Companies to Watch - July 18, 2019

Buffalo Companies to Watch

View this email in your browser

Here at Tech:NYC, our core mission is to support a successful New York tech ecosystem — and sometimes, that doesn’t mean just the five boroughs.

Almost four hundred miles northwest, Buffalo has a burgeoning tech scene, and groups like 43North are leading the next phase of its growth. 43North is an accelerator program investing $5 million a year in startups based in — or that move to — the city. With a portfolio of 44 companies under their belt, they’ve already achieved a $800 million total portfolio valuation and created more than 400 jobs in Western New York.

The next cohort of companies will be announced later this fall, and we’re looking forward to seeing the contributions they'll make to the growing tech community across the larger metro region. That’s why this month, we’re profiling Buffalo companies to watch. Get a preview below, and read more about them in this post. 

HiOperator

What does your company do?HiOperator founder and CEO Elizabeth Tsai: HiOperator provides email and text-based customer service as a service to consumer companies. Companies hire us as if they’re hiring one, very experienced customer service agent and we can scale from 10 tickets a day to 10,000 tickets a day for them. Internally, we build software that automates backend processes with a combination of integrations, NLP, and machine learning to make our agents super efficient. Why did you found your company in Buffalo?ET: We came to Buffalo specifically because we were looking for a location where it would make sense to have both our operations & software development teams in one place. It’s important for everyone at HiOperator to understand customer service personally and all of our developers start on the CX desk. 

Kangarootime

What does your company do?Kangarootime founder and CEO Scott Wayman: We automate the childcare business, we automate the classrooms, and we help parents experience their child’s education journey.You have two distinct users: parents and childcare centers. How do you approach building and delivering a product that must work differently, but in tandem?SW: We learned an early lesson in this journey. Business software users are forgiving and will tolerate subpar UI/UX, sometimes. Consumer applications, like our parent app, that scale across tens of thousands of new users per month, have to be wonderful experiences. There is no tolerance for anything less than amazing. You have two very different user personas, and the only way to assure that both are in love with your product is to shed the notion of being a ‘software company’ and relentlessly pursue becoming a standard-setter with an obsession in ‘user centered design.’ 

SomaDetect

What does your company do?SomaDetect founder and CEO Bethany Deshpande: SomaDetect is an agricultural technology company that uses a patented sensor system and artificial intelligence to provide farmers with the information they need to make the best possible milk.As a 43North company, how do you view pitch competitions and incubators, what do you think they contribute to the ecosystem?BD: I think 43North and several others within the Buffalo ecosystem play a significant role in facilitating interactions between startup founders, supporters, angel investors, and other business people. When 43North companies come to Buffalo, they are met with an open-armed community looking to help and support their development. This makes it possible for every company to move forward at their own pace, to get help solving big problems that emerge, and to ultimately find themselves in a position to thrive and eventually give back to the community. 

What does your company do? Squire co-founder and president Dave Salvant: Squire is a booking and payment platform that connects people with great barbers nationwide. Squire makes it easy to discover and book the best barbers wherever you are, in just a few taps. It’s is also the premier management platform for barbershops. Using Squire, barbers are able to better engage their customers and process bookings and payments.As both a 43North company and graduate of YCombinator, how do you view pitch competitions and incubators? What do you think they contribute to the ecosystem?DS: I think both competitions like that from 43North and incubators like YCombinator provide two important things to young companies — the first is capital. Capital is critical for growth and building out product. The second is mentorship. Mentorship provides guidance to avoid the pitfalls that otherwise would have derailed the company.

Join Us

If you’ve been thinking about joining Tech:NYC as a member, now’s the time.

Check out our membership page

, and let us know if you have any questions.

All illustrations by

Elly Rodgers