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'''Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is a community of entrepreneurs. The company was founded in 1999 by MIT graduates Timothy Rowe and Andrew Olmsted.

Role in Economy
"If technology and innovation are the lifeblood for our future, then CIC is ground zero. That's saying a lot, considering it sits in the Kendall Square neighborhood next door to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (which owns the building) and its cutting-edge research labs." - Rob Weisman, The Boston Globe

History
CIC was founded in 1999 in 2,700 square feet at 238 Main St in Kendall Square (also the home of the MIT Treasurer's office). In April 2001 it grew to 18,000 square feet across the street at 1 Broadway. Its unusual office design garnered its new office the Honor Award for Design Excellent from the Boston Society of Architects for 2000. It continued to grow, doubling in size twice by 2004, reaching 71,000 sq. ft. At this point there were 75 companies located in it. .

In December 2006, a transformer fire in NSTAR vault in the basement of One Broadway led to the building and the center being closed for 5 weeks. The 150 companies located at the center at that time, including Google had to relocated on an emergency basis. Space for this was provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As of August 2008 CIC housed 170 companies, and began to be recognized as a phenomenon of sorts in a Boston Globe feature article.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick visited Cambridge Innovation Center in January 2009.

Famous companies based at CIC
"An astonishingly high percentage of cool start-ups in town start off in this space." - Scott Kirsner, Innovation Economy author and columnist at The Boston Globe

 Google set up its New England Headquarters in CIC in 2005. The first person to move in was Google Android (operating system) co-founder Rich Miner. It grew there until, at approximately 175 people and no longer able to fit, it relocated a block away.  The company that became Yahoo in Cambridge, Maven Technologies, also began at CIC. In 2007 while based at Cambridge Innovation Center Great Point Energy raised $103M for its coal gasification technology in what was at the time one of the largest investments in the history of cleantech. . 

Trivia
Cambridge Innovation Center operates one of the few bikeshare programs in the city.