Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | January 13, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 7 CNC machines aer being inspired by a conversation with a friend. Liu, a graduate with a doctorate from the University of Michigan's Center for Ultrafast Optical Science with more than 30 years of laser- related development and engineering experience, was serving as the director of Panasonic's lab at the time. Considering CNC machines are used across a wide range of industries ranging from defense to health care, he instantly saw the potential in the idea and approved it for initial development. e two then got to work developing the intellectual property and prototypes that would eventually evolve into Lase-X. Realizing it would be difficult to persuade a large company like Panasonic to follow their exact vision for the product, Brule and Liu decided to strike out on their own, negotiating control of the intellectual property related to Lase-X from company leadership, who Brule described as generous. e duo le Panasonic in early 2024. Norton, the former director of public relations at Worcester-based startup True Robotics who had worked with Brule on another venture, joined the company later as a co-founder, as did James Gallagher, a college friend of Brule who has experience in the aerospace industry. Former Panasonic Boston engineer Riccardo Leto has contributed to developing early prototypes. Etching a future Based in a small shared lab space in Boxborough, Lase-X is exploring moving to Worcester, hoping to tap into the area's existing manufacturing ecosystem and the workforce created by local higher learning institutions like Worcester Polytechnic Institute as it works to bring the LMT to market. Still in its early stages, Lase-X is working on prototypes while exploring the path to commercialization. e company's rise has caught the attention of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, which organized a tour of the city in November to help introduce Lase-X to some of the benefits to establishing a permanent presence in Worcester. is tour included a stop at Worcester-based Multiscale Systems, an industrial research and product development firm, where company leaders and representatives from organizations like Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Program and MassDevelopment discussed avenues to bring Lase-X to the next level. e tour led to a collaborative agreement with Multiscale Systems. "We have a local manufacturing company in research and development within manufacturing in Multiscale Systems that might be able to to manufacture some of the components of the tool," said Darnell Dunn, director of business recruitment for the chamber. "So that was kind of the whole idea of putting the two companies together in the first place. If you're trying to grow and scale as a startup company and you're concerned about things like tariffs and the political landscape of a changing administration, why not try to take some of that risk off the table by quantifying how much it's going to cost to manufacture here domestically?" While Lase-X looks for potential avenues to build its product domestically, it looks to benefit from a move by the nation's lawmakers to help encourage manufacturers to return their operations to the U.S. in a process dubbed reshoring, which could increase demand for the product. Increased domestic manufacturing of semiconductors holds particular promise, said Norton. "ere's been a bunch of legislation for manufacturing, all basically targeting onshore manufacturing," he said. "ere's tons of government incentives – and now industry incentives as well – to get more manufacturing that needs a lot of supply chain stability on U.S. soil." W Jesse Silverberg, CEO of Multiscale Systems, discusses CNC machines with Lase-X co-found- ers and representatives from the Mass. Office of Business Development and MassMEP during Lase-X's November visit to Worcester. PHOTO | COURTESY OF WORCESTER REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

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