ABOUT
Buffalo Startup Week is an established, recognized event with a loyal following and is poised for significant, high-visibility growth.
BSW2019
A Look Back
In 2019, what was once a small group of entrepreneurs who had been getting together for coffee, saw the need to come together in support of fellow founders and the emerging innovation community. They founded Buffalo Startup Week, led by Jack Greco and Clark Dever. Throughout Buffalo Startup Week, local, regional, and international thought leaders presented on everything startup – software development, UX/UI, game development, finance, funding, legal, workplace diversity and inclusion, and more.
BSW2019 unified the startup community and led to the explosive growth of Buffalo Open Coffee Club, a weekly meetup for entrepreneurs. Nearly 100 founders, established and prospective entrepreneurs, job seekers, and other stakeholders packed into a local eatery at 7:30 every Tuesday morning to collaborate and network. Since BOCC was founded, follow-on Open Coffee organizations have been added to the ecosystem, including Rochester, Niagara Falls and the University at Buffalo.
The successes of BSW2019 and BOCC in turn fueled the launch of the now 1,800-member WNY Startup Community Slack channel and Buffalo Bridge, a dynamic, weekly communique founded by Jack Greco that keeps its 5,000 subscribers engaged with events, job postings, mentor opportunities, founder features – every aspect of the WNY innovation ecosystem.
BSW2020
Virtual
Due to COVID-19, the BSW team pivoted to a virtual Startup Week in 2020. Despite challenging times, the team secured event funding from Upstate Venture Connect and a matching grant from Techstars. More than 30 events were held and more than 400 unique attendees participated.
BSW2021
Hybrid
BSW 2021 is capitalizing on the successes of its previous live and virtual events and planning is well underway for this year’s hybrid presentations. A professional marketing plan has been developed by Yamu Media, whose principal and founder is co-lead of this year’s event.
Track leads are in place, presenters are being vetted and venues are being scheduled. This will be another challenging year of many unknowns, but such is the world entrepreneurs encounter every day. And as in years past, the many facets of the WNY startup community will come together around shared ideas, experiences, and challenges as we all work to grow our vested interests, and in turn, the WNY innovation economy.
Explore the Program
For the third year in a row, Buffalo Startup Week is bringing startups, entrepreneurs, founders and other stakeholders together to collaborate, share experiences, resources and ideas – and to celebrate WNY’s thriving innovation economy.