https://imaginationinaction.co/2610mindsinmotion/main
Fundraising from VCs now takes more conversations and more months than it did a few years ago. This session works through the moves that close a round: restarting stalled momentum, negotiating terms, and building investor trust that pays off this round and the next. This is a conversational, working session with time for live questions. Christina Chang (EIR at The Engine, formerly of Lowercarbon Capital) and Liz Sisson (Director at The Engine, formerly of Third Sphere) will co-host. Momentum | Why rounds slow in the middle, and ways to give an investor a genuine reason to move: a milestone landing, a strategic partner committing, a grant coming through. Which conversations are worth reopening, and how to do it well. Terms | How to read a term sheet: what matters beyond valuation, including pro rata, board composition, and liquidation preference. What's worth negotiating at this stage and what isn't. Filling the Round | Bridge notes, angels, strategics, party rounds: what each one costs you later, and when it's the right call. Trust | How to be straight with investors about where things stand, while still giving them a reason to move now. Staying visible rather than going quiet, and treating the investor who passes this time as the one who can lead next time. This event is open to founders across The Engine network and broader ecosystem, whether you're mid-raise or getting ready to start one. ***Please fill out this form after registering. We’ll customize the content accordingly: https://form.jotform.com/262646331377057 Tough Tech Week is a celebration of transformational science and engineering and the companies bringing it to the world, alongside the ecosystem supporting their path to impact. Explore the full calendar of events, including demos, pitches, workshops, and networking opportunities with investors, partners, and government, at luma.com/toughtechweek.
Joe Fielder will detail the nuts and bolts of how narrative design works in game series like The Outer Worlds and Fallout and how narrative elements can factor into the gameplay. The Evening Itinerary 6:30pm to 7:30pm - Pre-presentation mingle and hang out 7:30pm to 8:30pm - Presentation 8:30pm to 9pm - Q&A 9:00pm - The presentation ends. Attendees may join us for an additional evening hang out at Flat Top Johnnys IMPORTANT: Entering the event venue Doors will be locked at the Stata Center during this evening. In order to get inside, it is recommended that you sign up for a visitor's pass. Link on how to get one below. Otherwise, Manny Mallea will be at the door closest to the Sean Collier memorial, near the street side, who can get you in. If no-one is at the door and you are missing your visitor's pass, please message any of the organizers and we can help you get in. Link to get a visitor's pass: https://prod.atlas-apps.link/VpvVnsVW