MetroWest495 Biz

14 MetroWest495 Biz | May 2015 10 TO WATCH B y the time Karim El-Gamal arrived in the United States to attend Babson College, he'd lived in six other countries but never called any one of them home. But that's changed since El-Gamal opened a popular eatery, The Rail Trail Flatbread Co., on Main Street in downtown Hudson. He bought a house in town too, and said he finally feels anchored to a community. "I'm sowing roots in Hudson, Mass.," said El-Gamal, the son of Egyptian parents. El-Gamal has received a hearty reception. Back in 2011, when he and his business partner, Michael Kasseris, were shopping for businesses, Hudson was eager for a locally owned restaurant to enliven the downtown. While the two, who met at Babson, originally intended to buy a business rather than start from scratch, Hudson lured them in. El-Gamal, who holds an MBA degree, said they were particularly interested when they learned Hudson officials had a strategic plan for economic development downtown, and had completed traffic revisions just before the economic meltdown in 2009. "When we got to Hudson and saw the town and talked to the people … we saw there was a really good energy here," El-Gamal said. Rail Trail Flatbread specializes in gourmet flatbread pizzas, cooked in a wood-fired oven, but the restaurant offers a broad menu that changes with the seasons to maximize the use of fresh ingredients. There's also a large selection of craft beers on tap, which adds to the restaurant's status as a destination for diners. El-Gamal said the radius the restaurant draws from has slowly expanded since December 2012, and the restaurant is no longer just a local favorite. For their contributions to economic development, El-Gamal and Kasseris were named "entrepreneurs of the year" by the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Com- merce. With Rail Trail now considered a strong local success story, El-Gamal and Kas- seris are ready to enter new culinary territory: desserts. Along with a third partner, the two plan to open the New City Microcreamery across the street from Rail Trail this summer. The ice cream shop will use liquid nitrogen to rapidly freeze the ice cream, which, El-Gamal explained, results in a remarkably smooth texture. And for the adults, there will be the option of ordering liquor-infused ice cream, since the partners obtained a liquor license for the establishment. "There's something for everyone," El-Gamal said. n KARIM EL-GAMAL Co-owner, The Rail Trail Flatbread Co. H ong Kong-born John Fan says the most important attribute to succeeding in technology innovation is being persistent and patient. "When doing something so new, you dream and try to realize that dream. It's always difficult; people may not agree with you — you almost have to be very stubborn about it." And certainly he should know. When Fan, the founder of Kopin Corp. of Westborough, began talking about wearable technology — which his company's been manufacturing for commercial and military clients since the 1990s — it may have sounded a bit "out there." But 15 years ago, he points out, we couldn't imagine wi-fi, either. Now we get upset when we can't get a signal. The company, which has over 100 employees at its MetroWest site, makes head-worn computing and display systems, and has shifted its focus toward consumer and enterprise markets, while still focusing on military and industry markets, in the past two years. Fan says consumer smart headsets are becoming more viable, and the company has invested in R&D to foster growth in this area. Kopin also has locations in California; Hong Kong; Korea and the U.K. Kopin's Golden-i headset devices, which are operated via voice command and head movements, are part of the "heads-up" shift, says Fan, where people's faces won't be buried in their smartphones anymore. And the heads-up trend is really just a pattern we already see in progress, he said. "We saw a revolution from desktop to PC and laptop and phones … things doing the same function but smaller and cheaper," Fan said. "Now, everybody has a smartphone, which is a small computer. The next step is, it's on your eyeglasses, on your watch, on your clothing … Everywhere you walk (you'll be) connected to the world," for better or worse, he said. Kopin's revenue, meanwhile, is thriving amid this revolution. It jumped 39 percent in the 2014 fiscal year; in the first quarter of 2015, revenue jumped 83 percent to $8.6 million. The company attributed that large increase to strong demand from its military customers, but Fan said in a statement the company is also making good progress toward bringing consumer wearables products to market. "We hear about Star Wars, Star Trek," said Fan, who has a Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University. "Now this kind of technology is real." n JOHN FAN president & CEO, Kopin Corp.

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