The Buffalo company has spent years supporting the region's startup economy. Common Ground is an attempt to extend that philosophy to a new generation of leaders.
Scott Stenclik likes to say that Aleron, the private family company founded by his father the year he was born, has been in his blood since birth.
Over the years, Aleron has grown from an outsourced drafting service into a global workforce business supporting clients ranging from startups to multinational corporations. Just as the 68-year-old's story reflects Aleron, the company has become a natural extension of its Buffalo home.
Its name overlooks the downtown skyline from 500 Pearl Street, one of two local offices supporting approximately 200 employees, and with additional employees located in 25 other cities in North America and India.
Something else has happened over the past 15 years, driven by Stenclik's belief that Buffalo is capable of a brighter future. He and his firm have become active contributors to Buffalo's innovation economy as participants, sponsors and loud supporters.
Aleron supported Bright Buffalo Niagara, an early forum for emerging businesses, before becoming a longtime sponsor of 43North. Stenclik invested in individual companies through Buffalo Angels and other avenues, and became involved with Launch NY and other startup organizations.
"Buffalo has traditionally been a very siloed region, resistant to change and lacking in cohesive and communicative leadership," Stenclik said. "43North and the startup economy have been game changers for that. It has introduced new ways of thinking, generated a greater receptiveness to new ideas and a willingness to share."
"From my vantage point, I believe we've come pretty far," he added. "But we still have a lot of pavement left to go."
Aleron, in typical form, is building a strategy around the next phase of that journey.
The wheels were spinning
Stenclik remembers sitting down for lunch at Taj Grill with Norma Nowak, a celebrated local researcher and entrepreneur, and Venu Govindaraju, now the University at Buffalo's vice president for research and economic development, about a decade ago.
43North had launched, and Stenclik had already started driving Aleron toward Buffalo's emerging startup scene.
At lunch, Govindaraju asked what he planned to do to support Buffalo’s emerging startup ecosystem.
"I looked at the guy and I had absolutely no idea," Stenclik recalled. "But the wheels were spinning and the concept of serving as a talent enabler for startups emerged."
Stenclik ran a company built around talent. Startups needed talent. He also believed new companies represented one of Buffalo's best opportunities to transition from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based one.
The idea eventually became Viaduct, an Aleron business created specifically to help startups and emerging companies find the people they needed to grow and thrive.
"Any startup needs three things to succeed: a viable idea, money and the talent to execute," he said. "We wanted to be that third leg."
There was a business logic to the work, too. Startups have less margin for error, fewer resources and often need experienced leaders they cannot yet afford full time.
Pete Petrella, president of Aleron company TalentRise, has spent years helping companies solve those problems.
"Startups are ultimately about people turning ideas into companies," Petrella said. "If you believe those companies can become an important part of Buffalo's future, then helping them find the talent to succeed is a very tangible way to participate in building that future."
Aleron also worked with 43North to create Forge Buffalo, a talent platform connecting people interested in startup careers with companies looking to hire.
Stenclik has little patience for identifying problems without taking some responsibility for solving them.
"If you tolerate something for long enough, you've chosen it," he said. "If you don't like something, don’t just complain about it. Do something about it."
That philosophy now has Stenclik thinking about a different problem.
Looking behind him
Stenclik's involvement in Buffalo has expanded well beyond startups, including serving on several nonprofit boards and, until recently, as Board Chair of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
At 68 He increasingly thinks about who will occupy those leadership roles next.
"Businesses go through succession. So do regions," he said. “I’m looking behind me and asking who I'm going to pass the baton to. Are there enough people in the next generation that care enough about Buffalo’s future and quality of life to serve as stewards of this region’s community assets?"
Stenclik believes his generation bears some responsibility for the answer.
That concern led to Common Ground, an initiative created by Aleron and Leadership Buffalo to connect established community leaders with people who will increasingly take on those stewardship and leadership roles.
Its first three gatherings were conceived largely as listening exercises. About 150 people attended the third event and made clear they wanted the conversations to continue, particularly the opportunity to interact with people across industries, generations and from other parts of the community.
Organizers responded by creating a Common Ground Advisory Council focused on building a longer-term model for leadership development and civic engagement.
Creating collisions
Thea Pecht, a senior vice president at M&T Bank, met Stenclik only about a year ago and now serves on the Common Ground Advisory Council.
She remembers him explaining the idea to the group.
"He said, 'My friends and I have spent decades working to make sure Buffalo is thriving, and now we have to think about who we're passing the torch to,'" Pecht recalled. "There's a whole generation of people ready to lead this community. Common Ground is about making sure they have the opportunity to do it."
Pecht sees one of Common Ground's strengths in the "collisions" it creates among people who otherwise might not meet.
She brought a neighbor who had recently returned from New York City to one event. He met someone connected to 43North, began working from a startup-oriented coworking space and soon landed Radial Ventures as a client.
"You're getting hundreds of people into a room, meeting in different groups and talking about difficult and sometimes sensitive topics," Pecht said. "There's something very unique that happens at Common Ground."
She also sees Common Ground addressing an old Buffalo problem: important conversations happening in separate rooms.
"There's no cohesive convener bringing the private sector, nonprofits, government and everyone else together in one room," she said.
Building pathways to leadership
Morgan Hardy, CEO of Leadership Buffalo, sees Common Ground as an opportunity to make Buffalo's leadership transition more deliberate.
For Hardy, that means going beyond mentorship. The advisory council is considering leadership development, mentorship and sponsorship, pathways into nonprofit service and better technology tools for connecting people with opportunities that match their interests.
"There is a generational shift happening in Buffalo right now, and that creates an incredible opportunity," Hardy said. "We can be intentional about preparing and connecting the people who will lead this community next, while giving them a real voice in shaping where Buffalo goes from here."
Pecht sees one model in M&T, where more than 200 employees serve on nonprofit boards. The bank formally matches employees with organizations based on their interests and experience while providing training in board governance and financial literacy.
She hopes some of those practices can eventually reach people outside the bank through Common Ground.
"There are so many people who want to give back but don't know where to go," Pecht said.
It’s an example of how Common Ground is evolving into a community-building tool, with tangible pathways for action.
"This is not an event series," Stenclik said. "What we're building is a sustainable model that continually provides access for individuals who want to put their passions toward the common good through community stewardship and leadership."
