Climate Tech Innovations and Local Manufacturing for Global Impact with Laura Teicher of FORGE

Hardware to Save a Planet

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.

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.

Episode Resource

• Laura Teicher on LinkedIn
• FORGE Website
• FORGE Project Images
• Dylan Garrett on LinkedIn
• Synapse Website
• Hardware to Save a Planet Apple Podcasts
• Hardware to Save a Planet Spotify

Hardware to Save a Planet is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Previous guests include: Peter Reinhardt of Charm Industrial, Carlos Araque of Quaise, Noah McQueen of Heirloom, Areeb Malik of Glacier, Jeff Satwicz of Bigbelly, Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, Insiya Jafferjee of Shellworks, Paul Gross of Remora, Erika Boeing of Accelerate Wind and Daniel Betts of Blue Frontier.
Check out our three most downloaded episodes:

• A Sustainable Approach to Direct Air Capture with Noah McQueen, Head of Research & Co-Founder of Heirloom
• Innovative Waste Recycling: AI and Robotics with Areeb Malik, Co-founder of Glacier
• Developing an Environmentally-Friendly and Fish-Saving Hydropower Turbine with Abe Schneider, Co-founder and CTO of Natel Energy

If you have an interesting hardware solution to the climate crisis and would like the opportunity to share this with our audience, please complete this Guest Application form: https://fame.so/syn