March 2020

Calling all Hudson Valley Entrepreneurs! The HV Entrepreneur Forum is less than two weeks away on March 19 at SUNY New Paltz. Let’s come together to meet and learn from entrepreneurs who have travelled the path before us, and to learn from each other. See details in the Entrepreneur section below. 

Entrepreneurs

The HV Entrepreneur Forum on March 19 is designed for all types of HV entrepreneurs - high growth startups, solopreneurs, small business and family business entrepreneurs. Hear from Daniel Leader, Founder and Chairman, Bread Alone, and five other successful HV entrepreneurs in a panel discussion. Join lively “huddles” on critical topics to entrepreneurs, led by local experts on the topics. 

HV Entrepreneurs Forum - Register Now! 

Hosted by HV Venture Hub at SUNY New Paltz

When: Thursday, March 19, 2020 from 9:00am - 12:30pm

Where: Science Center Room 181 at SUNY New Paltz

9:00am Kickoff: Registration, Light Breakfast, Networking

             President Donald Christian - Welcome Message

9:30am Entrepreneur Panel: HV entrepreneurs sharing their lessons learned on the journey of entrepreneurship in the HV, spanning high growth ventures, exit experiences, small business and family business

10:25am Sponsor Messages

10:30am Huddle Pitches: each Huddle facilitator will do an introductory 3 minute pitch on the topic and will facilitate connections and discussions on the topic during the huddles.

11:00am Huddles: entrepreneurs will gather at huddles of interest and can move between huddles at any time.  See Huddles below with confirmed Huddle facilitators.

Noon Lunch and open networking

12:30pm Adjourn

Thank you to our HV Venture Hub Annual Sponsors who are supporting this Forum: Schwartz Heslin Group (David Dell), GCSEN Foundation (Mike Caslin), HV Startup Fund (Johnny LeHane), Upstate Capital (Noa Simons).

Register Now! 

Investors 

Upstate Capital is the place to meet investors, transaction professionals, and executives leading companies from the Hudson Valley to Buffalo. As a private, non-profit membership association with 125 member organizations, we work with members, sponsors and partners to connect investors to investment opportunities at all stages: startups, venture-backed, upper small market, and lower middle market companies. 

Please join us at an upcoming event!  

  • Venture NY - current and future entrepreneurs and investors, featuring the NYBPC finals  P.S. Know a startup seeking capital? The founder can apply to pitch to investors & get free pitch mentorship from an investor. Learn more. 
  • Buffalo Private Equity Summit - private equity and M&A transaction professionals, business owners and executives in lower middle market companies
  • Saratoga Forum - the summer place to be for PE, M&A, business owners and executives, and startup founders
  • Annual Celebration - bringing the whole Upstate Capital community to celebrate our achievements

With 4 marquee events annually, and several regional events in between, there are opportunities for everyone.  Both members and non-members are welcome to attend most of our programs. For details, visit our website. 

We take our mission seriously!  We increase access to capital for companies and deal flow for investors by creating opportunities for building relationships between investors and people seeking capital.  The impact of our work is evident in the thousands of connections made since 2003, the strong support from sponsors and members we continue to enjoy, and most importantly, the increasing numbers of investment transactions happening across New York. 

Want to talk to someone at Upstate Capital?  Give us a call at (845) 204-8090 or send us a note. Hope to see you soon!

Leaders

                   

We reinvented the playbook: two sets of capabilities, one end-to-end solution… 

Focusing on the day-to-day business while trying to allocate the appropriate time and resources to focus on improvements, growth, value, and pursuing transactions (i.e., capital, M&A, divestitures, and exits) is often challenging, especially for emerging growth and mid-sized companies. Finding the right balance can be the difference between thriving or just surviving. 

Located in Westchester County, Bridge Global Capital Group is an independent investment banking and strategic growth advisory firm serving mid-sized and high-potential emerging growth companies. Regardless of the type of transaction, we take the lead and drive the process every step of the way. Our affiliate, 360accel, is a unique management consulting platform delivering customized and cost-effective solutions that fuel strategic recalibration, business improvements, growth acceleration, and transaction readiness. 

Our customized, end-to-end solutions provide clients with a cost-effective and balanced way to pursue and achieve strategic objectives, while still maintaining focus on the day-to-day business. We simplify complex processes related to business assessments, data analytics, market research & analyses, opportunities exploration, strategy, planning, modeling, market positioning, and execution. We help you fast-track alignment, decisions, action, and results. 

Our core solution tracks include: 

  • Business & Performance Improvements 
  • Strategy & Positioning Recalibration 
  • Growth Acceleration & Transformation 
  • Transaction Readiness & Valuation Substantiation 
  • Transaction Representation / Investment Banking 

For more information, please contact us at info@bgcapgroup.com or info@360accel.

Securities products offered through Bridge Capital Associates, Inc, member FINRA, SIPC.

Service Providers

Vaistra is a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) startup discovery and transaction platform to reduce high information/search costs of connecting sustainable products to responsible consumption. For startup founders, the ideal sweet spot is addressing pain points that are a: (1) Mega-trend in a (2) growing addressable market and is (3) value (not price) driven with (4) paying customers. Call them social enterprises, while others call them startups linked to UN SDGs, be it an alternative to plastic or food waste. Rushdi Siddiqui, Founder & CEO, Vaistra, is leading the Crossing the Chasms to Growth huddle in the upcoming HV Entrepreneur Forum.

The ecosystem of mission driven startups is about sustainable products that are supported by accelerators, angel investment network, venture capital, etc. 

Source: https://www.vaistra.co/startups/ 

However, there are four (4) main challenges with sustainable products from startups: 

  1. Understanding the many categories linked to SDG, from agric-tech to food loss/waste to Eewaste to sustainable fashion to sanitation, etc. We identified 32 content categories, and presented them as daily RSS News Feeds, hence, showing the landscape, trends, and opportunities for startups. Furthermore, showcasing United Nations promoting sustainable startups: https://www.vaistra.co/united-nations/. Source: https://www.vaistra.co/   
  2. The second challenge is addressing the user's excitement-call to action journey. In the values space, responsible consumers (SDG 12) conduct due diligence to facilitate a purchase. Today, there are existing information platforms, but these are not e-commerce enabled with logistics and payment. Thus, addressing the user journey: fewest clicks to destination. 
  3. The third challenge is addressing the needs of SDG investor stakeholders. These include: angel investors, VC firms, accelerators, university incubators, family offices, etc., who want to invest in SDG-linked startups globally. They want and need to connect with like-minded communities, and to collaborate and undertake commerce. SDG investor stakeholders want to reduce their information search cost for content and investment opportunities. 
  4. Finally, startups that cannot access follow-on funding, but believe a longer run-way will help get product traction with customers, want cost effective sales/distribution channels. And they may be interested in getting on the radar screen of other startups that want to grow inorganically through acquisitions. We need to connect these startups to begin the conversation.

For more information, contact us at: hello@vaistra.co

Before Silicon Valley, The HV

By Donald J. Delaney

Schatz Ball Bearings - Invention & Reinvention

Entrepreneurship at its best is a simple circular story of invent, reinvent, repeat. The Schatz story is an entrepreneurial journey more akin to a novel: invention, innovation, growth, death, resurrection, success.

In 1895, Adolph and son Herrmann Schatz were transitioning from metal craftsman to ‘Industrial Age’ entrepreneurs. Their specialty was manufacturing metal specialties. Being curious and observant, two essential entrepreneurial traits, they took note of Karl Benz’s (Mercedes Benz) invention of the modern automobile in 1886, followed by Henry Ford in 1908. The Schatz’s capitalized on the new need for a metal specialty, the bearing. Bearing design-engineering and the potential for mass production was a natural fit with Schatz’s strengths and business aspirations.

Schatz’s first “invention–reinvention cycle” involved a product pivot (bearings), a new market (auto), an identity reinvention (brand), and a relocation -- very entrepreneurial. In 1910, Schatz Hardware Manufacturing became Schatz Manufacturing Company in Poughkeepsie, NY. 

Bearings propelled their new business model. Bearings were a supply-chain essential for car manufacturing and Ford became an early customer. And, the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge (1889) served as a supply-chain logistical link.  

Industrial Revolution advances in manufacturing and market demand during WWI, WWII, and Post WWII, grew Schatz’s workforce to over 1,000 employees. See photo below of original, now abandoned, factory site in Poughkeepsie.


By the 1970’s, Schatz-Federal had climbed to the peak of the ‘five- phase business life-cycle curve’: launch, growth, shake-out, maturity, and decline. An automobile sales contraction, complacent management, and a strike tipped Schatz-Federal into decline and eventual bankruptcy (1980).

 Resurrection and rebirth arrived in 1985. In an echo to the Schatz father and son team, the Pomeroy family purchased the assets of bankrupt Schatz. Walter Pomeroy resurrected and repositioned Schatz Bearing Corporation as a precision, lean manufacturing supplier for high-tech applications. Son, Stephen Pomeroy, Ph.D. (MIT) became President in 1992, leading Schatz to become a ‘go-to’ supplier to aerospace. Success! 

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. 

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

© Donald J. Delaney 2019

Events

March 9 (Newburgh): Hudson Valley Womxn in Business meeting on 5 Ways to Improve Your SEO, 6:00pm – 8:00pm at Grit Works

March 13-15 (Kingston), Developing a Social Equity Practice, workshop, Good Work Institute

March 19 (New Paltz): HV Entrepreneurs Forum hosted by the Hudson Valley Venture Hub at SUNY New Paltz. An opportunity for HV entrepreneurs to learn from each other. See the full agenda. Register Now! 

March 23 (Poughkeepsie): 4 Goals 4 LinkedIn 4 Business, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm at Think Dutchess

March 27 (Rhinebeck), Free Coworking Day at CO

April 4 (Mahopac): Our New World Conference: Create Your Destiny, Achieve Your Dream, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm at Putnam County Golf Club

April 13 (Kingston): Hudson Valley Womxn in Business meeting on Building a Values-Aligned Business, 6:00pm – 8:00pm at the idea garden

April 17  (Poughkeepsie): Mid-Hudson Regional Business Plan Competition , 8:00am – 6:00pm at Marist College, Student Center

April 20 (New Windsor): POS- The Fast Track to Growth, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm at The Accelerator

April 21 & 22 (Capital Region): FuzeHub’s Machining and Fabrication Showcase; 3:00 – 7:00 PM on 4/21, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM on 4/22

April 23 (White Plains): Westchester Angels Investor Meeting and Networking Get Together 5:45 pm – 8:30 pm at the KOI Workspace

April 30 - May 1 (Albany): Venture NY is a two-day event that includes the NY Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) Finals on May 1. Get details at VentureNY.org

May 11 (Beacon): Hudson Valley Womxn in Business meeting, 6:00pm – 8:00pm at Beahive

Job Opportunities

Commercialization Fellow, Empire State Development (ESD), Albany, NY

Comments? Email Tony DiMarco at dimarcoa@newpaltz.edu