Worcester Business Journal

BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer W hen Helder Machado worked in the corpo- rate world, he was told by more than one boss to put every- thing he had learned in the Army National Guard aside because it didn't apply to his field of information technol- ogy. So, he learned to compartmentalize his two specialties and keep them sepa- rate in his mind. After getting laid off from his corpo- rate job, Machado decided he wanted to be his own boss. His company, Machado Consulting, has provided managed services to small and medium sized companies in the Worcester area for 15 years now. But it wasn't until he was at a meet- ing with other entrepreneurs that some- one said to him, "Why aren't you run- ning your organization like a battal- ion?" when it finally clicked, he said. "I'm a military officer, a lieutenant colonel. I've had so much training, but I never made connection of how to do that in the corporate world," he said. "As soon as that clicked, it's been amazing." After that, he started instituting after- action reviews, focusing on what his company did well, and working on its shortcomings. Machado hopes to help other entre- preneurial active military members and veterans make those same connections between their military work and the business world through a new program hosted at Hopkinton incubator TechSandBox. This month, TechSandBox launched the program, which is geared towards encouraging networking, mentoring and advising for veteran entrepreneurs, with the goal of giving them a community of like-mind- ed peers to support one another when building their small businesses. A veteran innovation network The program, which is funded through a joint $53,101 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and MassDevelopment, grew out of a desire to tap into an entrepreneurial veteran population in MetroWest and across New England, said Katie Stebbins, assistant secretary of innovation, technology, and entre- preneurship for the commonwealth. Stebbins came up with the idea for TechSandBox to do this program after realizing there was a need to build a Military experience wanted New TechSandBox program, coupled with increased government lending, seeks to spur military veterans to start new ventures "Why aren't you running your organization like a battalion?" Helder Machado checks out the information-technology infrastructure at the Hanover Theatre, one of his clients. Machado started his own consulting firm 15 years ago. 10 Worcester Business Journal | November 21, 2016 | wbjournal.com P H O T O / E D D C O T E

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