In Western New York, GrowthX operates in close partnership with the Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship, where it runs a regionally focused version of its program.
That program has supported 45 alumni companies to date.
Pat Shreckengast joined AceUp as co-founder and chief revenue officer in 2019, based on his strong belief in democratizing access to executive coaching.
He tried, tested, and failed in rapid cycles.
Then something magical happened. The chaos ceded to a repeatable, systematic approach to sales that led the Boston-based company through pre-seed and seed rounds and significant growth.
Shortly afterward, the company raised a $22.5 million Series A round based on its impressive traction.
Shreckengast, who spent the past two years doing sales consulting for startups, is now entering a consequential role in Buffalo’s startup ecosystem. He has been hired as the Western New York Managing Director for GrowthX, a national B2B sales coaching program that has supported more than 650 founders across 60-plus rising cities.
In Western New York, GrowthX operates in close partnership with the Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship, where it runs a regionally focused version of its program. That program has supported 45 alumni companies to date, with an additional 15 companies participating in the current Spring/Summer 2026 cohort.
Shreckengast will be a key resource to the regular cohorts of companies going through GrowthX’s structured program.
The key, he said, is to remove the dopamine-driven roller coaster that many early teams adopt. Instead, Shreckengast will teach founders and founding sales officers to create a repeatable, systematic approach – a playbook customized to that company’s distinct needs.
“I’m someone who carried that knot in my stomach as I spent a lot of reps banging my head against the wall, thinking I didn’t know what I was doing,” Shreckengast said. “But when we developed that consistent playbook, it unlocked our ability to sell at AceUp.”
During his time consulting, Shreckengast found many different companies were struggling with that same bottleneck as a lack of structure created unnecessary pressure and muted progress.
What often feels like a unique challenge is usually a common one. Shreckengast and his GrowthX colleagues will show founders how to back out of corners and adopt practices that work.
The Golisano Institute is making a major investment in downtown Buffalo by replicating its educational program here in a renovated Buffalo News building. They expect to welcome the first cohort of approximately 100 students this autumn.
Led by Founder and CEO, Andrew Goldner, GrowthX officially began its partnership with the Golisano Institute’s Rochester campus in 2024. Shreckengast’s appointment also coincided with the hiring of Rochester-based Ben Bastian as GrowthX program operations lead.
Goldner is a successful startup attorney, investor, founder, sales executive and ecosystem builder. “Just like the Golisano Institute is built on applied business and entrepreneurship for its students, our sales coaching program is about doing the work of sales." He added that, “founding teams spend 16 weeks generating real revenue, while gaining access to specifically trained Golisano students who act as a force multiplier for their go-to-market.”
This work is expected to be important to individual companies. It’s also designed as a systematic ecosystem-building tool.
A collective aptitude in a hyper-competitive world.
“We’re raising an army of go-to-market specialists in Western New York so that local startups have more people like Pat,” Goldner said. “There is no one in America that is training sales operators this way, embedded in real companies, working on real revenue. Over time, that becomes a meaningful advantage for the entire ecosystem.”
