To gauge growth in Falmouth, head to Wood Lumber on Locust Street. How it sells its products and to whom goes a long way toward measuring the demographic and economic trends that define the community’s recent past, its present and its near-term future.

Young mothers push strollers down the sidewalk past Peg Noonan Park, where a taxi driver takes a paperback break on one of the benches. Across the street, a group of businessmen and -women enter Liam McGuire’s Irish Pub for lunch, and adjacent shops see a steady stream of customers.

Falmouth is known for its scientific institutions, notably the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Marine Biological Laboratory. Soon, the Upper Cape town will also be known as a jumping-off point for technological innovators.

The entrepreneurial spirit is very much alive in Falmouth, where, just as in other Cape communities, making a living often takes some creativity. The four businesses profiled here are examples of, as one founder put it, seeing a need and creating a niche to fill that need.