Situation
In 2012, Buffalo’s startup community was small—fewer than 300 people regularly involved across meetups, coworking, and early-stage projects. Yet the city had deep technical talent from universities and legacy industry. The missing piece was a coordinated, open, and repeating set of activities that would compound into density, trust, and momentum.
Task
Build a durable, inclusive startup community that could scale beyond any single founder or organization, creating leveraged impact on the region’s financial future.
Actions
- Worked with other Community Leaders to build repeating, open events and rituals that lowered activation energy for newcomers (meetups, founder coffees, demos, hack nights)
- Connected founders to mentors, investors, and peers; made >1,600 targeted introductions and nerfed institutional gatekeeping
- Operated as a “community gardener,” prioritizing inclusion, transparency, and velocity over bureaucratic risk avoidance
- Acted as Executive Director for the first Buffalo Startup Week
- Codified community playbooks inspired by Brad Feld’s Startup Communities principles (founder-led, long-term, give first, inclusive, network over hierarchy)
- Partnered with universities, NGOs, and state funded organizations, while prioritizing the needs of founders
- Documented wins, amplified stories through PR, and created onramps for volunteers to contribute
- Co-Founded a 501c3 with Jordan Walbesser to act as a Trust for the Startup Community's Assets
Result
- Community scaled to over 10,000 participants across events, groups
- Increased startup formation, stronger founder networks, and improved capital access
- Contributed to Buffalo’s first unicorn exit as ACV Auctions went public, validating the region’s capacity to build and scale venture-backed companies
Failures and Learnings
- Burnout risk: leader-driven systems require redundancy and shared ownership
- Consistency > intensity: small, reliable rituals outperformed one-off spectacles
- Measurement matters: tracking intros, participation, and outcomes helped focus scarce attention
Technologies and Tools
- Community tooling: brdg.app, Slack, Eventbrite
- Event operations: repeatable runbooks, volunteer roles, code of conduct, feedback loops
If you’re building community or a startup in Western New York, say hello—there’s likely someone I can introduce you to.