How Christian Gaddis found Buffalo's startup scene, and found himself in the process.
I pull into the spot. Trying to gear myself up for another day of work.
Eight hours of calling people about missed mortgage payments and maxed-out credit cards.
Centering on that thought brings it all forward. My hands are gripping the wheel. The pressure between my ears is like a vice.
Something’s got to give.
My name is Christian Gaddis, and I’m the senior director of marketing and PR at 43North. I spend my day working with startup founders, investors and other people filled with ambition and creativity.
This is an incredible job, filled with people who believe we can win the line of scrimmage on Buffalo’s future.
So how did I get from the opening anecdote to here? As a new contributing editor to Series B, I’d like to share a slice of my professional journey, from the despair of that day in the car to the cutting-edge of marketing, economic development and entrepreneurship.
I’d like to start with something rare and incredible. In 2007, I was signed by the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent offensive lineman. It’s hard to describe the competitive atmosphere in the NFL, other than to say that every snap is an audition. Nobody promises you anything.
When I made the active roster, it felt like proof that I could walk into a room where I wasn’t expected and earn my place.
Four years and three teams later, I got cut at the end of training camp.
I interned with New Era during my last offseason and was able to pick that back up while I waited for a call from a new team. Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months. The season ended, and I thought, “It’s ok. I can earn my place in a new room.”
It turns out internships don’t last forever. The next steps are an uncomfortable part of the journey for most former professional athletes. I was in my late 20s. My resume was thin. I did not have any professional momentum.
That’s when I learned that Buffalo was a major collections hub. Motivated by necessity, I pivoted into mortgage and credit card collections. I simply had no other option.
Working in collections is not fun. Picture a day spent on real conversations with real people who have likely lost whatever it is your calling about.
I hated every minute of it. Unfortunately, I was good at it. I understood people. How to get on the phone, build a relationship, and find a solution.
But sitting in that parking lot, struggling to breathe, I realized something: if I didn’t interrupt my own life, I would wake up 10, 15, 20 years later still there.
It was clear I was capable of performing a job, even one that I hated, at a high level. Comfort can be dangerous when you’re built to compete.
Life can change all at once, like that moment in the car, and it can change slowly. I used my renewed enthusiasm to score a position at local marketing firm Eric Mower & Associates, where I worked as a senior account executive.
This was a fulfilling experience at a great firm but I was still redefining myself. Part of that was the lingering identity shift from football. I will always be proud of that chapter, but it’s hard when people expect you to be the “football guy,” to relive Sundays instead of looking forward.
I wanted to be taken seriously for my aptitude in my new profession. I wanted to talk brand, story, strategy and growth.
I wanted to build something.
This was the journey of discovery that led me to Forge Buffalo, a nonprofit connected to 43North focused on supporting founders from underrepresented communities.
I started interviewing for the role the day before New York State shut down for the pandemic in 2020.
The world was closing. Businesses were uncertain. Nobody knew what was coming next. And I was interviewing for a job centered around entrepreneurship.
It would’ve been easy for that opportunity to disappear.
Instead, it became the turning point.
Forge gave me something I hadn’t felt since football: alignment. I could bring bold ideas. Experiment. Build a brand. Fail fast. Lead.
When people started referring to me as “the Forge guy,” I knew the work was landing. Founders were showing up. The community was leaning in. Momentum was building, even in the middle of a pandemic.
Somewhere along the way, Buffalo stopped being my first NFL stop and became home. I married into Buffalo. Built here. Reinvented myself here.
Forge ran its course, but in the meantime, I transitioned into my current role at 43North. My career has expanded quickly because I was given room to grow. Buffalo does that, even when it doesn’t always recognize it.
Like the founders here, this city sometimes sells itself short. It plays small when it doesn’t have to. But what we have is rare: a community of connectors. Builders. Good neighbors who make the call, send the intro, show up when it counts.
I’m a lineman at heart. There are five of you moving as one. You lead, but you serve. If one person freelances, the play collapses. But when you move together, you create space. You protect. You win.
That’s how ecosystems win.
Buffalo founders are undrafted free agents, too. They’re fighting to prove they belong to investors, to customers, to themselves.
I know that fight.
I’ve had to prove it in locker rooms and boardrooms.
Now my job is to make sure the world sees what I see. Buffalo is a launchpad.
This is just the beginning. In the months ahead, I’ll be sitting down with the people building this city — founders, operators, creatives — and spotlighting the places that fuel the work. The restaurants. The neighborhoods. The spaces where ideas turn into companies.
Because this isn’t a comeback story. It’s a build-from-here story.
And we’re just getting started.
