Today we’d like to introduce you to Reginald Swift.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
It wasn’t a natural progression to the path of where I am today. So I’ll start it like this;
I first became interested in the entrepreneurial lifestyle since I was in middle school, so I guess you would say that it was inevitable that I would get to the point of where I am now. Originally from Miami, the overall environment of trying to get ahead was to find a “hustle”. So I’ve done many, from all types of projects, gigs, opportunities and jobs, but nothing really fit into the passion that I wanted to accomplish. As I was going to college to study Mechanical Engineering, the picture started becoming clearer as being an engineer was a discipline that I enjoyed learning and doing, as being able to bring an idea to life was amazing to me.
After graduation, I moved away to start a job within the Aerospace industry in Connecticut and started learning about the corporate lifestyle and processes that are confined within. Working there for a few years, I found that the market was shifting to start compressing the workforce and I decided to pursue a law degree in Cambridge, MA. As I moved, my father became very ill and was undergoing therapies to try and overcome the cancer diagnosis.
As he lost the battle with cancer prior to me finishing law school, it shifted quite a bit of priorities and passions that I wanted to really be involved in. As Boston/Cambridge was very big into biotech, I made it a mission to find a way into the ecosystem and learn everything there is to learn about the whole landscape. As I started becoming very proficient and engaged in a number of organizations ranging from engineer to Quality director, I knew that it was time to make the shift for myself and start my own company. Hence that’s when Rubix was born.
Has it been a smooth road?
A smooth road. Not in the slightest. The percentage of failure for any biotech startup is greater than 70% and to be a person of color in biotech, the margins are very against the founder.
However, I made it a mission that I would change the tide and the direction of what it meant to be an innovator, not just in the biotech space but as a person of color.
Apart of our strategy, of course, is to collaborate with many of the large industry players in the life-science/biotech field as it is since they have quite a bit of resources that outweighs your own. For months, I just couldn’t get the traction or get any strong follow up responses from anyone in any capacity, ranging from my own city of Lawrence to industry organizations to the large players.
As product development in the life-science arena can take a considerable amount of time, even longer while bootstrapping, I had to immediately consider other options and opportunities to keep the dream alive. One is to create a service based model where we can assist in engineering, product development, services and other tasks that needed to be done. The other is to go for government grants and contracting.
So it’s always been a mental characteristic of mine to “prove that I can do this without them”. So I have. I started working feverishly on government grants and opportunities that help fund the research and development effort of new innovations that small businesses pursue along the way. I was able to land the very first one with the Department of Defense division of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Then trickling in, we’ve accumulated clients from the government and commercial sectors.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
What we do is quite illustrious to say in one word.
In lay-mans terms, we’re a research, development and engineering firm that conceptualizes, creates, implements and produces innovative technologies ranging from biotech/life-sciences, aerospace & defense, robotics, In our core, we’re developing technologies that are targeting therapies in the rare and orphan disease space. From regeneration to organic tissue re-development, we’re utilizing our platform to transform other challenges that other industries are facing with the technologies that we’re building today.
Where we are currently, our first product that we’re working on, Project Hercules, is a hip device that can regenerate bone, muscle and tissue region to strengthen and provide patients with the ability to combat bone diseases like osteoporosis, osteopenia, arthrodesis and many others. By providing the ability to have people who are stricken to a wheelchair and walking aids, while mitigating long-term therapies, the opportunity to functionally walk normal again should be something that can help society as a whole
What we’re proud of as a company is that we’re able to continually validate our technologies by highly scientific minds and biomedical researchers that would like to use our platform for many other technologies to be developed.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Oh, Boston/Cambridge are absolutely perfect cities for a biotech startup. It just a matter of cost and how much burden one can take on initially.
As far as the city of Lawrence, I believe that there are some challenges that would need to be overcome to have further potential for more biotech organizations to rise the footprint in the city. There are discussions that need to be had in order to really move the needle in providing greater resources that has been looking to revitalize the manufacturing sector that the city has had a long-standing history with.
Lawrence has a very great community of people who are passionate and care about the environment and providing greater opportunities to those less fortunate, as it is primarily an immigrant city. Isn’t that what striving for the American Dream is all about? The ability to start from one point and keep progressing until you realize your dream and to give back?
Contact Info:
- Address: 60 Island St Suite 206
- Website: www.rubixls.com
- Phone: 978-655-6770
- Email: info@rubixls.com
- Instagram: www.instragram.com/rubix_ls
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/rubixls
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/11228553
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