Kim and Joe speak with Doug Banks, executive editor of the Boston business Journal about the company FORM ENERGY in Somerville. A Massachusetts success story. However, when it comes to expansion, FORM ENERGY isn’t building in Massachusetts. They also chat with Chris Anderson, President of the Massachusetts High Technology Council about the health of that business sector. Kim and Joe also look ahead to summer rental availability down on Cape Cod with Anthony Lamacchia of Lamacchia Realty. Robert Mellion, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Package Store Association reacts to lawmakers on Beacon Hill, making the pandemic DRINKS TO GO permanent. And Kim and Joe , close the show chatting with the CEO of Pison Technology Dexter Ang. About a new generation of wearable technology.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the New England Business Reportwith Joe short Sleeve and Kim Carrigan,
a weekly roundup and discussion of thetop business news impacting our New England economy
and good Sunday morning. It isSunday, March tenth, and welcome to
the New England Business Report here onWRKO. I'm Joe Shortsleeve along with Kim
Carrigan and Kim. Nice to haveyou along this Sunday morning. Thank you,
(00:24):
nice to be with Yeah, wegot a jam packed hour. We're
going to be talking to, ofcourse, a Doug Banks of the Boston
Business Journal. He's a partner withus here and Doug is on top of
the business stories that really impact theNew England economy. And next morning,
one thing Doug's going to be talkingabout is this billion dollar investment by the
Healing Administration moving forward, and we'regoing to be talking about a company in
(00:49):
Summerville by the name of Form Energy. Yeah, it's it's a clean energy
company, and she made her bigannouncement that she's dedicating a billion dollars for
the next ten years to clean energy. And some interesting things happened while she
was there at that company making thatannouncement. So Doug Banks is going to
share that with us. Yeah,apparently that company's not too pleased with Doug
(01:12):
Banks or the governor because of thetiming of all of it. Yeah,
And if I were to tease ita little bit more, I just say
that, So you'd expect this companyin Summerville, if they're going to build
something, they'd build it here,right. Hang on. Also, this
morning, we're going to be joinedby Chris Anderson. He's the president of
the Massachusetts High Technology Council. WhenKim and I used to do a business
(01:36):
program down the street for Bloomberg,Chris was a regular visitor, so we
wanted to get Chris back. Thereare all kinds of headlines as it relates
to the mass high tech economy here. I mean, it seems like every
day, Kim, we're reading aboutlayoffs. And I remember when we were
doing the program for Bloomberg last year, every week we were talking about lab
(01:57):
space and building more and more labspace. Well, that's his ground to
a halt as well. So thereare a lot of challenges of facing that
industry at the point. Yeah,I mean, Chris has got a really
tough job because Chris is trying tokeep business and attract business to this state
in a time when there's a lotgoing on up there on Beacon Hill that
some would argue is keeping business outof the state. Sure, so it'll
(02:21):
be interesting to get his take onwhat's happening there on Beacon Hill and what
his council is doing to bring morebusiness to the state. One other thing
he will talk about is the housingsituation, and that has to do with
you know, any business wants tolocate in the state. I mean,
it's absolutely crazy and we all knowthat, but you know it does impact
businesses and it is impacting the economyand the state that young people simply cannot
(02:46):
afford to live here. What elsewe got going on? Can yeah,
Joe in the second half hour,if you can believe it, it's already
March, and that means if youare planning to rent a place, maybe
down on the Cape or the Islands, you probably need to get on it.
So in our weekly segment, Askthe Realtor, we're going to talk
(03:06):
to Anthony LaMacchia about vacation properties.I love to talk about vacation. Yeah,
it's a nice topic. You know, I'm a Cape cotter and I
really have been my whole life.And I was lucky enough to purchase a
home down there during the pandemic,and I ended up getting a thirty year
fixed mortgage of two point three percent. This is something Jill likes to rub
(03:30):
into us every time we talk about, Yeah, it is so great,
it's unbelievable, it's unbelievable. ButI often wonder about, you know,
what's happening now, because down onthe Cape you read about the properties and
you know they're still snapped up,and that ultimately does impact you know,
(03:52):
folks vacation plans. Absolutely, SoAnthony's going to talk to us about that.
Always fun to chat with him.Also coming up Rob Mellie. He
is the executive director of the MassachusettsPackage Store Association, and the Massachusetts House
has now passed a bill that wouldmake cocktails to go permanent here in the
(04:12):
state. This was a COVID policy, and his organization is none too pleased.
Now it still needs to pass theSenate, but they are none too
pleased about this. And Rob isalways very passionate for his organization, and
I anticipate he will be equally passionatetoday about this topic. Well, the
irony here is that Rob Mellan theMassachusetsack Store Association when COVID, they supported
(04:35):
this idea because it's going to betemporary, right, We're just going to
do this for a few months ormaybe six months, maybe a year.
Well not so much so now upthere on Beacon Hill, they're trying to
make it permanent. And as Kimjust said, yeah, yeah, he's
not too pleased. No, youknow what's really interesting about this whole concept.
We've had this conversation, but it'sworth repeating. I only ordered cocktails
(04:59):
to go once during the heart ofthe pandemic. I never have you never
have in four years. I neverhave. I haven't since then, and
I don't anticipate that I will.Yeah, but my daughter made a good
point because I was bringing this upwith her and the younger generation. She
said, yeah, Dad, Iget that. She says, but you
know, if you want to havea margarita, you know there are all
kinds of ingredients for that. Soif you can get the drink made,
(05:21):
you know, maybe at some levelyou are saving a penny or a dime
here, But I'd feel like it'sso expensive, exactly. I don't get
it. But anyway, it's amajor issue for the Massachusetts Package Store Association.
And Joe also the founder and chairmanof Pison Technology. He's going to
be with us. It's a localcompany. They have some absolutely amazing technology
(05:45):
that can actually measure your reaction time. So in other words, if you
see a light and you snap yourfingers, it tells you just how quickly
your brain is functioning. Yeah,I know, you get into some of
this technology and it's really really remarkablewhat they're doing. And of course Elon
Musk is also getting into this spaceas well. But Dexter Rag is a
(06:06):
local kid and a graduate of MIT, and he has a great story to
tell. Yeah, let's get startedwith our good friend Doug Banks, the
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, one of our partners here on New
England Business Report. Doug, greatto have you. I know you guys
have been following a lot of storiesthis week, including Governor Healey's announcement of
the unveiling of her ten year,one billion dollar climate tech initiative. The
(06:30):
idea, of course, to attractsmall manufacturing operations with clean energy is a
billion bucks enuff. You know,it's a funny question that you asked,
because anyone in Massachusetts especially would saya billion dollars should be more than enough.
But here's the thing. We're competingagainst the life of North Carolina and
(06:53):
Texas and places like West Virginia,and they're you know, ten ten years
is one billion dollars over ten years. Turns out that's not that much money.
It's one hundred million dollars a yearwhen you start breaking that up into
some of the ways they want tospend the money, some of which is
going to be capital expense. Someof it is not real dollar handout,
(07:15):
it's tax breaks to create jobs thatactually bring in more money. It's like,
you know, it's like I say, hey, I'm going to give
you ten dollars and you're going togive you back thirty dollars. That's a
good investment and that's the kind ofinvestment that the state is looking to spend.
And so the question is will abillion dollars when you break it up
over ten years, will that beenough? And the answer is, I
(07:39):
think the Heally administration has figured outthere are certain types of clean energy manufacturing
that Massachusetts will get, you know, highly attached to research, really focused
and that kind of job with asmaller pilot manufacturing probably will work, but
anything more than that, big jobswill probably still head down south, where
(08:01):
electricity is cheaper, rent rates arecheaper, and other aspects are cheaper,
and we don't have the wherewthal.We're not going to spend more than a
billion dollars over ten years, thenit wouldn't be enough. Talking with Doug
Banks, executive editor of the BostonBusiness Journal, one of our partners here
on the New England Business Report,well let's dig a little deeper into that.
And of course, the governor madeher announcement about the ten year,
(08:22):
one billion dollar climate tech initiative lastweek, and they chose to do it
at form Energy's new Summerville headquarters.They're a battery maker, but as you
point out, and as Greg Ryanpoints out in the Boston Business Journal,
when it comes to building a newfacility, they're not building it here in
(08:43):
Massachusetts, Doug, So why wouldthey stand there and tout them? That
is a great question And the answeris, again, if you talked to
the Secretary of on how she willmake the distinction between the types of jobs
that we can compete for and thetypes that we can't and Form Energy was
(09:03):
given a lot of money for fromby the state of West Virginia. Seventy
five million dollars for the purchase ofthe land, another two hundred million dollars
in state and federal funds to openup a plant, a plant along the
Ohio River that will employ seven hundredand fifty people. Now again the numbers
(09:24):
I just gave you one hundred milliondollars a year over ten years. West
Virginia is tripling that for one company. And here's Form Energy getting that money
all to itself by West Virginia.We're never going to compete with like that,
you know, is that type ofa of a manufacturing site. But
Form Energy is you know, lookingat what the state does want to do,
(09:46):
and they're going to be opening moreyou know, manufacturing plants, and
they're thinking, well, they willgive Massachusetts a look in the future,
so that at least we have ourfoot in the door. We have an
opportunity for in form or other cleanenergy companies want to create smaller you know,
R and D centric manufacturing pilot manufacturingcenters here, We've got a chance.
(10:07):
Yeah, But at the same time, they also laid people off just
before she made the announcement. Yeah, that was all how kind of an
awkward headline that it really was thatthe thing was crazy to me, Doug,
I don't understand how this all wentdown there at Form Energy. I
don't know that the Governor's office reallyknew that they were going to be announcing
layoffs and this Form Energy layoffs whereit's a small number of layoffs, small
(10:31):
percentage, single digit percentage, andthey still have I think eighty job openings
in Massachusetts. So they've got youknow, over two hundred people here at
the Somerville location, six hundred andfifty across the US, and they're still
looking to hire as many of theeighty people. So I think this is
(10:52):
more of a you know, likea lot of companies are doing right now,
restructuring, you know, shuffling resources, deciding where the future is going
to be, and then I thinksome people go who are not in the
right projects for the future. Sobut it was definitely made for an awkward
moment, and you know, wewere there to report it. They weren't
thrilled that we reported at the timethat we did, but hey, the
announcement was what it was. DougBanks, the executive editor of the Boston
(11:15):
Business Journal. Yeah, so,Doug, I guess you know, we
only have about a minute left here. But I'm just curious as to your
opinion of where we're heading, becauseup next we're going to be talking with
Chris Anderson of the Massachusetts High TechnologyCouncil, And boy, there are a
lot of storm clouds on the horizonthere. What do you see, Doug
Well? I know Chris Well,and I'm sure that he's going to talk
about the high cost of doing businessin the state. You know, when
(11:37):
we talk about competitiveness, I thinkit's a really important message that the Healing
Administration is putting out there that theywant to compete. Every time you talk
to someone in the Heally administration,they're talking about Team Massachusetts. They want
to get the business community on board, Chris, you know, and the
High Tech Council has done a greatjob of looking as far forward into the
(11:58):
future as they can. And it'sreally important for Massachusetts to get a hold
of our high cost of housing,the challenges with transportation and getting people from
one part of the state to workin another part of the state, you
know, lower cost housing, andcentral mass and certain pockets of even Western
mass to get them to Boston andthe parts that we have the jobs so
(12:22):
high, cost of housing, transportation, workforce development, getting people off the
sidelines and into the workforce. Thoseare the issues that we still have to
figure out in this state, andI'm sure you'll hear a lot about it,
all right, Doug Banks, He'sfrom the Boston Business Journal. Doug,
thanks so much for being with usagain this week. Les, you
just heard a moment ago Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Tech Council.
(12:43):
He'll be our next guest. I'mKim Kerrigan along with Joe Schwartzleeve,
and you're listening to the New EnglandBusiness Report. You are listening to the
New England Business Report on the Voiceof Boston WRKO six't eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right back.When it comes to financing homes, there's
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(15:09):
in part by Leader Bank, ModernBanking with a personal touch. Our next
guest is Chris Anderson. He isthe president of the Massachusetts High Tech Council.
He's an attorney. He's been withthe High Tech Council since nineteen eighty
four, and he's been the topguy, the president since two thousand and
one. So nobody knows better whatexactly is taking place in this segment of
(15:33):
our economy than Chris. Chris,welcome to the program. Hey, it's
great to be with both of you. Had to be back. Yeah,
all right, bring us up tospeed. You know, there are a
lot of headlines that aren't exactly goingyour way these days. What is the
health of the Massachusetts high tech economy? Well, the state's economy is still
incredibly diverse, and we have awealth of innovation sectors, funding and talent.
(16:00):
But the trend is downward, sowe've seen the competitiveness weaken. There
are a lot more storm clouds onthe horizon, and we're seeing this sort
of mix of opportunity and challenge atthe same time. The challenges, if
we deal with them properly, cango a long way at restoring sort of
(16:25):
that robust private sector innovation led toeconomy that we've enjoyed for years and then
capitalized on some of the opportunities thatare even captured in Governor Healey's Economic Development
Plan that was recently filed. Well, let's talk about that, Chris.
I know that you've said that everynew governor tries something like this, So
give us a sense of what's goingon with her plan. Well, she's
(16:48):
digging in on a lot of datathat we actually produced in the fall around
several of our innovation sectors, andso she's hitting the right themes. And
I think what we're able to dois plug in some specific game planning around
these areas. And the goal thinkof it this way. The goal really
is to say, all right,where are the innovation sectors in Massachusetts that
(17:11):
if we do the right, thingscan actually increase state growth, increase state
GDP, and obviously artificial intelligence cybersecurityare near the top of the opportunity list,
and other states are right in themix with us, so we really
have to be in that game ina brand new way that we've been in
(17:33):
the past. But clean energy andclean technology, financial technology, and of
course health technology are all opportunities.We rank around the third or fourth in
the nation in those categories. Soif we do things properly, and the
Governor's plan provides somewhat of an outlineunder which anything that requires government support could
(17:56):
be supported, we could move fromthird or worth in the country to second
or first, much like we've donewith life sciences. Our guest is Chris
Anderson. He's the president of theMassachusetts High Technology Council. I jumped onto
your website, Chris and took alook at the Council's core philosophy and policy
approach, and underneath that it's writtenthat challenges here in the state are further
(18:21):
exascerbated by the disruptive effects of massachusettsdeteriorating business environment and changes in tax policies,
demanding collective action. What does BeaconHill need to do at this point,
what do you want to see comingout of well, the Governor's office
and the House and Senate. Well, they've got to recognize that people who
(18:41):
create jobs, invest in our economyare aware of the differences among the fifty
states. Certainly, companies headquartered herehave operations in places like Florida, Texas,
New Hampshire, and those states areattracting our population. We've talked in
the past about the migration of thekey individuals that drive the Massachusetts economy and
(19:04):
residents. So we're seeing a declinein the number of residents, We're seeing
a loss in the number of taxpayers, and those are combining to result in
what is now a twenty year consecutivemonth decline. But I mean it's seven
months in a row, which isa twenty year high of declining state tax
(19:25):
revenues. In other words, statetax collections are missing the mark for the
seventh month in a row, andthat trend is going to continue to exacerbate
how Beacon Hill decides to spend money. Now, one other factor is while
we're losing taxpayer population, we're increasingundocumented migrants who are here and creating a
(19:48):
brand new budget challenge that wasn't foreseenjust a few months ago. So if
we're going to support the kind ofactivity that the budget is aimed at providing
a safety net for or economic developmentsupport for, we're going to have to
address these outlying causes. And thelegislature and the governor, some of whom
(20:10):
are speaking in the right direction,really haven't provided any specific proposals to address
those root causes that are resulting inthese deteriorating conditions. So, Chris,
does the Council have some suggestions orideas that you're going to pass on to
those on Beacon Hill. Well,everybody's been watching what the impact of the
(20:36):
twenty twenty two ballet Question one isdoing. That's the surtax I think coomes
over million that remains I think,you know the proximate cause of the now
multiple layer of declining conditions here.That's going to be hard to fix.
So the legislature and the governor aregoing to have to figure out other measures
(20:59):
that are marginally best to stem thetide. Just looking at the tax bill
that they filed and passed and signedlast fall, it really did little to
impact our outlier tax status in Massachusetts. So they're going to have to get
with it. They can talk aboutinvesting in things that we agree with,
like fintech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, but you can't do that in the
(21:22):
absence of addressing the things that arealso driving those investors, those employers,
and those employees to find places likeTexas and Florida as preferred venues to do
businesses. Chris Anderson is our guestpresident of the Massachusetts High Technology Council.
I guess in that vein, Chris, you know, one of the things
(21:42):
as it relates to why Massachusetts isnot competitive, and that seems like many
times it comes back to the housingissue and this whole idea of you,
sure, you can open a businesshere, or you can hire somebody.
If they can't afford to buy ahouse, they're not going to come here.
Last week on this program, wetalked about the twenty twenty one MBTA
Communities Act, where communities are supposedto rezone for multi housing. Where is
(22:06):
the mass use of High Technology Councilon a legislation or a law like that,
Well, we think that makes imminentsense, and I think communities that
are near public transportation should be incentivizedto build more affordable housing, and then
that will allow the MBTA or thestate to invest in those transportation infrastructure upgrades
to move people more effectively. Thehigh cost of housing is a substantial to
(22:32):
term, particularly for people in theirtwenties who we have a pretty large workforce
around. So it's essential that I'lltell you Joe and Kim, if we
continue to let the business climate remainan increase in its uncompetitive nature, the
housing cost issue is going to takecare of itself. And unfortunately that's the
(22:53):
wrong solution. People are going toleave. We're going to see a dramatic
sea change in what our workforce lookslike. And I'm not talking about next
week or tomorrow, but over thenext few years. If we're not really
focused on the fundamental foundation of havinga welcome mat out for business, then
it's going to impact the high costof housing. By the way, the
(23:15):
other thing is the healthcare system isunder severe strain. And it's not so
much the for proper Stewart example,which is a horrible example of what not
to do, but even the excellentnot for profits in the Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center and the Mass General BrighamSystem, they're still under incredible strain as
(23:40):
a result of COVID, and that'snot going to end overnight. So there
are some huge shifts in the harbor. But I would just come back to
saying that if Massachusetts is going tolead its way out of some of those
mammouth challenges, it's got to takea much more visible role in telling businesses
you're welcome here. When you succeedhere, we want you to succeed here,
(24:03):
and we're not going to treat youas a ATM machine. If you
do succeed, that extracts more ofyour success for us to spend on some
of this other stuff. And that'sthat's fundamental to sort of the message that
we're looking at putting a solve around. Yeah. Absolutely, Chris, I'm
fascinated. I'm kind of changing gearshere a bit, but I'm fascinated by
(24:26):
AI. And I'm just curious asto how you see this playing into the
business climate in the future here inthe state. I mean, is it
going to take jobs? Is itgoing to increase jobs? Give us a
sense of where you guys are onit. AI is like the invention of
electricity, and we're on the theone yard line of where this is going
(24:48):
to take us. So it's importantto recognize that there are huge opportunities.
There will be lots of different jobscreated, There'll be lots of industries that
will be a lot more efficient andexpand engagement with their target audiences, and
there'll be some jobs that will shift. But more importantly, AI poses with
(25:10):
the opportunity to boost engagement and economicdevelopment a lot more risk and I think
a lot of We're actually creating aChief Information Security Officer group of our members
that will be meeting regularly, talkedabout specifically cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. And
there are about twelve different priority topicsthat have come up, ranging from employee
(25:37):
education to board engagement, to publicpolicies at the state and federal level,
to how you develop risk and trustassurance safety. There's a whole bunch of
applications that we'll be looking at.And these are all questions that seasoned executives
are dealing with today, and they'regoing to work together to come up with
(26:00):
some shared knowledge. He's Chris Anderson. He's the president of the Massachusetts High
Technology Council. Thanks for taking timein joining us on this Sunday morning.
Up next to you thinking about well, maybe heading to the Cape. Maybe
you want to well rent a placeor buy a place well. Our next
guests will tell you exactly what you'reup against as we head towards the summer
of twenty twenty four. You're listeningto the New England Business Report. Anthony
(26:22):
Lamachia is on deck. Kim andJoe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return. Are you thinking about selling your home
but hesitant because of your low ratemortgage, or concerned it might sell too
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(26:47):
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England dot com. There's a lotso love. Wow, it's time to
(28:07):
plan your perfect Cape Cod get awayfor beach season. Fully Vacation Rentals a
Lamachia company is your trusted local expertin Falmouth and all over Cape Cod for
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rentals dot com. The New EnglandBusiness Report on w RKO is brought to
you in part by Lamachia Realty.Lamachia Realty, you will guide you to
your success visit Lamachiarealty dot com.Welcome back everyone to the New England Business
(28:57):
Report. I'm Kim Karagan with Joeshort Sleeve. Yeah, great to be
here, Kim. We've got alot to talk about in this next half
hour of the program that we doask the realtor. It's a weekly segment
for us. Anthony Lamachi is goingto be with us. He's talking about
vacation rentals. Hey, if youhaven't gotten your vacation rental, he's going
to have some tips for you.Also, Rob Mellian of the Massachusetts Package
(29:19):
Store Association is going to join us. He's none too pleased about some legislation
that's moving across Beacon Hill related tococktails to Go. And finally, the
founder and chair of Pison Technology,Dexter Aang, will be with us.
Really a fascinating local company. You'regoing to want to hear their story for
(29:40):
sure. You know we're going totalk a little bit about our economy,
of course, But you know,Kim eyes, looking at some of the
business stories that have made headlines thisweek, you know, I'm always wondering,
Okay, what's going on with pricesand this? They're up? There
are so girl Scout cookies? Howabout that? Yeah? Yeah, you
(30:00):
know they're not immune. Let's see. According to this, it says girl
Stout Cookies customers are now paying sevendollars a box for favorites like thin mince
and tag alongs, and last yearthey were five bucks. So even the
Girl Scouts. Okay, I don'twant to sound like I'm one hundred years
old, but I was a GirlScout and I sold cookies and when I
(30:22):
did, they were seventy five centsa box. Wow. I know I'm
two hundred and eighty. But havingsaid that, I'm also hey, we
want to talk about something that's reallyfun. Sam Adams celebrating forty years.
Jim Cook, who of course foundedSam Adams. If you if you can
believe this, he set a goalin the first year that he did this
(30:44):
forty years ago, that he wantedto have about eight employees and about a
million bucks in sales. Over fiveyears. Over five years, they now
have twenty eight hundred employees two billiondollars at annual sales. Yeah, I
love that, Sam Madam, don'tyou. It's time for our weekly feature,
Ask the Real Term, and ofcourse we are joined by founder and
(31:07):
President of Lamachia Real d Anthony Lamachia. Great to have you with us,
Thank you for having me. Iam in a good mood this week,
even more than normal because it isMarch, which is the official kickoff month
of the real estate season every year. Absolutely well, terrific. We're glad
you're in such a great mood.Joe and I are in a good mood
too, because we've been talking despitethe weather all week, we've been talking
(31:30):
about summer vacation and it's time tothink about those summer rentals. Maybe down
on the Cape or the islands.Are there available rentals as far as you
can tell, Oh, absolutely,and we have them in our inventory.
So last summer we were fortunate andlucky to be able to purchase fully real
estate and to bring fully real estateinto our Lamachia companies. So our sister
(31:56):
company, which we call fully VacationRentals, we've got over one hundred and
twenty properties that we manage in theFalmouth market, and there are still several
weeks left. Most of it's booked, but there's still a lot of weeks
left for a lot of the summerrentals and Falmouth and surrounding communities. Anthony
Lomacky is our guest Lomochia Reality,So Anthony, I guess a year to
year comparison. Last year we heardabout like a softness in the rental market
(32:20):
down on the k people there's alot more available. But then recently I've
seen some headlines that suggests just theopposite and that things are fairly tightened up
down there. Well, let metell you what happens, the same thing
that home sellers do. You know, we get to every year when the
market's getting stronger and stronger sellers thenthey push their prices a little higher,
a little higher, a little higher, and then somewhere every few years there's
(32:43):
a bump in the market, interestrates go up, where the economy slows
down. And then when when homessit and they don't sell, sellers go
oh no, I priced too high, and people in the marketplace realize it,
and then prices I don't want tosay come down, but they soften,
they don't go up as much.People don't get as daring. The
same exact thing happened last year inthe summer vacation space. Literally identical occurrence
(33:10):
where people started pushing their rental pricestoo darn high. We even started with
some of our inventory where they justoverdid it a bit and properties didn't rent
or it took tell the you know, tell may in June to get them
rented, and then they took evenless than they should have or would have
(33:30):
had to if they did it theright way in the winter. So that's
all that was last year. Idon't think it was any any indication of
anything major anthony. When people wantto rent, I think a lot of
times they rent as they're walking outthe door in July for the following July.
But what's the best time of yearto get the best deal down there?
(33:52):
Well, the sooner you booked,the better. I mean, I'd
say either books soon or book lastminute. The problem with last minute is
usually get the place that no oneelse wanted. So we had a lot
of bookings come in in the fall, and then we always see a bump
up in the first three weeks ofJanuary and then really the next couple of
(34:13):
months is the time where you know, kind of the last minute Larry's per
se, get going. But ifyou are looking, if you're a listener
and you're looking to rent a summervacation rental down in Foulmouth or anywhere in
those surrounding communities, definitely reach outnow, get in touch at this time,
Anthony. What's going on on thebuy side at this point? Okay,
(34:34):
so never mind, I want torent on the Cape? No,
no, you know what I wantto do. I want to buy on
the Cape. What is the situation? Is it still? You better have
your check book ready or this placeis going to be gone. Well,
this time of year is the hardesttime to buy because there's the least amount
of sellers. I think I talkedabout this last weekend the week before with
you guys. Every single year,sellers wait to list their homes, but
(35:00):
buyers come out and drove determined tobuy in the winter. And then as
we get closer to the summer,more and more homes get listed, and
more and more buyers find homes,So the amount of buyers actually decreases from
about now or maybe even a monthfrom now to the end of the year.
It decreases each week because buyers findhomes and the amount of sellers goes
(35:22):
up each week. So if you'relooking to buy a home right now,
you are going to compete. Andif you don't want to compete, and
you're not willing to step up andmake bold offers, then you will not
be able to land a home inthis market unless it's extremely unreasonably overpriced.
All right, So whether it's rainingor not, you have to start thinking
(35:43):
about your vacation plans. Anthony Lilamachia. Thanks very much. We'll talk to
you again next week. Wonderful,Kim. I always love talking about heading
down to Cape Cod Up. Next, we're going to change gears a little
bit and we're going to talk aboutthat corner package store. Joining us now
is Rob Mellion. He is theexecutive director of the Massachusetts Package Store Association
(36:07):
and Rob's group. You know,the corner of the folks all in the
corner package stores. Well, they'rethey're not happy with a new provision of
this whole idea of drinks to go. You know, they started this idea,
Kim, during the pandemic to helprestaurants. But guess what everybody thought
it was going to be temporary.No, not really. On Thursday in
the House of Representatives up there onBeacon Hill, Uh, they passed drinks
(36:30):
to go to become permanently, tobecome permanent moving forward. So Rob mellion,
let's start there. I mean,your your thoughts about what has happened
up on Beacon Hill. So yeah, let's start there. And by the
way, thank you for reaching outon this issue. So the House asking
an appropriation for emergency shelters, slippedin the provision that allows for this drinks
(36:59):
to go and clear, we're talkingabout sixty four ounces of whiskey, rum
or vodka as your spirit, onehundred and ninety two ounces of beer,
which is a mini keg or acase or a couple of bottles of wine.
(37:20):
That's that's drinks to go under thisit is also drinks to go that
allows a brewery to be able tohome deliver with potato chips. That's the
drinks to go that the House justpassed. So yes, they did that
under an appropriation bill while all eyeswere on the municipal bill that we just
testified on last week. So Rob, this was supposed to come to an
(37:43):
end at the end of March.It's now, according to the House,
going to be permanent. Talk tous about how this hurts the local package
store. So it's permanent at theexpense of locally owned stores. And our
members are not just package stores.Our members are independent markets that are selling
alcohol along with convenience stores that areselling alcohol, all who are headquartered in
(38:07):
Massachusetts. It is a direct hitto all of them, as it has
been for the last several years.But the difference was we worked with industry
and legislators four years ago for thebenefit of the entire industry and the state
of Massachusetts to provide for a temporarymeasure. Now, through the work of
(38:32):
Big Alcohol, Big Alcohol meaning Discus, the Still Spirits Council for the United
States, and the Restaurants Association,it's being turned into something far different.
It's being turned into an opportunity forrestaurants to be able to become liquor stores,
and that definitely bites into our ability, our members' ability to be able
(38:58):
to survive going forward. Because usewhen I when I hear the testimony from
others trying to explain why they shouldhave drinks to go. We hear,
well, you know they need therevenue, but the revenue is coming from
somebody else. That's the problem here. The revenue is coming from stores who
are facing the highest electricity costs inthe country, who are facing the same
(39:20):
labor costs that restaurants are facing,who are they're dealing with the same inventory
issues that the restaurants are dealing with. And on top of that, they've
lost flavor to back Goo sales becausethe state banned that. They are dealing
with unbelievable amounts of illegal shipping intothis state that is very difficult to enforce
upon, and they're definitely going toget eye lottery that's going to take revenus
(39:45):
away from it. All right,Rob, let's let's talk about the other
side. And I know you're wellaware of it. Okay, we're talking
about Rob Million, executive director ofthe Mass Package Store Association. Now the
committee chair up there in Beacon Hill, Senator Jacob Olivera. I guess the
Ludlow Democrat. And you know whathe says. He says, no offense
to you guys, referring to thepackage stores. This is completely anecdotal.
I haven't seen a single package storein my hometown shut down. But I've
(40:07):
seen restaurants shut down left and right, and I guess the message. I
was there and he said that,I'm sorry, Judges, I'm sorry to
jump in. I was so upsetwhen he said what he did say,
because he said that to two storeowners who are struggling, one of which
is it's a family business, beenin a third generation and they're struggling.
(40:30):
And the point is, and thecute part about what the senator said is
he wouldn't allow me an opportunity toprovide evidence that he was wrong. So
he made his statement and then shutme off. Now, Rob, can
I jump in and say, Iwould like for you to provide us with
some of that evidence, give usan example, or give us some numbers
(40:51):
how this is cut into the store'sbusinesses. What I was trying to get
across to that panel up the stateHouse is that people don't see the closures
in our business because it's done differently. Closures in our business are done through
what are called license transfers. Forthe last five years in a row,
there have been over two hundred licensedtransfers going on within our industry per year,
(41:16):
a third of the businesses that sellalcohol in the state have transferred ownership.
That's what licensed transfer is. Itis where one owner sells their license,
often at a loss for the lastcouple of years, to somebody else
or to another company. Right,we've been seeing over two hundred of those
(41:37):
a year for the past five years. Well, why are you losing this
argument? On Beacon Hill sign ofthe Senate. I guess my question is
twofold. What are you going todo now? I think we're losing the
argument because I think that people likethe convenience. And you know, we
heard that from another state representative,one of the co chairs to the Joint
Committee on the Municipalities sheep point blanks, set get over it, find another
(42:00):
way. You'll survive. You'll haveto figure it out because this is what
the consumer wants. That's what wewere told at the hearing. And the
answer back to that is this isabout regulation. You're legislating a change in
the alcohol beverages industry because of somethingthat you, as a legislator want for
(42:21):
yourself, or you think it's becauseit's what the public wants. But we're
forgetting why these rules and regulations wereput in place to begin with. The
industry was purposefully intentionally legislated to beseparated. We have on premise, we
have off premise alcohol. Retail onpremise sells on the premise. Off premise
(42:45):
can only sell off the premise.Now, the legislature, through this act,
with no hearings, no discussion,is changing the industry so that on
premise becomes off premise and on premisebut on but off premise can only be
off premise. Yeah. Rob Mellion, he's executive director of the Mass Package
Store Association. We're gonna have toleave it there, Rob, But this
(43:07):
goes on. The story goes onup there in Beacon Hill, and as
it moves to the Senate, we'llget you back for the very latest there.
Thanks very much for joining us onthe New England Business Report. All
right, Joe, Coming up next, we'll have the founder and the chairman
of a new company here in Boston, Pison Technology. Dexter Ang will be
our guest. You're listening to theNew England Business Report. You are listening
(43:35):
to the New England Business Report onthe Voice of Boston w RKO six'
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(45:49):
The New England Business Report on WRKOis brought to you in part by Subaru
of New England. Feel the freedomof a brand new twenty twenty four Subaru
featuring symmetrical all wheel drive. Subaruof New England. Journing us now is
Dexter Aang. He's the chairman andfounder of Pyson Technology and it's so great
(46:09):
to have you with us. Dexter, great to have the time with you
this morning. Absolutely listen tell everybodywhat Pyson technology is all about. Great.
So, Pyson is a Boston borncompany. We have roots from MIT
and University of Rhode Island and whatwe're developing is the first neural sensing platform
(46:30):
and our first product on that platform, Pyson Ready, is a technology that
can understand a person's reaction time tounlock the power of your mind. Okay,
how does that work? So ourproduct is in a wrist worm device
like a smart watch, and it'sbased on concepts that NASA has proven out
(46:52):
over thirty years. It is actuallythe gold standard for assessing alertness and fatigue
and pro sports as well as withastronauts, and Pyson is simply the first
one to offer this technology in arisk device. It experiences basically like the
person would see a light that turnson and then when they see that light,
(47:14):
their brain is making a decision toreact to that light, and then
the signal courses through your nervous systemand you move your hand and it's that
simple, but it really reveals theentirety about the neural performance of your body
and therefore we can understand the cognitivestate of the person at that time.
(47:34):
Right, And it's not an anticipationthing. It's actual brain waves that are
moving through your body. That's exactlyright. We are able to measure precisely
real time, on an individualized basisthat person's reaction time. There are three
different aspects of our product that wecall a readiness test, a mental agility
(47:55):
test, and a focus test.Your readiness test is twenty seconds long.
A person is looking at that lightand reacting as fast as they can.
There is a test that is actuallybased on science called go no go tests,
which allows a person to make splitsecond decisions. And that is in
(48:15):
relation to a use case that wemay all be able to understand. In
baseball, for example, if there'sa pitch, it batter has to understand
and discern quickly within a handful ofmilliseconds. Is this going to be in
the strike zone? Is this goingto be a ball? This type of
test has actually been proven to beutilized for that type of use case,
(48:37):
and we have onboard and a numberof pro teams for our technology as well
for that use case. I'd liketo talk about that as well. We're
talking with a Dexter, and heof course is an MIT graduate chairman and
founder of Prison Technology. But beforewe do that, today's practical applications in
the military, so on and soforth. This has everything to do with
your late mother and ALS. Talkto us a little bit. I read
(49:00):
about that near Mit literature. Yeah, I appreciate you asking about this.
Pyson really is a passion. Uh. You know, the origination of the
company was because my mother was affectedby ALS. She lost the ability to
move her hands easily. And youknow, she first noticed these, you
(49:21):
know, these symptoms when she wasyou know, boarding up playing to come
see me in Boston, and thenshe wasn't able to lift up her luggage
into the top area. And youknow, this may seem like a normal
thing, but then when he gotchecked out, then then we quickly learned
that there was a continuous attribute,you know, atrophy of her nervous system,
which was very challenging as a familyfor us to hear about. My
(49:44):
mother passed away after one year fromthat point. That was in twenty fifteen
October that she passed away, anda year later I created the company with
my co founder David Cippoletta, Andthe concept that we were pursuing was that
really this community needed better technology,They needed a type of neural sensing capability
(50:05):
that was convenient, that was accessible. We do a lot of work with
that community. We've won a numberof awards from the ALS Association. And
while we do that research, wethought that the larger world needed a product,
and we saw the opportunity to launchand commercialize that recently, and so
we are excited that we can continuethis medical journey long term and that we
(50:30):
actually can get products in a consumerlow price point available to people now.
So, Dexter, let's talk alittle bit taking of just a step further.
I know you've said the medical community, but let's talk about the practical
use of this. I know you'vealso mentioned professional athletes. Where do you
anticipate this will be used. It'sa great indication for where our technology will
(50:54):
go based upon some of the earlyadopters of our technology. We have a
nast car driver. His name isAnthony Alfredo, and so he uses our
technology in a lot of ways thatwe did not anticipate. First of all,
he uses it to get in thezone before his races and he was
(51:14):
able to thankfully be pretty successful inthe race in the last couple of weeks,
and so getting his mind primed forsplit second decision making versus just sitting
in the car waiting for that startwas really a major use case that he
saw. Another one which a lotof people may relate to is being able
(51:37):
to understand how their body performed beforetraining and then during training. So,
for example, Anthony Alfredo, whenhe takes a reaction time test before his
training, then he gets his heartrate up to the maximum rate, then
he takes our test again in themiddle of that. What he needs to
see in what he's trying to improvein mind is that his performance is still
(52:02):
consistent and stable, and that heunderstands the limits of how his body changes
when he puts it through a strenuoussort of activity. Which is, what
is your product doing for him rightat that moment. Our product is that
that assessment of his mental reaction timestate. It is the same capability that
(52:28):
is offered to consumers. He isusing it for these purposes to be optimized
with his training and his performance.Brain injury obviously, this would be something
I think about, you know,maybe a football team using it for baseline
concussion research, and then you know, maybe using it again to determine if
(52:51):
someone is concussed. That's that's exactlyright there. The gold standard for concussion
that has been existing for a numberof years is to inform a and baseline
of a person's brain latency and reactiontime, for example, before the season
begins, and then to seek tomonitor that after a person may have been
(53:15):
exposed to some sort of larger injury. The challenge there is that number one,
those baselines are actually it's a rangeof baselines. You know, a
person's body ebbs and flows throughout theday, and to be able to capture
a richer set of values is importantto even understand what's normal for a person
(53:37):
based on circadian rhythm, caffeine sleepnight before, and then also understanding that
injury to the brain, when we'vedone a lot of study with this in
the military and also now getting intoit with sports, is that injuries to
the brain are not necessarily one offactivities. There is what's called of concussive
(54:00):
impact, which would be subclinical activitiesthat jostle the brain. There might be
nanoscale damage if it's based upon somesort of shock wave activity to the brain,
and that will be asymptomatic. Therewould not be a way for the
person to even know that there's somethingwrong with themselves. They're not be a
(54:22):
way for a doctor to even perceiveor sense that there's something around them.
But actually their brain is slower becausesome of those cells have actually been damaged
and impacted. They may recover,they may not recover, and so there
is this opportunity for a technology toobjectively measure that impact on the body,
and we are being seen by alot of our partners as completely filling that
(54:45):
gap talking about Dexter Rang chairman founderof Bison Technologies, Elon Musk made headlines
in the past month or two withhis company Neulink. What's the difference between
what you're doing with I think it'squite exciting where there is so much interest
(55:06):
in understanding how the body works andespecially what relates to the brain. It's
very different looking at the brain thanlooking at, for example, physical attributes
that a lot of wearables do.And so what Pyson and you know,
Neuralink are doing is we're trying tounderstand the aspects of the nervous system.
Neuralink is a very interesting company.They insert things into your brain, they
(55:30):
cut your skull open and open it. Certain people may be interested in that.
I think Pyson is not heading downthat pathway. We are selling low
cost wrist watches and watch bands thatyou can buy on our website for sixty
dollars that a person can wear ontheir wrists for a few minutes a day
or all day if they desire,and we're able to glean a lot of
(55:52):
very important information from that type ofusage that is really accessible and convenient for
everybody. Well, it is fascinatingtechnology, and we thank you so much,
Dexter Aang, the chairman and founderof Pyson Technology, for being with
us here on New England Business Report. All right, Kim, time to
(56:12):
talk about next week? Yeah,of course next week is Saint Patrick's Day
in Boston. The seventeenth actually fallson a Sunday. We're going to be
talking with an executive from Conventures.They're a large company here in Boston.
Everybody knows Dusty Rhodes and they havebeen organizing not only the breakfast but the
parade as well. We're also goingto be joined by Paul English. He's
(56:34):
the founder of Kayaka website or actuallyan app that he sold for some two
billion dollars and today he's into datingapps in particular, it's called Lola,
we'll talk to Paul Fantastic. We'realso going to be joined by the chief
marketing director of Rhythm Now. That'sa New England based company that specializes in
sports betting analytics, just in timefor March Madness, which begins next Monday.
(57:00):
In the meantime, we hope everybodyhas a great week and you join
us right back here on w rKO for New England Business Report next Sunday and
This is the New England Business Reportwith Joe short Sleeve and Kim Carrigan,
a weekly roundup and discussion of thetop business news impacting our New England economy
and good Sunday morning. It isSunday, March tenth, and welcome to
the New England Business Report here onWRKO. I'm Joe Shortsleeve along with Kim
Carrigan and Kim. Nice to haveyou along this Sunday morning. Thank you,
(00:24):
nice to be with Yeah, wegot a jam packed hour. We're
going to be talking to, ofcourse, a Doug Banks of the Boston
Business Journal. He's a partner withus here and Doug is on top of
the business stories that really impact theNew England economy. And next morning,
one thing Doug's going to be talkingabout is this billion dollar investment by the
Healing Administration moving forward, and we'regoing to be talking about a company in
(00:49):
Summerville by the name of Form Energy. Yeah, it's it's a clean energy
company, and she made her bigannouncement that she's dedicating a billion dollars for
the next ten years to clean energy. And some interesting things happened while she
was there at that company making thatannouncement. So Doug Banks is going to
share that with us. Yeah,apparently that company's not too pleased with Doug
(01:12):
Banks or the governor because of thetiming of all of it. Yeah,
And if I were to tease ita little bit more, I just say
that, So you'd expect this companyin Summerville, if they're going to build
something, they'd build it here,right. Hang on. Also, this
morning, we're going to be joinedby Chris Anderson. He's the president of
the Massachusetts High Technology Council. WhenKim and I used to do a business
(01:36):
program down the street for Bloomberg,Chris was a regular visitor, so we
wanted to get Chris back. Thereare all kinds of headlines as it relates
to the mass high tech economy here. I mean, it seems like every
day, Kim, we're reading aboutlayoffs. And I remember when we were
doing the program for Bloomberg last year, every week we were talking about lab
(01:57):
space and building more and more labspace. Well, that's his ground to
a halt as well. So thereare a lot of challenges of facing that
industry at the point. Yeah,I mean, Chris has got a really
tough job because Chris is trying tokeep business and attract business to this state
in a time when there's a lotgoing on up there on Beacon Hill that
some would argue is keeping business outof the state. Sure, so it'll
(02:21):
be interesting to get his take onwhat's happening there on Beacon Hill and what
his council is doing to bring morebusiness to the state. One other thing
he will talk about is the housingsituation, and that has to do with
you know, any business wants tolocate in the state. I mean,
it's absolutely crazy and we all knowthat, but you know it does impact
businesses and it is impacting the economyand the state that young people simply cannot
(02:46):
afford to live here. What elsewe got going on? Can yeah,
Joe in the second half hour,if you can believe it, it's already
March, and that means if youare planning to rent a place, maybe
down on the Cape or the Islands, you probably need to get on it.
So in our weekly segment, Askthe Realtor, we're going to talk
(03:06):
to Anthony LaMacchia about vacation properties.I love to talk about vacation. Yeah,
it's a nice topic. You know, I'm a Cape cotter and I
really have been my whole life.And I was lucky enough to purchase a
home down there during the pandemic,and I ended up getting a thirty year
fixed mortgage of two point three percent. This is something Jill likes to rub
(03:30):
into us every time we talk about, Yeah, it is so great,
it's unbelievable, it's unbelievable. ButI often wonder about, you know,
what's happening now, because down onthe Cape you read about the properties and
you know they're still snapped up,and that ultimately does impact you know,
(03:52):
folks vacation plans. Absolutely, SoAnthony's going to talk to us about that.
Always fun to chat with him.Also coming up Rob Mellie. He
is the executive director of the MassachusettsPackage Store Association, and the Massachusetts House
has now passed a bill that wouldmake cocktails to go permanent here in the
(04:12):
state. This was a COVID policy, and his organization is none too pleased.
Now it still needs to pass theSenate, but they are none too
pleased about this. And Rob isalways very passionate for his organization, and
I anticipate he will be equally passionatetoday about this topic. Well, the
irony here is that Rob Mellan theMassachusetsack Store Association when COVID, they supported
(04:35):
this idea because it's going to betemporary, right, We're just going to
do this for a few months ormaybe six months, maybe a year.
Well not so much so now upthere on Beacon Hill, they're trying to
make it permanent. And as Kimjust said, yeah, yeah, he's
not too pleased. No, youknow what's really interesting about this whole concept.
We've had this conversation, but it'sworth repeating. I only ordered cocktails
(04:59):
to go once during the heart ofthe pandemic. I never have you never
have in four years. I neverhave. I haven't since then, and
I don't anticipate that I will.Yeah, but my daughter made a good
point because I was bringing this upwith her and the younger generation. She
said, yeah, Dad, Iget that. She says, but you
know, if you want to havea margarita, you know there are all
kinds of ingredients for that. Soif you can get the drink made,
(05:21):
you know, maybe at some levelyou are saving a penny or a dime
here, But I'd feel like it'sso expensive, exactly. I don't get
it. But anyway, it's amajor issue for the Massachusetts Package Store Association.
And Joe also the founder and chairmanof Pison Technology. He's going to
be with us. It's a localcompany. They have some absolutely amazing technology
(05:45):
that can actually measure your reaction time. So in other words, if you
see a light and you snap yourfingers, it tells you just how quickly
your brain is functioning. Yeah,I know, you get into some of
this technology and it's really really remarkablewhat they're doing. And of course Elon
Musk is also getting into this spaceas well. But Dexter Rag is a
(06:06):
local kid and a graduate of MIT, and he has a great story to
tell. Yeah, let's get startedwith our good friend Doug Banks, the
executive editor of the Boston Business Journal, one of our partners here on New
England Business Report. Doug, greatto have you. I know you guys
have been following a lot of storiesthis week, including Governor Healey's announcement of
the unveiling of her ten year,one billion dollar climate tech initiative. The
(06:30):
idea, of course, to attractsmall manufacturing operations with clean energy is a
billion bucks enuff. You know,it's a funny question that you asked,
because anyone in Massachusetts especially would saya billion dollars should be more than enough.
But here's the thing. We're competingagainst the life of North Carolina and
(06:53):
Texas and places like West Virginia,and they're you know, ten ten years
is one billion dollars over ten years. Turns out that's not that much money.
It's one hundred million dollars a yearwhen you start breaking that up into
some of the ways they want tospend the money, some of which is
going to be capital expense. Someof it is not real dollar handout,
(07:15):
it's tax breaks to create jobs thatactually bring in more money. It's like,
you know, it's like I say, hey, I'm going to give
you ten dollars and you're going togive you back thirty dollars. That's a
good investment and that's the kind ofinvestment that the state is looking to spend.
And so the question is will abillion dollars when you break it up
over ten years, will that beenough? And the answer is, I
(07:39):
think the Heally administration has figured outthere are certain types of clean energy manufacturing
that Massachusetts will get, you know, highly attached to research, really focused
and that kind of job with asmaller pilot manufacturing probably will work, but
anything more than that, big jobswill probably still head down south, where
(08:01):
electricity is cheaper, rent rates arecheaper, and other aspects are cheaper,
and we don't have the wherewthal.We're not going to spend more than a
billion dollars over ten years, thenit wouldn't be enough. Talking with Doug
Banks, executive editor of the BostonBusiness Journal, one of our partners here
on the New England Business Report,well let's dig a little deeper into that.
And of course, the governor madeher announcement about the ten year,
(08:22):
one billion dollar climate tech initiative lastweek, and they chose to do it
at form Energy's new Summerville headquarters.They're a battery maker, but as you
point out, and as Greg Ryanpoints out in the Boston Business Journal,
when it comes to building a newfacility, they're not building it here in
(08:43):
Massachusetts, Doug, So why wouldthey stand there and tout them? That
is a great question And the answeris, again, if you talked to
the Secretary of on how she willmake the distinction between the types of jobs
that we can compete for and thetypes that we can't and Form Energy was
(09:03):
given a lot of money for fromby the state of West Virginia. Seventy
five million dollars for the purchase ofthe land, another two hundred million dollars
in state and federal funds to openup a plant, a plant along the
Ohio River that will employ seven hundredand fifty people. Now again the numbers
(09:24):
I just gave you one hundred milliondollars a year over ten years. West
Virginia is tripling that for one company. And here's Form Energy getting that money
all to itself by West Virginia.We're never going to compete with like that,
you know, is that type ofa of a manufacturing site. But
Form Energy is you know, lookingat what the state does want to do,
(09:46):
and they're going to be opening moreyou know, manufacturing plants, and
they're thinking, well, they willgive Massachusetts a look in the future,
so that at least we have ourfoot in the door. We have an
opportunity for in form or other cleanenergy companies want to create smaller you know,
R and D centric manufacturing pilot manufacturingcenters here, We've got a chance.
(10:07):
Yeah, But at the same time, they also laid people off just
before she made the announcement. Yeah, that was all how kind of an
awkward headline that it really was thatthe thing was crazy to me, Doug,
I don't understand how this all wentdown there at Form Energy. I
don't know that the Governor's office reallyknew that they were going to be announcing
layoffs and this Form Energy layoffs whereit's a small number of layoffs, small
(10:31):
percentage, single digit percentage, andthey still have I think eighty job openings
in Massachusetts. So they've got youknow, over two hundred people here at
the Somerville location, six hundred andfifty across the US, and they're still
looking to hire as many of theeighty people. So I think this is
(10:52):
more of a you know, likea lot of companies are doing right now,
restructuring, you know, shuffling resources, deciding where the future is going
to be, and then I thinksome people go who are not in the
right projects for the future. Sobut it was definitely made for an awkward
moment, and you know, wewere there to report it. They weren't
thrilled that we reported at the timethat we did, but hey, the
announcement was what it was. DougBanks, the executive editor of the Boston
(11:15):
Business Journal. Yeah, so,Doug, I guess you know, we
only have about a minute left here. But I'm just curious as to your
opinion of where we're heading, becauseup next we're going to be talking with
Chris Anderson of the Massachusetts High TechnologyCouncil, And boy, there are a
lot of storm clouds on the horizonthere. What do you see, Doug
Well? I know Chris Well,and I'm sure that he's going to talk
about the high cost of doing businessin the state. You know, when
(11:37):
we talk about competitiveness, I thinkit's a really important message that the Healing
Administration is putting out there that theywant to compete. Every time you talk
to someone in the Heally administration,they're talking about Team Massachusetts. They want
to get the business community on board, Chris, you know, and the
High Tech Council has done a greatjob of looking as far forward into the
(11:58):
future as they can. And it'sreally important for Massachusetts to get a hold
of our high cost of housing,the challenges with transportation and getting people from
one part of the state to workin another part of the state, you
know, lower cost housing, andcentral mass and certain pockets of even Western
mass to get them to Boston andthe parts that we have the jobs so
(12:22):
high, cost of housing, transportation, workforce development, getting people off the
sidelines and into the workforce. Thoseare the issues that we still have to
figure out in this state, andI'm sure you'll hear a lot about it,
all right, Doug Banks, He'sfrom the Boston Business Journal. Doug,
thanks so much for being with usagain this week. Les, you
just heard a moment ago Chris Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Tech Council.
(12:43):
He'll be our next guest. I'mKim Kerrigan along with Joe Schwartzleeve,
and you're listening to the New EnglandBusiness Report. You are listening to the
New England Business Report on the Voiceof Boston WRKO six't eighty. Joe
and Kim will be right back.When it comes to financing homes, there's
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(15:09):
in part by Leader Bank, ModernBanking with a personal touch. Our next
guest is Chris Anderson. He isthe president of the Massachusetts High Tech Council.
He's an attorney. He's been withthe High Tech Council since nineteen eighty
four, and he's been the topguy, the president since two thousand and
one. So nobody knows better whatexactly is taking place in this segment of
(15:33):
our economy than Chris. Chris,welcome to the program. Hey, it's
great to be with both of you. Had to be back. Yeah,
all right, bring us up tospeed. You know, there are a
lot of headlines that aren't exactly goingyour way these days. What is the
health of the Massachusetts high tech economy? Well, the state's economy is still
incredibly diverse, and we have awealth of innovation sectors, funding and talent.
(16:00):
But the trend is downward, sowe've seen the competitiveness weaken. There
are a lot more storm clouds onthe horizon, and we're seeing this sort
of mix of opportunity and challenge atthe same time. The challenges, if
we deal with them properly, cango a long way at restoring sort of
(16:25):
that robust private sector innovation led toeconomy that we've enjoyed for years and then
capitalized on some of the opportunities thatare even captured in Governor Healey's Economic Development
Plan that was recently filed. Well, let's talk about that, Chris.
I know that you've said that everynew governor tries something like this, So
give us a sense of what's goingon with her plan. Well, she's
(16:48):
digging in on a lot of datathat we actually produced in the fall around
several of our innovation sectors, andso she's hitting the right themes. And
I think what we're able to dois plug in some specific game planning around
these areas. And the goal thinkof it this way. The goal really
is to say, all right,where are the innovation sectors in Massachusetts that
(17:11):
if we do the right, thingscan actually increase state growth, increase state
GDP, and obviously artificial intelligence cybersecurityare near the top of the opportunity list,
and other states are right in themix with us, so we really
have to be in that game ina brand new way that we've been in
(17:33):
the past. But clean energy andclean technology, financial technology, and of
course health technology are all opportunities.We rank around the third or fourth in
the nation in those categories. Soif we do things properly, and the
Governor's plan provides somewhat of an outlineunder which anything that requires government support could
(17:56):
be supported, we could move fromthird or worth in the country to second
or first, much like we've donewith life sciences. Our guest is Chris
Anderson. He's the president of theMassachusetts High Technology Council. I jumped onto
your website, Chris and took alook at the Council's core philosophy and policy
approach, and underneath that it's writtenthat challenges here in the state are further
(18:21):
exascerbated by the disruptive effects of massachusettsdeteriorating business environment and changes in tax policies,
demanding collective action. What does BeaconHill need to do at this point,
what do you want to see comingout of well, the Governor's office
and the House and Senate. Well, they've got to recognize that people who
(18:41):
create jobs, invest in our economyare aware of the differences among the fifty
states. Certainly, companies headquartered herehave operations in places like Florida, Texas,
New Hampshire, and those states areattracting our population. We've talked in
the past about the migration of thekey individuals that drive the Massachusetts economy and
(19:04):
residents. So we're seeing a declinein the number of residents, We're seeing
a loss in the number of taxpayers, and those are combining to result in
what is now a twenty year consecutivemonth decline. But I mean it's seven
months in a row, which isa twenty year high of declining state tax
(19:25):
revenues. In other words, statetax collections are missing the mark for the
seventh month in a row, andthat trend is going to continue to exacerbate
how Beacon Hill decides to spend money. Now, one other factor is while
we're losing taxpayer population, we're increasingundocumented migrants who are here and creating a
(19:48):
brand new budget challenge that wasn't foreseenjust a few months ago. So if
we're going to support the kind ofactivity that the budget is aimed at providing
a safety net for or economic developmentsupport for, we're going to have to
address these outlying causes. And thelegislature and the governor, some of whom
(20:10):
are speaking in the right direction,really haven't provided any specific proposals to address
those root causes that are resulting inthese deteriorating conditions. So, Chris,
does the Council have some suggestions orideas that you're going to pass on to
those on Beacon Hill. Well,everybody's been watching what the impact of the
(20:36):
twenty twenty two ballet Question one isdoing. That's the surtax I think coomes
over million that remains I think,you know the proximate cause of the now
multiple layer of declining conditions here.That's going to be hard to fix.
So the legislature and the governor aregoing to have to figure out other measures
(20:59):
that are marginally best to stem thetide. Just looking at the tax bill
that they filed and passed and signedlast fall, it really did little to
impact our outlier tax status in Massachusetts. So they're going to have to get
with it. They can talk aboutinvesting in things that we agree with,
like fintech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, but you can't do that in the
(21:22):
absence of addressing the things that arealso driving those investors, those employers,
and those employees to find places likeTexas and Florida as preferred venues to do
businesses. Chris Anderson is our guestpresident of the Massachusetts High Technology Council.
I guess in that vein, Chris, you know, one of the things
(21:42):
as it relates to why Massachusetts isnot competitive, and that seems like many
times it comes back to the housingissue and this whole idea of you,
sure, you can open a businesshere, or you can hire somebody.
If they can't afford to buy ahouse, they're not going to come here.
Last week on this program, wetalked about the twenty twenty one MBTA
Communities Act, where communities are supposedto rezone for multi housing. Where is
(22:06):
the mass use of High Technology Councilon a legislation or a law like that,
Well, we think that makes imminentsense, and I think communities that
are near public transportation should be incentivizedto build more affordable housing, and then
that will allow the MBTA or thestate to invest in those transportation infrastructure upgrades
to move people more effectively. Thehigh cost of housing is a substantial to
(22:32):
term, particularly for people in theirtwenties who we have a pretty large workforce
around. So it's essential that I'lltell you Joe and Kim, if we
continue to let the business climate remainan increase in its uncompetitive nature, the
housing cost issue is going to takecare of itself. And unfortunately that's the
(22:53):
wrong solution. People are going toleave. We're going to see a dramatic
sea change in what our workforce lookslike. And I'm not talking about next
week or tomorrow, but over thenext few years. If we're not really
focused on the fundamental foundation of havinga welcome mat out for business, then
it's going to impact the high costof housing. By the way, the
(23:15):
other thing is the healthcare system isunder severe strain. And it's not so
much the for proper Stewart example,which is a horrible example of what not
to do, but even the excellentnot for profits in the Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center and the Mass General BrighamSystem, they're still under incredible strain as
(23:40):
a result of COVID, and that'snot going to end overnight. So there
are some huge shifts in the harbor. But I would just come back to
saying that if Massachusetts is going tolead its way out of some of those
mammouth challenges, it's got to takea much more visible role in telling businesses
you're welcome here. When you succeedhere, we want you to succeed here,
(24:03):
and we're not going to treat youas a ATM machine. If you
do succeed, that extracts more ofyour success for us to spend on some
of this other stuff. And that'sthat's fundamental to sort of the message that
we're looking at putting a solve around. Yeah. Absolutely, Chris, I'm
fascinated. I'm kind of changing gearshere a bit, but I'm fascinated by
(24:26):
AI. And I'm just curious asto how you see this playing into the
business climate in the future here inthe state. I mean, is it
going to take jobs? Is itgoing to increase jobs? Give us a
sense of where you guys are onit. AI is like the invention of
electricity, and we're on the theone yard line of where this is going
(24:48):
to take us. So it's importantto recognize that there are huge opportunities.
There will be lots of different jobscreated, There'll be lots of industries that
will be a lot more efficient andexpand engagement with their target audiences, and
there'll be some jobs that will shift. But more importantly, AI poses with
(25:10):
the opportunity to boost engagement and economicdevelopment a lot more risk and I think
a lot of We're actually creating aChief Information Security Officer group of our members
that will be meeting regularly, talkedabout specifically cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. And
there are about twelve different priority topicsthat have come up, ranging from employee
(25:37):
education to board engagement, to publicpolicies at the state and federal level,
to how you develop risk and trustassurance safety. There's a whole bunch of
applications that we'll be looking at.And these are all questions that seasoned executives
are dealing with today, and they'regoing to work together to come up with
(26:00):
some shared knowledge. He's Chris Anderson. He's the president of the Massachusetts High
Technology Council. Thanks for taking timein joining us on this Sunday morning.
Up next to you thinking about well, maybe heading to the Cape. Maybe
you want to well rent a placeor buy a place well. Our next
guests will tell you exactly what you'reup against as we head towards the summer
of twenty twenty four. You're listeningto the New England Business Report. Anthony
(26:22):
Lamachia is on deck. Kim andJoe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy when they return. Are you thinking about selling your home
but hesitant because of your low ratemortgage, or concerned it might sell too
quickly, leaving you without a placeto go. I'm Joe Shortzleeve and we
hear you. These are real concernsfor many homeowners today. But I've got
(26:47):
good news. Lamachy a Reality hasfaced these challenges head on and comes equipped
with solutions they use daily with theirclients. Curious about the innovative approaches,
Lamacky a Reality employees to help yousell your home while securing your next one.
Visit want tobseller dot com. There'sa lot love about it. There's
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nine per month. With so muchto love, you don't want to miss
the Subro of New England a Lotto Love event details at Subaru of New
England dot com. There's a lotso love. Wow, it's time to
(28:07):
plan your perfect Cape Cod get awayfor beach season. Fully Vacation Rentals a
Lamachia company is your trusted local expertin Falmouth and all over Cape Cod for
vacation rentals. They offer a personalizedtouch that online rental sites just can't match.
With fully vacation rentals, you're notjust booking a rental, you're a
valued guest and friend. Don't wait. The best properties are booking fast visit
(28:29):
fully vacation rentals dot Com today andsecure your dream vacation. That's fully vacation
rentals dot com. The New EnglandBusiness Report on w RKO is brought to
you in part by Lamachia Realty.Lamachia Realty, you will guide you to
your success visit Lamachiarealty dot com.Welcome back everyone to the New England Business
(28:57):
Report. I'm Kim Karagan with Joeshort Sleeve. Yeah, great to be
here, Kim. We've got alot to talk about in this next half
hour of the program that we doask the realtor. It's a weekly segment
for us. Anthony Lamachi is goingto be with us. He's talking about
vacation rentals. Hey, if youhaven't gotten your vacation rental, he's going
to have some tips for you.Also, Rob Mellian of the Massachusetts Package
(29:19):
Store Association is going to join us. He's none too pleased about some legislation
that's moving across Beacon Hill related tococktails to Go. And finally, the
founder and chair of Pison Technology,Dexter Aang, will be with us.
Really a fascinating local company. You'regoing to want to hear their story for
(29:40):
sure. You know we're going totalk a little bit about our economy,
of course, But you know,Kim eyes, looking at some of the
business stories that have made headlines thisweek, you know, I'm always wondering,
Okay, what's going on with pricesand this? They're up? There
are so girl Scout cookies? Howabout that? Yeah? Yeah, you
(30:00):
know they're not immune. Let's see. According to this, it says girl
Stout Cookies customers are now paying sevendollars a box for favorites like thin mince
and tag alongs, and last yearthey were five bucks. So even the
Girl Scouts. Okay, I don'twant to sound like I'm one hundred years
old, but I was a GirlScout and I sold cookies and when I
(30:22):
did, they were seventy five centsa box. Wow. I know I'm
two hundred and eighty. But havingsaid that, I'm also hey, we
want to talk about something that's reallyfun. Sam Adams celebrating forty years.
Jim Cook, who of course foundedSam Adams. If you if you can
believe this, he set a goalin the first year that he did this
(30:44):
forty years ago, that he wantedto have about eight employees and about a
million bucks in sales. Over fiveyears. Over five years, they now
have twenty eight hundred employees two billiondollars at annual sales. Yeah, I
love that, Sam Madam, don'tyou. It's time for our weekly feature,
Ask the Real Term, and ofcourse we are joined by founder and
(31:07):
President of Lamachia Real d Anthony Lamachia. Great to have you with us,
Thank you for having me. Iam in a good mood this week,
even more than normal because it isMarch, which is the official kickoff month
of the real estate season every year. Absolutely well, terrific. We're glad
you're in such a great mood.Joe and I are in a good mood
too, because we've been talking despitethe weather all week, we've been talking
(31:30):
about summer vacation and it's time tothink about those summer rentals. Maybe down
on the Cape or the islands.Are there available rentals as far as you
can tell, Oh, absolutely,and we have them in our inventory.
So last summer we were fortunate andlucky to be able to purchase fully real
estate and to bring fully real estateinto our Lamachia companies. So our sister
(31:56):
company, which we call fully VacationRentals, we've got over one hundred and
twenty properties that we manage in theFalmouth market, and there are still several
weeks left. Most of it's booked, but there's still a lot of weeks
left for a lot of the summerrentals and Falmouth and surrounding communities. Anthony
Lomacky is our guest Lomochia Reality,So Anthony, I guess a year to
year comparison. Last year we heardabout like a softness in the rental market
(32:20):
down on the k people there's alot more available. But then recently I've
seen some headlines that suggests just theopposite and that things are fairly tightened up
down there. Well, let metell you what happens, the same thing
that home sellers do. You know, we get to every year when the
market's getting stronger and stronger sellers thenthey push their prices a little higher,
a little higher, a little higher, and then somewhere every few years there's
(32:43):
a bump in the market, interestrates go up, where the economy slows
down. And then when when homessit and they don't sell, sellers go
oh no, I priced too high, and people in the marketplace realize it,
and then prices I don't want tosay come down, but they soften,
they don't go up as much.People don't get as daring. The
same exact thing happened last year inthe summer vacation space. Literally identical occurrence
(33:10):
where people started pushing their rental pricestoo darn high. We even started with
some of our inventory where they justoverdid it a bit and properties didn't rent
or it took tell the you know, tell may in June to get them
rented, and then they took evenless than they should have or would have
(33:30):
had to if they did it theright way in the winter. So that's
all that was last year. Idon't think it was any any indication of
anything major anthony. When people wantto rent, I think a lot of
times they rent as they're walking outthe door in July for the following July.
But what's the best time of yearto get the best deal down there?
(33:52):
Well, the sooner you booked,the better. I mean, I'd
say either books soon or book lastminute. The problem with last minute is
usually get the place that no oneelse wanted. So we had a lot
of bookings come in in the fall, and then we always see a bump
up in the first three weeks ofJanuary and then really the next couple of
(34:13):
months is the time where you know, kind of the last minute Larry's per
se, get going. But ifyou are looking, if you're a listener
and you're looking to rent a summervacation rental down in Foulmouth or anywhere in
those surrounding communities, definitely reach outnow, get in touch at this time,
Anthony. What's going on on thebuy side at this point? Okay,
(34:34):
so never mind, I want torent on the Cape? No,
no, you know what I wantto do. I want to buy on
the Cape. What is the situation? Is it still? You better have
your check book ready or this placeis going to be gone. Well,
this time of year is the hardesttime to buy because there's the least amount
of sellers. I think I talkedabout this last weekend the week before with
you guys. Every single year,sellers wait to list their homes, but
(35:00):
buyers come out and drove determined tobuy in the winter. And then as
we get closer to the summer,more and more homes get listed, and
more and more buyers find homes,So the amount of buyers actually decreases from
about now or maybe even a monthfrom now to the end of the year.
It decreases each week because buyers findhomes and the amount of sellers goes
(35:22):
up each week. So if you'relooking to buy a home right now,
you are going to compete. Andif you don't want to compete, and
you're not willing to step up andmake bold offers, then you will not
be able to land a home inthis market unless it's extremely unreasonably overpriced.
All right, So whether it's rainingor not, you have to start thinking
(35:43):
about your vacation plans. Anthony Lilamachia. Thanks very much. We'll talk to
you again next week. Wonderful,Kim. I always love talking about heading
down to Cape Cod Up. Next, we're going to change gears a little
bit and we're going to talk aboutthat corner package store. Joining us now
is Rob Mellion. He is theexecutive director of the Massachusetts Package Store Association
(36:07):
and Rob's group. You know,the corner of the folks all in the
corner package stores. Well, they'rethey're not happy with a new provision of
this whole idea of drinks to go. You know, they started this idea,
Kim, during the pandemic to helprestaurants. But guess what everybody thought
it was going to be temporary.No, not really. On Thursday in
the House of Representatives up there onBeacon Hill, Uh, they passed drinks
(36:30):
to go to become permanently, tobecome permanent moving forward. So Rob mellion,
let's start there. I mean,your your thoughts about what has happened
up on Beacon Hill. So yeah, let's start there. And by the
way, thank you for reaching outon this issue. So the House asking
an appropriation for emergency shelters, slippedin the provision that allows for this drinks
(36:59):
to go and clear, we're talkingabout sixty four ounces of whiskey, rum
or vodka as your spirit, onehundred and ninety two ounces of beer,
which is a mini keg or acase or a couple of bottles of wine.
(37:20):
That's that's drinks to go under thisit is also drinks to go that
allows a brewery to be able tohome deliver with potato chips. That's the
drinks to go that the House justpassed. So yes, they did that
under an appropriation bill while all eyeswere on the municipal bill that we just
testified on last week. So Rob, this was supposed to come to an
(37:43):
end at the end of March.It's now, according to the House,
going to be permanent. Talk tous about how this hurts the local package
store. So it's permanent at theexpense of locally owned stores. And our
members are not just package stores.Our members are independent markets that are selling
alcohol along with convenience stores that areselling alcohol, all who are headquartered in
(38:07):
Massachusetts. It is a direct hitto all of them, as it has
been for the last several years.But the difference was we worked with industry
and legislators four years ago for thebenefit of the entire industry and the state
of Massachusetts to provide for a temporarymeasure. Now, through the work of
(38:32):
Big Alcohol, Big Alcohol meaning Discus, the Still Spirits Council for the United
States, and the Restaurants Association,it's being turned into something far different.
It's being turned into an opportunity forrestaurants to be able to become liquor stores,
and that definitely bites into our ability, our members' ability to be able
(38:58):
to survive going forward. Because usewhen I when I hear the testimony from
others trying to explain why they shouldhave drinks to go. We hear,
well, you know they need therevenue, but the revenue is coming from
somebody else. That's the problem here. The revenue is coming from stores who
are facing the highest electricity costs inthe country, who are facing the same
(39:20):
labor costs that restaurants are facing,who are they're dealing with the same inventory
issues that the restaurants are dealing with. And on top of that, they've
lost flavor to back Goo sales becausethe state banned that. They are dealing
with unbelievable amounts of illegal shipping intothis state that is very difficult to enforce
upon, and they're definitely going toget eye lottery that's going to take revenus
(39:45):
away from it. All right,Rob, let's let's talk about the other
side. And I know you're wellaware of it. Okay, we're talking
about Rob Million, executive director ofthe Mass Package Store Association. Now the
committee chair up there in Beacon Hill, Senator Jacob Olivera. I guess the
Ludlow Democrat. And you know whathe says. He says, no offense
to you guys, referring to thepackage stores. This is completely anecdotal.
I haven't seen a single package storein my hometown shut down. But I've
(40:07):
seen restaurants shut down left and right, and I guess the message. I
was there and he said that,I'm sorry, Judges, I'm sorry to
jump in. I was so upsetwhen he said what he did say,
because he said that to two storeowners who are struggling, one of which
is it's a family business, beenin a third generation and they're struggling.
(40:30):
And the point is, and thecute part about what the senator said is
he wouldn't allow me an opportunity toprovide evidence that he was wrong. So
he made his statement and then shutme off. Now, Rob, can
I jump in and say, Iwould like for you to provide us with
some of that evidence, give usan example, or give us some numbers
(40:51):
how this is cut into the store'sbusinesses. What I was trying to get
across to that panel up the stateHouse is that people don't see the closures
in our business because it's done differently. Closures in our business are done through
what are called license transfers. Forthe last five years in a row,
there have been over two hundred licensedtransfers going on within our industry per year,
(41:16):
a third of the businesses that sellalcohol in the state have transferred ownership.
That's what licensed transfer is. Itis where one owner sells their license,
often at a loss for the lastcouple of years, to somebody else
or to another company. Right,we've been seeing over two hundred of those
(41:37):
a year for the past five years. Well, why are you losing this
argument? On Beacon Hill sign ofthe Senate. I guess my question is
twofold. What are you going todo now? I think we're losing the
argument because I think that people likethe convenience. And you know, we
heard that from another state representative,one of the co chairs to the Joint
Committee on the Municipalities sheep point blanks, set get over it, find another
(42:00):
way. You'll survive. You'll haveto figure it out because this is what
the consumer wants. That's what wewere told at the hearing. And the
answer back to that is this isabout regulation. You're legislating a change in
the alcohol beverages industry because of somethingthat you, as a legislator want for
(42:21):
yourself, or you think it's becauseit's what the public wants. But we're
forgetting why these rules and regulations wereput in place to begin with. The
industry was purposefully intentionally legislated to beseparated. We have on premise, we
have off premise alcohol. Retail onpremise sells on the premise. Off premise
(42:45):
can only sell off the premise.Now, the legislature, through this act,
with no hearings, no discussion,is changing the industry so that on
premise becomes off premise and on premisebut on but off premise can only be
off premise. Yeah. Rob Mellion, he's executive director of the Mass Package
Store Association. We're gonna have toleave it there, Rob, But this
(43:07):
goes on. The story goes onup there in Beacon Hill, and as
it moves to the Senate, we'llget you back for the very latest there.
Thanks very much for joining us onthe New England Business Report. All
right, Joe, Coming up next, we'll have the founder and the chairman
of a new company here in Boston, Pison Technology. Dexter Ang will be
our guest. You're listening to theNew England Business Report. You are listening
(43:35):
to the New England Business Report onthe Voice of Boston w RKO six'
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The New England Business Report on WRKOis brought to you in part by Subaru
of New England. Feel the freedomof a brand new twenty twenty four Subaru
featuring symmetrical all wheel drive. Subaruof New England. Journing us now is
Dexter Aang. He's the chairman andfounder of Pyson Technology and it's so great
(46:09):
to have you with us. Dexter, great to have the time with you
this morning. Absolutely listen tell everybodywhat Pyson technology is all about. Great.
So, Pyson is a Boston borncompany. We have roots from MIT
and University of Rhode Island and whatwe're developing is the first neural sensing platform
(46:30):
and our first product on that platform, Pyson Ready, is a technology that
can understand a person's reaction time tounlock the power of your mind. Okay,
how does that work? So ourproduct is in a wrist worm device
like a smart watch, and it'sbased on concepts that NASA has proven out
(46:52):
over thirty years. It is actuallythe gold standard for assessing alertness and fatigue
and pro sports as well as withastronauts, and Pyson is simply the first
one to offer this technology in arisk device. It experiences basically like the
person would see a light that turnson and then when they see that light,
(47:14):
their brain is making a decision toreact to that light, and then
the signal courses through your nervous systemand you move your hand and it's that
simple, but it really reveals theentirety about the neural performance of your body
and therefore we can understand the cognitivestate of the person at that time.
(47:34):
Right, And it's not an anticipationthing. It's actual brain waves that are
moving through your body. That's exactlyright. We are able to measure precisely
real time, on an individualized basisthat person's reaction time. There are three
different aspects of our product that wecall a readiness test, a mental agility
(47:55):
test, and a focus test.Your readiness test is twenty seconds long.
A person is looking at that lightand reacting as fast as they can.
There is a test that is actuallybased on science called go no go tests,
which allows a person to make splitsecond decisions. And that is in
(48:15):
relation to a use case that wemay all be able to understand. In
baseball, for example, if there'sa pitch, it batter has to understand
and discern quickly within a handful ofmilliseconds. Is this going to be in
the strike zone? Is this goingto be a ball? This type of
test has actually been proven to beutilized for that type of use case,
(48:37):
and we have onboard and a numberof pro teams for our technology as well
for that use case. I'd liketo talk about that as well. We're
talking with a Dexter, and heof course is an MIT graduate chairman and
founder of Prison Technology. But beforewe do that, today's practical applications in
the military, so on and soforth. This has everything to do with
your late mother and ALS. Talkto us a little bit. I read
(49:00):
about that near Mit literature. Yeah, I appreciate you asking about this.
Pyson really is a passion. Uh. You know, the origination of the
company was because my mother was affectedby ALS. She lost the ability to
move her hands easily. And youknow, she first noticed these, you
(49:21):
know, these symptoms when she wasyou know, boarding up playing to come
see me in Boston, and thenshe wasn't able to lift up her luggage
into the top area. And youknow, this may seem like a normal
thing, but then when he gotchecked out, then then we quickly learned
that there was a continuous attribute,you know, atrophy of her nervous system,
which was very challenging as a familyfor us to hear about. My
(49:44):
mother passed away after one year fromthat point. That was in twenty fifteen
October that she passed away, anda year later I created the company with
my co founder David Cippoletta, Andthe concept that we were pursuing was that
really this community needed better technology,They needed a type of neural sensing capability
(50:05):
that was convenient, that was accessible. We do a lot of work with
that community. We've won a numberof awards from the ALS Association. And
while we do that research, wethought that the larger world needed a product,
and we saw the opportunity to launchand commercialize that recently, and so
we are excited that we can continuethis medical journey long term and that we
(50:30):
actually can get products in a consumerlow price point available to people now.
So, Dexter, let's talk alittle bit taking of just a step further.
I know you've said the medical community, but let's talk about the practical
use of this. I know you'vealso mentioned professional athletes. Where do you
anticipate this will be used. It'sa great indication for where our technology will
(50:54):
go based upon some of the earlyadopters of our technology. We have a
nast car driver. His name isAnthony Alfredo, and so he uses our
technology in a lot of ways thatwe did not anticipate. First of all,
he uses it to get in thezone before his races and he was
(51:14):
able to thankfully be pretty successful inthe race in the last couple of weeks,
and so getting his mind primed forsplit second decision making versus just sitting
in the car waiting for that startwas really a major use case that he
saw. Another one which a lotof people may relate to is being able
(51:37):
to understand how their body performed beforetraining and then during training. So,
for example, Anthony Alfredo, whenhe takes a reaction time test before his
training, then he gets his heartrate up to the maximum rate, then
he takes our test again in themiddle of that. What he needs to
see in what he's trying to improvein mind is that his performance is still
(52:02):
consistent and stable, and that heunderstands the limits of how his body changes
when he puts it through a strenuoussort of activity. Which is, what
is your product doing for him rightat that moment. Our product is that
that assessment of his mental reaction timestate. It is the same capability that
(52:28):
is offered to consumers. He isusing it for these purposes to be optimized
with his training and his performance.Brain injury obviously, this would be something
I think about, you know,maybe a football team using it for baseline
concussion research, and then you know, maybe using it again to determine if
(52:51):
someone is concussed. That's that's exactlyright there. The gold standard for concussion
that has been existing for a numberof years is to inform a and baseline
of a person's brain latency and reactiontime, for example, before the season
begins, and then to seek tomonitor that after a person may have been
(53:15):
exposed to some sort of larger injury. The challenge there is that number one,
those baselines are actually it's a rangeof baselines. You know, a
person's body ebbs and flows throughout theday, and to be able to capture
a richer set of values is importantto even understand what's normal for a person
(53:37):
based on circadian rhythm, caffeine sleepnight before, and then also understanding that
injury to the brain, when we'vedone a lot of study with this in
the military and also now getting intoit with sports, is that injuries to
the brain are not necessarily one offactivities. There is what's called of concussive
(54:00):
impact, which would be subclinical activitiesthat jostle the brain. There might be
nanoscale damage if it's based upon somesort of shock wave activity to the brain,
and that will be asymptomatic. Therewould not be a way for the
person to even know that there's somethingwrong with themselves. They're not be a
(54:22):
way for a doctor to even perceiveor sense that there's something around them.
But actually their brain is slower becausesome of those cells have actually been damaged
and impacted. They may recover,they may not recover, and so there
is this opportunity for a technology toobjectively measure that impact on the body,
and we are being seen by alot of our partners as completely filling that
(54:45):
gap talking about Dexter Rang chairman founderof Bison Technologies, Elon Musk made headlines
in the past month or two withhis company Neulink. What's the difference between
what you're doing with I think it'squite exciting where there is so much interest
(55:06):
in understanding how the body works andespecially what relates to the brain. It's
very different looking at the brain thanlooking at, for example, physical attributes
that a lot of wearables do.And so what Pyson and you know,
Neuralink are doing is we're trying tounderstand the aspects of the nervous system.
Neuralink is a very interesting company.They insert things into your brain, they
(55:30):
cut your skull open and open it. Certain people may be interested in that.
I think Pyson is not heading downthat pathway. We are selling low
cost wrist watches and watch bands thatyou can buy on our website for sixty
dollars that a person can wear ontheir wrists for a few minutes a day
or all day if they desire,and we're able to glean a lot of
(55:52):
very important information from that type ofusage that is really accessible and convenient for
everybody. Well, it is fascinatingtechnology, and we thank you so much,
Dexter Aang, the chairman and founderof Pyson Technology, for being with
us here on New England Business Report. All right, Kim, time to
(56:12):
talk about next week? Yeah,of course next week is Saint Patrick's Day
in Boston. The seventeenth actually fallson a Sunday. We're going to be
talking with an executive from Conventures.They're a large company here in Boston.
Everybody knows Dusty Rhodes and they havebeen organizing not only the breakfast but the
parade as well. We're also goingto be joined by Paul English. He's
(56:34):
the founder of Kayaka website or actuallyan app that he sold for some two
billion dollars and today he's into datingapps in particular, it's called Lola,
we'll talk to Paul Fantastic. We'realso going to be joined by the chief
marketing director of Rhythm Now. That'sa New England based company that specializes in
sports betting analytics, just in timefor March Madness, which begins next Monday.
(57:00):
In the meantime, we hope everybodyhas a great week and you join
us right back here on w rKO for New England Business Report next Sunday and
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