Founders, investors, celebrities and civic leaders converged across Western New York for a week that offered a glimpse of the region’s entrepreneurial ambitions.
It was Tom Golisano dispensing advice to Buffalo-based students who are starting their careers.
It was Keegan-Michael Key giving impromptu remarks and taking selfies with people from the Western New York startup community.
It was Eric Wood, Buffalo Bills legend, joking with Jack Greco, ACV Auctions cofounder and local super-angel, that they entered Buffalo at the same time (2009).
It was John Diaz, a Dallas-based venture capitalist who has never been to Buffalo before, who thought he’d do something nice for his Dallas-based friend.
The friend is a Bills fan in Cowboy territory, like a light in the dark.
Diaz, an investor in Buffalo-based startup Dentite, got himself to a store advertising vintage Bills clothing. He walked in and realized the entire store was vintage Bills gear.
“I’m excited to be here,” Diaz told Series B. "The people here are welcoming. They're smart."
This is a small example of the kinetic energy that crackled through Western New York last week, in, around and during the Entrepreneurship Huddle, a series of convenings around entrepreneurship organized by Springboard, a Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation initiative.
Celebrities, civic luminaries, successful executives, investors, students, politicians and budding entrepreneurs, all pinging off each other like atoms.
“We’re driving toward a robust, collaborative, grass roots to high-growth entrepreneurship ecosystem here in Western New York,” Wilson Foundation president/CEO David Egner told a gathering at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
From the AKG (A worldclass cultural, if you’re into low-brow stuff like Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Pollock) to the new Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship (Golisano’s massive downpayment on the future of talent development in WNY) to the $2 billion Highmark Stadium (I saw the best minds of my generation, wide-eyed and ready to pray to Josh Allen), the Huddle was a showcase for the budding primacy of entrepreneurship and innovation in Western New York.
In other words, a future where Buffalo is a dynamic and growth-oriented economy felt like a tangible goal, not a niche dream.
I ran into Rohit Gupta of Future Communities Capital, based in the Bay Area, who was shooting the breeze with Jerod Sikorskyj, cofounder and CTO of Dentite. Jerod is careful, kind and utterly brilliant, and I had some fun prodding him into impromptu thoughts about his company (crushing it) and the broader community while Rohit, who has invested in six local startups, joked, “Don’t flame Buffalo’s favorite investor.”
I shook hands with a smiling Andy Hakes, founder and CEO of AireXpert (crushing it), who was wearing a Bills jersey and ready to listen to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell address a large crowd.
I saw Danielle Blount, the hardworking partner at Buffalo-based BOLD Ventures, in the distance.
Hollywood actor and Buffalo native William Fichtner caused a brief commotion when he stepped onto a stage during an ecosystem-building panel, trailed by former Gibraltar Industries CEO Brian Lipke and Golisano Institute Buffalo region director Jim Dentinger.
I accidentally brought lunch into a room which was actually an invite-only working session on ecosystem building, full of leaders from Buffalo and Rochester. As I left, Launch NY CEO Marnie LaVigne was holding court on the collective effort to make this community stronger.
I met Monica Cronmiller, leader of Rochester-based CapTable Ventures, which provides venture-capital-as-a-service to family offices and foundations. Cronmiller was recently selected into the Kauffman Fellows program, a selection that was supported by Springboard.
“Growing up in Upstate New York, there is a lot that you take for granted,” Cronmiller told Series B. “Then you go to other places and you live in other cities, and you realize the fresh water, the Midwestern vibes, the tremendous culture. It’s very hard to find all these things in one place.”
I listened to the 43North Foundation board chair Bill Maggio talking about his own childhood during an announcement of a major commitment to the Institute.
“I had to scratch and fight and, frankly, get lucky to find the opportunities that ultimately led to my success — to be around businesses, to meet people who had done it before me, and to start learning the fundamental skills I didn't yet have," Maggio said. "In short, I would have been the perfect candidate for the Golisano Institute, and it’s why I have such a personal connection to your mission."
Thursday afternoon, the group gathered at KeyBank center for a shuttle to the new stadium, where they commenced a tailgate before the game.
Then many of them walked into the surreal experience of a new stadium in Orchard Park, where the sightlines were almost astonishing (wow, the presence of a few railings has been massively misleading on social media), the noise was deafening and the team couldn’t be stopped.
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