When Tough-Tech met Co-Working: Interview with Lab Ops Manager Tara Tatu — Transcript

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1. 0:00hey terara so glad to have you with us
2. 0:02today thanks for joining me for chat um
3. 0:05I've been looking forward to hearing
4. 0:06about the engine about your work as the
5. 0:08laboratory operations manager at the
6. 0:10engine accelerator and it'd be great if
7. 0:13you could tell us all about what the
8. 0:15engine is is what you do yeah so right
9. 0:18now uh at the engine accelerator we are
10. 0:21a company that houses tough te uh small
11. 0:25startups and uh we're a large facility
12. 0:28with five floors um we have startups
13. 0:31that are working in technology
14. 0:34engineering um whether that's a
15. 0:36fabrication and machining um or it can
16. 0:39also be lab companies as well um we have
17. 0:42a lot of biotechnology companies um
18. 0:45right now we currently have 93 companies
19. 0:47in our building um and like I said it's
20. 0:50a large facility with five floors we
21. 0:52have a lot of floor plans um that we've
22. 0:55always been working hard to keep up with
23. 0:57and um my role here really is just to
24. 1:02manage all of basically as if they're
25. 1:04tenants of this building um make sure
26. 1:07that everyone has the resources
27. 1:10accessible to them to be able to do all
28. 1:12of their either biotechnology work or
29. 1:15whether it's engineering work um I'm
30. 1:18here just to support them and all the
31. 1:19startups and all the work that they do
32. 1:21here um but yeah that's just an intro on
33. 1:24me that's so cool I didn't realize that
34. 1:27it was such a large building so five
35. 1:28floors it's a lot 90 four different
36. 1:30startups really interesting dine exists
37. 1:33for a while now right it's um is it an
38. 1:36MIT Endeavor um so we were founded
39. 1:40technically in
40. 1:422017 and it came from an idea um coming
41. 1:47from the president of MIT um and Robert
42. 1:50Craft at the time um wanting to create
43. 1:53uh space for all of these entrepreneurs
44. 1:56coming out of MIT um for them to build
45. 1:59their
46. 2:00technology um and their tough Tech is
47. 2:02how we how we explain it um and giving
48. 2:05them the resources you know you're
49. 2:06coming straight out of Academia and you
50. 2:09may not have the means to have all of
51. 2:11the resources at the hand um like you do
52. 2:14um in a lab at a school um so really the
53. 2:18engine came from building that
54. 2:20infrastructure not only that
55. 2:21infrastructure but also providing the
56. 2:24capital um and the support in basically
57. 2:28coaching these new companies new teams
58. 2:30coming out of school um and how to make
59. 2:33a product that could go onto the market
60. 2:34or a new therapy or new technology
61. 2:37whatever it may be um so it started as
62. 2:40an idea from MIT and then it turned into
63. 2:43a much larger uh space and here we are
64. 2:47today that's awesome so we could kind of
65. 2:50compare it to co-working space right
66. 2:53this is a a building with various floors
67. 2:56various areas rooms I'd be curious to
68. 2:58know how you divide and manage the
69. 3:01operations of the actual physicality of
70. 3:03of the engine um and were you working
71. 3:07with floor plans before you found Ryan
72. 3:09how do you go about this you know this
73. 3:12whole operation um previously when we
74. 3:15were we were building out this facility
75. 3:17that was really the big project when I
76. 3:19got hired um in about a year ago um we
77. 3:24were building out a large facility and
78. 3:27we had the floor plans available and CAD
79. 3:30files but not everyone always has
80. 3:32accessibility or training on CAD um so
81. 3:36that I wouldn't say was really the floor
82. 3:37plan we were using I would say the
83. 3:40main the way we were planning and
84. 3:42strategizing our buildout um really came
85. 3:46from just drawings on a wall and we'd
86. 3:48use a marker and draw on things as we
87. 3:52wanted to place things and as you could
88. 3:54you could tell it would probably uh
89. 3:57you'd run out of space pretty quick and
90. 3:58if you want to change something after
91. 4:00writing it you didn't really get a
92. 4:02chance to undo that so we never really
93. 4:05worked with a floor plan software before
94. 4:08this we had tried a couple of demos and
95. 4:12really it's such a unique space um the
96. 4:15way we're set up it's not just office
97. 4:17space we have lab space we have
98. 4:19engineering space um so the uniqueness
99. 4:22of it really made it hard for us to find
100. 4:24a good platform to build our floor pans
101. 4:27on and so that was how we came on to uh
102. 4:30Ryan and it made it much more easy to
103. 4:34customize exactly what we were building
104. 4:36out and what we're moving and um
105. 4:39everything that has gone into our floor
106. 4:41plans has just been made a lot
107. 4:43easier that's great so who on the team
108. 4:46is using Ryan and what's their workflow
109. 4:49how do you use it on a daily basis once
110. 4:52in a while yeah I would say we use it a
111. 4:55few times a week maybe several times a
112. 4:57week um we mainly use it for equipment
113. 5:01booking so when I say equipment booking
114. 5:04we have tons of resources in this
115. 5:06facility that people have access to but
116. 5:10because we have around 900 people in
117. 5:11this building people need to be able to
118. 5:13make reservations um on all those pieces
119. 5:16of equipment um so we use the floor plan
120. 5:19as like the foundation um of what our
121. 5:23our where our equipment is located and
122. 5:25then people log into um we use that
123. 5:28floor plan and export it and then we use
124. 5:30that in our booking system so people can
125. 5:32look at our floor plans reference
126. 5:34reference it and see where equipment is
127. 5:36located so that they can reserve it so
128. 5:38the main users um or the main people
129. 5:40that use Ryan right now is our equipment
130. 5:43manager um he is the one who's moving
131. 5:47all of our equipment and if we're moving
132. 5:49um furniture around as well um he's a
133. 5:51main user and then we do have some
134. 5:54office users as well when
135. 5:57um when things need to shift around
136. 5:59they'll use it and edit floor plans as
137. 6:03needed cool so you track the different
138. 6:06locations of furniture export FL plans
139. 6:08and use them in your booking um
140. 6:11management platform that's really
141. 6:12awesome the first thing was setting up
142. 6:15the facility and Ryan right the
143. 6:16different floors and then once you have
144. 6:18the wall enclosure the different way
145. 6:21that the floor plan is built the only
146. 6:23thing you kind of move around or use on
147. 6:24a daily basis is the actual equipment is
148. 6:28that correct that is correct and um
149. 6:31sometimes I mean we don't move walls per
150. 6:33se but sometimes we do change access a
151. 6:37little bit and if we need to gray out an
152. 6:39area Robbie is our equipment manager so
153. 6:41his use case is definitely a lot of the
154. 6:45the facility day-to-day stuff of we move
155. 6:48things daily so honestly he has to play
156. 6:51a bit of catchup every week on making
157. 6:53those updates um for all of our 900
158. 6:56tenants to be able to see and when
159. 6:58they're new tenants so new startups
160. 7:00coming in the engine do they typically
161. 7:02just are assigned to a space that you
162. 7:04pre-assign them to or do they get to
163. 7:06take a look at floor plans choose what
164. 7:08would be you know adequate to their
165. 7:10needs how would that go yeah so they get
166. 7:12a tour of the space in person and I
167. 7:15think that's the main deciding factor of
168. 7:18where they pick space it also depends on
169. 7:20what type of science or technology that
170. 7:23they do we try to group everyone that
171. 7:25does similar work together just so that
172. 7:27there's no um issue with
173. 7:30incompatibilities and people running
174. 7:31into contamination issues specifically
175. 7:33in the lab um but they do have access to
176. 7:38looking at floor plans if we if someone
177. 7:40is unable to come in person sometimes we
178. 7:42have people Founders um that are off
179. 7:45fundraising in other countries um
180. 7:48sometimes and they just need to see a
181. 7:51quick floor plan of the space and they'd
182. 7:52like to know where the equipment is
183. 7:54located in regards to the benches that
184. 7:56are available so those are times where
185. 7:58we would send the floor plan over um so
186. 8:01they can just kind of get a better
187. 8:02understanding of what our facility looks
188. 8:04like cool so you have you're using the
189. 8:07collaborative set of tools with some of
190. 8:09your us users um but not so much within
191. 8:12the team that's correct okay and another
192. 8:15question for you did you at any point
193. 8:18build a custom library in Ryan with the
194. 8:20different equipment that you're talking
195. 8:22about yes we did make a custom Library
196. 8:26um I was really bad at naming items just
197. 8:28because I I was making so many thing I
198. 8:30was making so many blocks that I started
199. 8:32to run out of names um but we made quite
200. 8:37a bit of uh we made quite a bit of a
201. 8:39library just because it is such a unique
202. 8:42space like I mentioned and we constantly
203. 8:45are bringing in very different pieces of
204. 8:48equipment that we've never worked with
205. 8:50before and uh and have not been in our
206. 8:53floor plan previously so we're
207. 8:56constantly putting new things in and
208. 8:57then it's really nice um because once we
209. 9:01start to realize we like a piece of
210. 9:02equipment we tend to buy that equipment
211. 9:04again and so it's nice to have it saved
212. 9:06somewhere so we don't have to start the
213. 9:08whole process over again I can just go
214. 9:10quickly to the library and um go right
215. 9:13to that piece of equipment that I know I
216. 9:14had already added a month
217. 9:17earlier awesome so you have its
218. 9:19dimensions and all the informations do
219. 9:20you do you even use the properties we do
220. 9:22use the properties just like the names
221. 9:25um that's really the main thing that we
222. 9:26use for yeah cool all right right so
223. 9:29usually I'd ask you know if you were
224. 9:32using different softwares before Ryan
225. 9:35what would be the benefit of Ryan over
226. 9:36those but it sounds like Ryan was
227. 9:38actually kind of a the first floral plan
228. 9:41software that you found um adequate to
229. 9:43your needs anything else you want to
230. 9:45share about the engine before we wrap it
231. 9:47up yeah I just I want I want to
232. 9:49emphasize to people who are looking for
233. 9:52floor plan software if you're looking
234. 9:54for something that you can really make
235. 9:56your your own and I don't think anyone
236. 9:59can fit into one type of box and they're
237. 10:02the space that they're looking at is not
238. 10:03just like one type of box it's everyone
239. 10:05has a very unique space especially at
240. 10:08the scale we're at and so I really did
241. 10:11enjoy being able to go into every single
242. 10:15detail and be able to customize it to
243. 10:17exactly what we needed at the engine it
244. 10:19made it so much easier in the fact that
245. 10:21you can upload PDFs and start editing
246. 10:24from there um it was quite a few hours
247. 10:27that I had saved from my time I wish we
248. 10:29had demoed
249. 10:30sooner um it was really great so I if
250. 10:34anyone's out there looking for uh
251. 10:36software that and you think that you
252. 10:38have a space that's too different and it
253. 10:39doesn't fit into the regular mold I I
254. 10:42think this is the one for
255. 10:44you that's great thank you so much for
256. 10:46showing that and saying that much
257. 10:48appreciated
258. 10:50ter um all right so thanks so much for
259. 10:52your time uh genuinely yeah thank you so
260. 10:55much thanks Sarah bye for now thank yeah