DuPlessie strove to fund the expansion of 5 Wits out of operating cash flow, and it now has five locations (though the original Boston one has closed). He wants to expand Level99 more quickly, maybe even one new location each quarter, with Shaich’s help. “We’ve identified a concept and in fact an industry, a whole new branch of location-based entertainment, that we think will have real tailwinds behind it,” DuPlessie said. DuPlessie started Level99 in 2021 in a former Sears at the Natick Mall. The name refers to the company’s roots in old school video games, in which levels were often limited to two digits, making Level99 the highest possible one.
Now, it has 550-plus employees, including 100 at its Norwood design center, and three other locations: at the Providence Mall, and spots in Virginia and Florida. Nine more are in the works. A former MIT mechanical engineering major who worked at amusement parks in Florida and studied at Harvard Business School, DuPlessie was at the forefront of the escape room trend with Tomb, which he describes as the “first escape room concept in the world.” Now he’s leveling up, with Level99. Popular games in Natick include everything from a race across a narrow beam while dodging swinging fake axes, to using ropes to navigate an obstacle course, to racing against time solving various logic puzzles at a make-believe banquet.
The number of repeat visitors is high, which DuPlessie describes as “the holy grail for an entertainment concept.” He mentioned three women who visited the Natick location this month, sporting Level99 tattoos on their arms, and added: “How can that not keep you going?” Boston Legacy FC scored a win last Thursday — at the State House instead of the soccer pitch. The Senate voted to add an amendment offered by Senator Mike Brady of Brockton to an economic development bill that would allocate $2.5 million for the Boston Legacy Performance Center, Boston Legacy’s training complex going up in Brady’s home city. The team was well represented on the Senate floor for the vote; team general manager Domènec Guasch even addressed the senators. Guasch rattled off a few milestones for Boston Legacy, a soccer team in its first year, playing in Foxborough and Pawtucket while construction of a new stadium in Franklin Park is underway: the team just had its first sellout crowd, and its first-ever road victory.
He said the team is proud to represent Boston on and off the field, thanked the senators for their support, and suggested they come to a match soon. “Soccer has a unique power to bring communities together,” Guasch told them. “We just witnessed that with the men’s World Cup. . . . Boston Legacy FC carries that same spirit forward.” Guasch was joined by majority owner Jennifer Epstein, president Jennifer van Dijk, and director of recruitment Edward Gallagher. At least four players also attended: Nichelle Prince, Josefine Hasbo, Bianca St-Georges, and Alba Caño. The House did not include the money in its version of the economic development bill, so the earmark’s fate will be decided through House-Senate negotiations in the coming weeks.
As the former head of a prominent statewide tech group, Tom Hopcroft thought he had the ideas — and the connections — to be a credible candidate for state Senate. But the former chief executive of the Mass Technology Leadership Council is announcing that he’s dropping out of the race. Last December, Hopcroft launched his campaign for the Second Middlesex seat being vacated by Senator Pat Jehlen of Somerville. At that point, only one other person, Somerville city Councilor Matt McLaughlin, had announced.
Now there are five candidates: Hopcroft, McLaughlin, state Representatives Erika Uyterhoeven of Somerville and Christine Barber of Somerville, and Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem. Hopcroft trails them in fund-raising, with around $45,000 raised so far. He did turn to his tech network for some help. Donors included former UKG chief executive Aron Ain, IBM executive Mohamad Ali, JLL managing director Bob Coughlin, and former Lightbridge chief executive Pam Reeve.
Hopcroft, who is wrapping up his second term on the Winchester School Committee, found it frustrating to be competing against politicians who came to the campaign with preexisting war chests and fund-raising operations. He’s preparing to return full time to the Net Zero Institute, the climate-focused nonprofit he founded around the time he left MassTLC in 2022. Hopcroft may endorse one of his former rivals, and has a questionnaire prepared to ask them about his big priorities. Among them: climate, technology innovation, health care research, housing construction, and government transparency. “I really thought it was going to be more about ideas,” Hopcroft said of his Senate race. “I do feel like I have a differentiated message. . . .
I want to keep bringing that forward and engaging.” You can find AI anywhere you look these days — even your toilet seat. Just ask Jeff Leiden. The former Vertex Pharmaceuticals chief executive helps lead a startup, Casana, that makes toilet seats with embedded sensors that monitor vital signs, to help older people and their families track their health. Casana’s “Smart Seat” went on sale last week.
Leiden remains executive chair at Vertex, the big Boston biotech. He’s been busy with other ventures as well: PathAI (recently sold to Roche), Odyssey Therapeutics, and Casana. The technology behind Casana was developed at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Several top executives are in the Boston area, including Leiden (board chair), Olivia Lew (chief executive), Austin McChord (president), and Michael Sonnendecker (chief financial officer).
These seats can be installed in minutes, and sell for $199 including one year of service, and then $19 per month after that. Leiden and McChord were early investors in Casana, through their own investment firms, Racing Beach Ventures and the Outsiders Fund — as was VC firm General Catalyst, where Lew used to work. (Other investors include Gerald Chan’s Morningside Group and toilet seat maker Bemis Manufacturing.) Casana has raised at least $44 million in venture funding. “Most of these folks will tell us ‘my number one priority is to live independently at home,’ to stay out of the hospital,” Leiden said. “Our IT monitors things that are going wrong before [they] become big problems.” LiMu Emu and Doug . . . and Liberty Biberty? The menagerie of Liberty Mutual mascots just got a little bigger with the arrival of a yellow sphere-like creature called “Liberty Biberty.” The puppet, crafted by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, gets its name from yet another Liberty Mutual mascot of sorts, a “bad actor” played by Tanner Novlan, who memorably flubbed the name of the insurance company that hired him. Liberty Mutual has been using the oddball pairing of Doug and LiMu, the CGI emu, since 2019 — around the time Novlan helped coin the phrase “Liberty Biberty.” Both the LiMu and Liberty Biberty campaign concepts were crafted by New York-based ad gurus David Suarez and Danny Gonzalez; LiMu and Doug sprang to life while they worked for Goodby Silverstein & Partners, while Liberty Biberty came out of their new firm, Bandits & Friends.
Jenna Lebel, Boston-based Liberty Mutual’s chief marketing officer, expects about 40 to 50 percent of Liberty’s marketing money will go toward promoting ads featuring the new mascot. LiMu, Doug, and Novlan’s bad actor will still show up as well, though usually not together. Puppeteer Grant Baciocco gives Liberty Biberty his voice, and movements. The first TV ads featuring the creature were shot in March. “I’ve tried my hand at puppeteering,” Lebel said. “I’m going to stick to my day job.” Jon Chesto can be reached at [email protected].
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