July 2020

The HV Entrepreneur Ecosystem achieved a notable milestone in June with the acquisition of Simplecast by SiriusXM. HV Startup Fund invested in Simplecast in December 2018 and this is the first “exit” for the Fund which has another eight startups in its investment portfolio. See more details in the Entrepreneur and Investor columns below.

After a challenging Spring hunkered down in-doors, have a great summer and enjoy the beautiful Hudson Valley!

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Entrepreneurs

Simplecast, a leading podcast management and analytics platform, powers podcasts from some of the world's most well-respected creators and brands, was recently acquired by SiriusXM.

Founded in 2013, Simplecast has developed a suite of tools that has made it easier for podcasters to distribute their podcasts and to build, understand, and better connect with their audiences.

Those tools began attracting attention not only with their target audience but by other providers and platforms in the podcast and audio industries. This led to SiriusXM’s interest. SiriusXM plans to pair Simplecast’s tools with the award-winning monetization platform of AdsWizz, the adtech subsidiary of SiriusXM. This will create an end-to-end solution that enables podcast producers to publish and generate revenue from their podcasts all in one place.

It was rewarding for HVSF Fund I members to watch Simplecast’s growth from the time of our early seed stage investment through our Series A follow-on investment and ultimately to the acquisition by SiriusXM. Johnny LeHane, a Managing Member of HVSF, noted, “Our members were instantly impressed with the Simplecast management team and excited to invest in the company.”

Congratulations to the Simplecast team. We look forward to watching Simplecast continue to grow and succeed.

Investors

Hudson Valley Startup Fund got its start in the fall of 2015 and its Fund I was officially launched in June of 2016. In the four years since, Fund I has fully deployed its capital, investing in 7 Hudson Valley companies. Members have also participated via sidecar investments, as well.

Over that 4-year period, the Fund has made follow-on investments in a number of its portfolio companies as their management teams have matured and sought to achieve new growth targets.

The Fund recently notched its first exit when Simplecast was acquired by SiriusXM in June. An exit so quickly after launching the fund would be remarkable enough for any angel investment group. But the exit has come less than two years since the Fund’s initial investment was made in December of 2018!

Members continue to work together, making all investment decisions as a group, and have participated in screening and due diligence committees, as well as in advisory roles for all portfolio companies.

That model continues for Fund II which was launched in 2018 and has currently invested in two local firms. Though it’s too early to talk about overall returns, the members take great satisfaction in supporting local companies and growing the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

For more information about HVSF, please visit our website at www.hvstartupfund.com.

Entrepreneurs and investors seeking more information on the HV Startup Fund can contact Andrew Schulkind, Managing Member, at info@hvstartupfund.com.

Leaders

The original BEAHIVE (founded by Leader Scott Tillitt) opened in May 2009 on Beacon’s Main Street. His aim has been to create a platform for work and community engagement — primarily via coworking spaces. With local partners they've extended that platform to other communities over the years, swarming hives in Albany, Kingston and Peekskill.

And now, after years of requests and off-and-on exploration and actual planning, they’re about to launch in Newburgh.

The location: the forthcoming Wireworks building, an ambitious, multimillion dollar rehab of a former spring factory that sat empty for years. BEAHIVE will be sandwiched between commercial spaces on the lower level and apartments above, an ideal mission-aligned project that will bring traffic and energy and have a positive impact in the city.

As Newburgh city manager Joe Donat said, the “investment will be very substantial and, perhaps, a game-changer for that area of South William Street.”

BEAHIVE's developer partners are Baxter, a premier Hudson Valley real estate developer and general contractor; Mapos, an award-winning NYC architecture and design firm; and Sisha Ortuzar, an award-winning NYC restauranteur and hospitality advisor who lives in Newburgh.

Scott's vision for BEAHIVE from the beginning was only partly inspired by the coworking movement. Many of the events and forums they do have nothing to do with work, but have everything to do with a vibrant community. The larger aim is to inspire and facilitate new thinking and action to address community issues and economic development that meets the needs of all of us.

After the pandemic delay, they’re on track to bring the bzzz to Newburgh in September.

For more information, Connect With Us.

Service Providers

Helping Hudson Valley Businesses Grow Online through COVID-19. Be honest. Is your website making money right now? If not, you're throwing money down the drain when you could be moving customers up the sales chain. As we transition into life after COVID-19, a winning web strategy is more important than ever.

My name is Lauren Johnson, Founder and CEO of The Hyacinth Group, where we turn browsers into buyers. We help Hudson Valley business owners create websites that work smarter, not harder.

Here is a closer look at what we do: The Hyacinth Group Video.

My team of digital UX experts, graphic designers and SEO copywriters can help increase your sales by improving how customers experience your brand online. We help local companies tap into customers’ human desire and unearth crucial factors that influence online buying behavior.

The only thing moving faster than the internet are the often-distracted human beings navigating it. The key to excellent CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is inspiring shoppers to focus, make a choice and rejoice. We're CRO fanatics because people fascinate us!

Human beings are astonishing. We're mysterious, yet habitual. Defined, yet evolving. Consequently, your website must evolve as well. There's no better time, especially during COVID-19, to tap into this digital phenomenon and watch your sales bloom.

I've helped Victoria's Secret, Steve Madden and Aerosoles earn multi-million dollar sales with conversion strategy, A/B testing, multi-platform integration, SEO optimization and a suite of services that optimize the online shopping experience.

Are you ready for your company's website to finally work for you? You have 8 seconds to catch the customers’ attention.

Our digital team can quickly create a SEO-friendly website to engage customers with a responsive template in Shopify, Squarespace or Wordpress. We can also improve your existing website by optimizing:

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It's easy to sign up for an ecommerce website builder yourself, but a professional digital agency can take your sales to the next level. And the cost is surprisingly affordable with our flexible small business packages.

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To learn more about our professional website services, schedule a free quote today.

Before Silicon Valley, The HV

By Donald J. Delaney

Upper Landing Entrepreneurship

‘Pooghkepesingh’

It's an eventful day in 1609 on the Hudson River. Henry Hudson and his crew sight Native Americans enjoying a waterfall spilling into a sparkling creek. The ‘Half Moon’, Hudson’s ship drops anchor at the entry to the creek. This area on the east side of the Hudson was known to Native Americans as Pooghkepesingh meaning ‘place of cool clean water’. You are imagining the first entrepreneurial activity in the New World.

‘Pooghkepesingh’ Discovered Twice

More than seventy years would pass before the potential of the Pooghkepesingh was rediscovered. In the proceeding years, the Dutch viewed the eastern bank of the Hudson as an agriculture and trapping source. Manhattan, Kingston, with its Rondout Creek, and Albany were more to their liking for economic and political development. That would change in the spring of 1683 when two Dutch settlers, Pieter Lansingh and Jan Smeedes, acquired the land around Pooghkepesingh falls. Lansingh and Smeedes quickly built a water powered mill business, and became the first two Europeans to live on the Pooghkepesingh site. They gave their business a new Dutch identity, Fall Kill. Fall Kill was ‘on the map’.

Attention Shifts to Poughkeepsie

The entrepreneurial arc of innovation from waterpower to steam power (1683 -1824) propelled Pooghkepesingh to Poughkeepsie, gaining a population of 6,000 plus, powered by a cast of newly minted entrepreneurs.

In 1687, Robert Sanders and Myndert Harmeense introduced and combined the Dutch concept of ‘land patents’ and English concept of ‘Landlording’ to gain control of Fall Kill.
A series of early-stage Dutch and British investor-owners-developers built an infrastructure on the Fall Kill to launch a uniquely American entrepreneurship.
1757 – 1788 Fall Kill ‘scaled up’ and accelerated with the building of Fall Kill dock, a rebranding to Upper Landing and Poughkeepsie became the State Capital City. Upper Landing became an ecosystem hub.

Industrial Revolution Disruption

1800 was a very good year for Martin Hoffman. Hoffman was both the managing partner of the Fall Kill–Upper Landing complex and a skilled entrepreneur–operator. His dock was the major entry point for building supplies. Building was booming.

Entrepreneur Hoffman had acquired ownership of the dock from Robert Livingston. Livingston at that time in his ‘working retirement’ was focused on his family real estate business. That would change when he met Robert Fulton.

Under Hoffman’s vision and business skills he grew Fall Kill–Upper Landing to a 100 acre ‘business center’ encompassing six mills, the sizable Fall Kill Storehouse, home port for six sailing vessels, and the first branded flour- extra fine ‘F’ brand flour.

And then a tsunami of industrial innovation disrupted the dock. Four powerful waves rolled in: the Highland and the Sharon Turnpikes, the D & H canal, Fulton and Livingston’s Clermont steamboat, and the new Hudson River Railroad.

Out of the disruption emerged the Reynolds & Innis era of business model innovation and entrepreneurial success. Reynolds and Innis's excellence in logistics and distribution would benefit the up-and-coming entrepreneurs, Matthew Vassar, S. B. Morse, and the Smith Bros.

Credit and gratitude to Michael Diaz for: A Short History of Poughkeepsie’s Upper Landing

This Before the Silicon Valley, the Hudson Valley blog offers a 400-year narrative journey honoring the icons of entrepreneurship and their impact on invention, innovation, and commercialization in the Hudson Valley.

Don Delaney

Contact welcome: Donald J. Delaney, HV Entrepreneurship Historian & Blog Writer for the HV Venture Hub at SUNY New Paltz. You can reach Don at don@dondelaney.com

Events

July 8 (online): Upstate Capital presents the Future of Food, an event to highlight the food and agtech industry and innovation
July 13 (Zoom): Hudson Valley Women in Business meeting on “Stop Wasting Time: How to Define + Where to Find Your Ideal Client Now.”, 1:00pm - 2:15pm

July 15 (online): Upstate Capital's monthly member networking, featuring a conversation with David Helgerson, Hamilton Lane. Contact info@upstatecapital.org for membership information.

July 28 (Zoom): Finding Your Angel, with Jeff Werner, sponsored by Women’s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC), 12:00pm – 2:00pm
August 6 (Saratoga/online): The Saratoga Forum is Upstate Capital’s annual CEO & Entrepreneur Roundtable event.

August 10 (Location TBD): Hudson Valley Women in Business meeting, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
August 13 (online): Upstate Capital's monthly member networking, featuring a conversation with Jack Greco, Techstars. Contact info@upstatecapital.org for membership information.

September 10 (Potsdam/online): Upstate Capital event online to discuss succession planning; hear from executives who have raised outside capital and completed successful transitions from their companies. See our website for more details: https://www.upstatecapital.org

September 24 (Buffalo/online): The Private Equity and M&A deal-making community is coming together to hear the latest from active investors, and make connections to facilitate deal flow for PE and M&A professionals, and how to prepare for M&A as buyers and sellers at Upstate Capital's Private Equity Summit.

Comments? Email Tony DiMarco at dimarcoa@newpaltz.edu