With their biggest event of the year, Boston Blockchain Week, just weeks away, Ian Cain and John O’Keeffe should be focused on getting ready.
But the cofounders of nonprofit Qubic Labs are also focused on something else: keeping their fintech startup incubator and accelerator alive.
They had pursued a state grant from the Mass. Technology Collaborative, only to be rejected because of financial pressures and the fact that Qubic was a previous recipient. So they sent an email to the area’s community of “digital asset” startups, asking for help and expressing concern that state officials are no longer deploying money strategically to help startups here, unlike other states.
“That decision put us in a precarious position,” Cain says now, of the grant denial. “It clarified what we needed to do, which was turning to our community.”
The response was reassuring, with pledges of financial gifts and in-kind support. However, the donations don’t yet add up to the total Qubic needs to maintain its programming.
Qubic got its start nearly seven years ago, as a startup incubator and accelerator in a Quincy Center office donated by FoxRock Properties, Rob Hale’s real estate group. Things took off in 2022, when the nonprofit received a $1.9 million grant from MassTech. That allowed Qubic to give out $600,000 worth of grants to startup founders and to host two 12-week accelerator programs in Quincy, and to help cover the cofounders’ salaries as well as those of two other staffers and several contractors. Cain says the money from that grant ran out late last year.
Qubic also took over Boston Blockchain Week in 2022 from Pillar VC, the local venture capital firm; Cain says the event remains a break-even affair. More than 100 speakers are lined up for the event in September, though none with the star power of Fidelity Investments chief executive Abby Johnson, who spoke at the event in 2025.
Qubic’s cofounders will continue to seek donations and brainstorm “business development” ideas — that is, ways to sell their startup services to potential clients.
“The problem is not totally solved,” Cain says. “I think it’s just a question of what scale. … There’s this broader conversation around the Mass. economy and us losing out. We feel the work that we do is vital to its future success.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @jonchesto.
