A case study in corporate engagement from one of the world’s largest professional services firms.
Just days after John Gavigan started his new job leading 43North in February 2015, two executives from EY walked into a meeting to learn more about Buffalo’s startup competition.
At the time, Buffalo’s innovation economy was still largely an idea. But something about the energy surrounding 43North resonated with EY Buffalo leaders Gene Gramza and Marc Izzo.
“We went to the first finals in 2014 and we were hooked,” said Marc Izzo, EY’s Buffalo Office managing partner. “We saw 43North and the broader startup ecosystem as a really unique opportunity for Buffalo.”
That early meeting, which was organized by Performance Management Partners CEO Sharon Randaccio, ultimately became the beginning of a decade-plus relationship between EY and Buffalo’s startup economy.
In the process, EY introduced waves of young auditors, tax accountants and consultants in Buffalo to a world of high risk and reward, giving them a new dimension as they served their established clients.
It serves as a compelling example of how large corporations can engage with local innovation while strengthening their own organizations in the process.
“43North has always believed that Buffalo's innovation economy is an opportunity for established businesses to build strategies and engagements that make them more effective,” said Colleen E. Heidinger, 43North president. “We're grateful for corporate pioneers such as EY who not only understood this vision but put that belief into action. They have been an essential partner and supporter of our work for over a decade.”
That work has taken on a new set of urgency under Gavigan, who is now vice president of corporate connectivity for the 43North Foundation, and is introducing formal programming designed to engage established businesses in the future of Buffalo’s economy (Series B is the Foundation’s media and marketing arm).
In some ways, EY is the template.
“At our first meeting, John asked us, ‘What’s in it for you?’” Gramza said. “And honestly, our answer was engagement for our people.”
Gramza has since retired, but served as Buffalo office managing partner at the time. He is now active in startup investors networks that include Launch NY, the Buffalo Angels and S2.
From that first meeting, the engagement quickly became real.
In the early years of 43North, application volume was enormous and much of the review process remained highly manual. EY shut down portions of its Buffalo office and sent employees en masse to help 43North review and validate startup applications.
The internal events became known informally as “43North Days.”
The work ranged from validating business information to reviewing financial materials and confirming eligibility requirements. Over time, more than 100 EY employees participated.
For a professional services firm largely serving mature companies with long operating histories, the exposure to early-stage founders represented something entirely new.
“These entrepreneurs were taking risks that most people never encounter in their professional lives,” Gramza said. “Our younger employees were sitting across from founders building companies from scratch. That experience helped them become broader business advisors and stronger professionals.”
As Buffalo’s startup ecosystem matured, EY’s role evolved alongside it.
The firm began collaborating with 43North on structured entrepreneur feedback programs modeled after EY’s own internal assessment systems. Through detailed interviews with startup founders, EY helped 43North better understand what entrepreneurs needed from the accelerator experience and how programming could improve over time.
“We would interview founders at the beginning of the cohort year about what they expected to get from the program, what mentorship they needed, where they thought the value was,” Izzo said. “Then we’d bring that feedback back to 43North so they could refine the experience.”
Over time, those relationships produced broader ripple effects across Buffalo’s economy, including work with some of the city’s most successful startups.
The firm’s involvement also expanded into Endeavor Western New York, the global entrepreneurial network focused on helping high-growth companies scale internationally. Gramza served as a founding board member for Endeavor WNY before Izzo later assumed the role.
For Izzo, Endeavor represented a natural extension of the work EY had already begun through 43North.
That broader exposure also helped elevate Buffalo’s reputation inside EY itself.
“Whenever I had the opportunity to pitch 43North internally, I did,” Izzo said. “People outside Buffalo started paying attention to what was happening here.”
That internal visibility became increasingly important as innovation and technology reshaped professional services firms globally.
Sergio Gangarossa, an EY senior tax manager out of Buffalo, experienced that evolution firsthand.
In 2018, Gangarossa spent two months embedded full-time at 43North through an EY community impact initiative, helping redesign aspects of the accelerator’s judging and operational processes.
Gangarossa said the experience changed how EY employees viewed their own client relationships.
“The value we try to bring isn’t just audit work or tax compliance,” he said. “It’s being a broader strategic advisor. Being around founders and entrepreneurs helped our people continue to develop that mindset.”
EY leaders emphasized that the partnership has created value across employee engagement, professional development and stronger relationships across the region’s business ecosystem. It has given the Buffalo office exposure to emerging technologies and business models before they became mainstream.
Today, that insight is relevant as industries grapple with rapid change driven by artificial intelligence and automation.
“All of us are trying to understand where innovation is going,” Gramza said. “The exposure Marc and Sergio and others have gotten through the startup ecosystem gives them perspective beyond just listening to global strategy conversations.”
That philosophy increasingly shapes how EY thinks about its long-term role in Western New York.
The Buffalo office now operates closely alongside Rochester with roughly 150 employees combined, while continuing to maintain a significant presence inside the region’s entrepreneurial economy.
More than a decade after that first meeting with Gavigan, EY’s leaders see the partnership with 43North and Buffalo’s broader startup community not as a side initiative, but as an increasingly important part of the region’s future economy.
“We see this continuing,” Izzo said. “It’s extremely important for us to stay involved with founders and entrepreneurs because that’s where the economy is going.”
