“The quality of the community and the ecosystem players, the level of passion that exists here, is something that’s really unique."
Reid Hamilton last traveled to Buffalo in 2021 as a semifinal judge for the 43North competition.
Hamilton runs the Founder Institute New York City chapter and is a consultant with the Columbia Business School, supporting its work on entrepreneurship programming, startup competitions and external partnerships.
Hamilton was back in town earlier this week via the Western New York Incubator Network’s Speaker Series, where he gave a presentation about community building and embarked on several days of meetings with local entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem partners.
WIN is run by the University at Buffalo’s Business and Entrepreneurship Partnerships office.
“The quality of the community and the ecosystem players, the level of passion that exists here, is something that’s really unique," Hoffman told Series B about his trip. “I’ve spent a lot of time in other regions and there’s something special about Buffalo.”
The son of serial tech entrepreneurs, Hamilton left Seattle for New York City in 2005 and watched its nascent software economy grow on the back of the city’s existing strengths, particularly in finance and media.
He took over the Founder Institute role upon the recommendation of predecessor Kevin Siskar, who moved back to Buffalo and now leads Finta, which is growing on the back of its AI-enabled operating system for fundraising.
Hoffman’s experience with New York City’s specialization in fin-tech and media startups affects how he views Buffalo. He believes the region could benefit from a more definable “thing” or “things” that it’s known for, instead of having a widespread bench of companies.
Buffalo has a growing cluster of growing insurance software firms, an exciting portfolio of CPG food startups, some new auto dealer startups under the umbrella ACV Auctions and progress among medical device and health-tech innovations.
So why not lean into those things, Hoffman said.
“I think about that one thing where, if you’re doing it, you should obviously be doing it in Buffalo,” Hoffman said. “Then you layer in the natural advantages, particularly access to customers and the great ecosystem, and you could leverage the growth of this community.”
