Venture NY: Upstate Ecosystem Builders

Noa Simons – 00:00:04 –> 00:00:34

So for those of you who don’t know, Rich Honen is an attorney with Philips Lytle and has been in the venture game and in the ecosystem here for, well, not quite as long as I’ve been alive, but really launched pretty, pretty close to as long as I’ve been alive. So yeah, so I’m really excited to have you here leading a conversation with me, Olivia, about how the ecosystem has evolved and and what we see as the future for our organizations and for the upstate community more broadly.

Richard Honen – 00:00:34 –> 00:00:48

Yeah, I’m excited too, because when I was preparing for this, I was saying between these two women in their organizations, they have first degree access to what, 98% of the people in our, in our ecosystem. So between the two of them, you can find

everybody,

Noa Simons – 00:00:49 –> 00:00:51

but they’re still 2%.

Richard Honen – 00:00:52 –> 00:01:08

And, and one of the things we’re going to talk about is there’s a lot of overlap between the organizations and what they both do. And then there is some significant differentiation because they’re approaching it from different viewpoints. So, Noa I’m going to ask you to start it off. What’s Upstate Capital’s mission?

Noa Simons – 00:01:08 –> 00:02:29

Sure. So Upstate Capital got started in 2003. So I’m told by attorneys and investors between Albany, Rochester and Buffalo, and there are two schools of thought happening at the same time. One is that the later stage private equity folks wanted to be able to do deals together. They wanted to be able to see more deal activity for a lot of the old manufacturing, second, third, fourth generation companies that have had been built and were growing. And we’re looking at succession very similar to some of the dynamics we still have today. And there was a certain faction of people who were really harkening back to some of what we’ve heard already today, thinking about all of the intellectual talent that is here in the colleges and universities and, and these incredibly large companies that had big research arms. So lots and lots of fundamental technology, so great opportunity for venture capital. And how do we attract more venture capital to this region? So the mission for upstate capital today is to drive deal flow. It’s, it’s to increase access to capital for companies and deal flow for investors. And we’ve been an investor driven organization for since 2003 in our charter.

Richard Honen – 00:02:29 –> 00:02:35

Right? Olivia at the same question, what does upstate venture connect to and how did it get started?

Olivia Goldstein – 00:02:35 –> 00:05:00

So I actually just found this out. But at the, the co-founders of, of Upstate Venture Connect, which are Martin Babnick and Nasser Ali actually first met at an upstate capital of that, which is very special. So really the premise for why UVC came to be was both Martin and Nasser had these experiences outside of upstate New York and other kind of more prominent 

entrepreneurial ecosystems, and they kind of looked around and saw what really takes for making a strong entrepreneurship community. And one of the key elements is this idea of just really giving back and being supportive of founders and being able to help connect them to different  resource is or make introductions for them without really necessarily expecting or wanting anything in return. And so when they both came back

to upstate New York and then they ultimately met at this upstate capital event, they had this idea for an organization that kind of really helped to instill that for our region because they were looking around and they were like, there are so many tremendous resources in upstate New York. I mean, look alone at all of the, the strong universities that we have here. A lot of shared history between all of the different cities in upstate New York being previously dominated by single employers. Why can’t we still have that, that same sort of community and ecosystem here that you see in other regions? So Upstate Venture Connect came to be born and really our mission is how we can better support high growth businesses and founders in upstate New York by making very curated connections and referrals for them based on the needs that they have. So one of the key elements of what we do is we operate something that we call a founders network, which essentially works 1 to 1 with different founders in our region and helps connect them to various needs that they might have, whether it’s mainland kind of peer to peer connections, founders to mentors, which we call you and my 50 members. It could be founders, too, maybe talent, it could be founders, service providers. It’s sometimes investors. It really just kind of depends on, on the niche needs that the different companies that we’re working with really need. And at this point, we are tracking over 700 high growth businesses in upstate New York.

Richard Honen – 00:05:00 –> 00:05:15

So let me just ask about that because you’re saying UVC is a founder

based mission and know what you’re talking about being more of an investor based mission. Can you talk a little bit more about how, how those two things work together?

Noa Simons – 00:05:15 –> 00:05:39

Well, I like to say you can’t have one without the other. So, you know, investors need good deals. They need founders and entrepreneurs to do good deals and entrepreneurs need investors. And so I think we’re both coming at this ecosystem work that we do with these two from these two different angles where we’re both systemically need each other,

Richard Honen – 00:05:39 –> 00:05:40

same. 

Olivia Goldstein – 00:05:40 –> 00:06:20

Yeah. So there are so many companies now at this point in, in our region that really needs support. And I think the way that, that we think about working with them at UVC is how can we kind of make more of those curated referrals, founder and founder right. And the other angle of that, we’re Upstate Capital is coming in is now there’s so many opportunities for investors to be investing in our region. So how can we showcase that to funds and investors that are maybe not just within the region to do better deal sharing, but also bringing investors from the outside in? So it’s all about how can we better support our community here?

Noa Simons – 00:06:20 –> 00:07:24

That’s exactly right. And a big impetus for the VC community that we launched earlier this year is a, is about being agnostic as to where investors are located and to some degree even where deals are located. So we’ve started this monthly cadence of collecting deal flow from our VC community members and any active investor and from entrepreneurs themselves. They can also submit on our, on our deal submission form if they’re raising money. And we’ve been hosting a monthly call where we’re looking at the deal flow as a group and people have people who are members of upstate capital have the opportunity to pitch their companies if they want to syndicate a deal or they’re looking for follow on for an investment, they’re already involved with. And so we’re we’re continuing to evolve how we really focus on on venture capital investors and deal flow in ways that are efficient for investors and for entrepreneurs hoping to continue to knit that together and bridge that gap.

Richard Honen – 00:07:24 –> 00:07:39

Yeah, so it seems like both of you have brought your kind of prior experiences, prior lives to these missions. So let me switch it around a little bit. Noah, what do you know about, about Olivia’s background and then you know, what brought her here?

Noa Simons – 00:07:39 –> 00:07:40

Yeah, well, so

Richard Honen – 00:07:40 –> 00:07:43

…and Olivia, I’m going to ask you the same thing,

so be ready.

Noa Simons – 00:07:43 –> 00:08:19

Yeah, I’ve known you Olivia, for a few years, and I’ve watched your career for a while, so I know that you are a startup founder, that you’ve had an exit that you currently are the CEO of Upstate Venture Connect. But even before that, you have a general partner with START Fast Ventures. And so you were the investor hat, you were the entrepreneur hat and you wear the ecosystem bowler hat. So I think that’s neat. And then in preparing for this, I also found out that Olivia spent time overseas in India. And so I find the parallels in our careers very interesting.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:08:19 –> 00:09:15

We are. I feel like we’re kindred spirits of, you know, I think one of the things that really stands out about about you and that is important for the work that we do, is that you’ve worn both the founder hat and the investor hat, and that’s ultimately led to your development to be this this powerhouse community builder that you are today in running upstate capital. And it’s it’s fascinating to, as I’ve learned and gotten to know you and learned about your background in your own career

and having moved outside of the area, doing a lot of different things on the West Coast and in Boston and even even China,  I found out that you spent time at a family office running, you know, a lot of different wearing a lot of hats over there, which one of the more funny stories that I learned was that you spent time as the interim CEO of a motorcycle company. So there’s a lot of fun stories related to that.

Noa Simons – 00:09:15 –> 00:09:16

And the stories we’re having beers later.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:09:16 –> 00:09:18

Right? Right. Over drinks later.

Noa Simons – 00:09:18 –> 00:09:18

Yeah.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:09:18 –> 00:09:55

But really, I think the the important piece of this is you’ve you’ve had that founder experience with with your your composting business that you ran for a number of years and then kind of turning the chapter over and starting the Hudson Valley Startup Fund, which again it’s always looking for the next thing that you can do to really build up and lift up our community. And then ultimately now coming  full circle to to running Upstate Capital, which is the preeminent group to really find access to deals in upstate New York.

Noa Simons – 00:09:55 –> 00:10:01

Well, thank you. That’s very generous of you. I appreciate it. And I feel like I’m in very good company.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:10:02 –> 00:10:04

I would say that’s why I said kindred spirits.

Noa Simons – 00:10:04 –> 00:10:21

One, a big part of the reason we set up this conversation is that I think we’re really excited to get to know each other and get to work together because we, we do so often face this question of how are, are you guys doing different things or the same things? And and I think this is a question you have on your mind.

Richard Honen – 00:10:21 –> 00:10:24

Yeah, I do. And we can get today.

Noa Simons – 00:10:24 –> 00:10:27

I’ve already thought about that before

this.

Richard Honen – 00:10:27 –> 00:10:50

Well, yeah, let’s get to that though. So you know what? I’m going a little out of order, but what are the biggest misconceptions? Because I know the two of you spend a lot of time answering questions about your organization, which also means educating people on the other’s organization. So what are the common misconceptions? What are, what are the things that you’re, you’re educating people on?

Noa Simons – 00:10:50 –> 00:11:44

Yeah, I think people come to me and say, Ah, how are you the same? Or How are you different? And to me the answer really is rooted in the, the base of Upstate Capital is in our investors, the leader, the the leadership on the board predominantly and deploying capital. Of course, we have some service providers and some ecosystem people who are really big stakeholders and really big supporters of our organization. But, but we are capital provider led and capital provider focused. And so I think that’s to me the core differentiator. And we have focused a lot on convening both for early stage entrepreneurship, but at least 50% of our work with Upstate Capital is for the private equity community, whose needs are actually quite different from the early stage venture ecosystem.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:11:44 –> 00:14:21

The short answer to this, what I always tell people is Upstate Capital really works and kind of looks at things through the lens of the capital providers or the investors, whereas UBC is kind of tackling the same problem, I guess from the founder perspective and looking at working with founders. But I think that the bigger thing  that I want to, to dive into here is, you know, as I’ve spent a lot of time outside of this region as well and what I’ve found in other ecosystems is that there really isn’t one organization to rule them all. There’s, there’s a place for different,  different groups and different groups with different missions to really support the needs of the ecosystem in the community. And honestly, sometimes there’s there’s overlap in what we do and there might be areas of gray, but I think ultimately it’s it’s we’re all here to to really support and and help the community and drive more access for founders and just to kind of double click on that And one specific example is I know  Upstate Capital for example, runs the New York business plan competition. And when you look at the New York business plan competition and, and Upstate Capital’s mission, you might not initially make that connection for, for why this matters. But just to peel back a little bit on that a few years ago upstate or sorry, excuse me a few years ago the New York business plan competition needed new leadership and there was an opportunity for upstate capital to really come in and take ownership and lead this program that might not that might have cease to exist if it weren’t for that. And I think if anything that speaks more to the character and the need of, of kind of really helping and doing things for the betterment of, of the community so that good programs don’t go to die. And ultimately now the New York Business plan competition, few years later, there’s a lot of area of areas where we both collaborate. So I, for example, have been a judge on the New York Business Plan competition for about three years now. I know one of my board members,  Christine Tait, she’s, she’s keynoting tomorrow and she’s also had met her co-founder at the New York Business Plan Competition. So so really the thing I want to emphasize here is I don’t think that there’s there’s there’s room for all of us to really kind of come together and collaborate, because at the end of the day, we’re all really just trying to do the best we can to make for a stronger community and a place where more businesses can thrive and grow in our region.

Noa Simons – 00:14:22 –> 00:16:02

Yeah, I totally agree. I think that when I have it, it’s funny because I didn’t actually realize that I was an entrepreneur or ecosystem builder, so it was a couple years into this job. I thought, you know, more like an I don’t know now the Chamber of Commerce exactly, but something more like a, you know, membership association. And I really understood the ecosystem building work when the business plan competition where I had been a judge, you know, I heard that it was not going to continue. And then I came up to Albany. I live down in the Hudson Valley and said I would like it to continue, so can I have it? And the people who were in charge of it said yes. And, and so we, we continued with the program. But, you know, at that moment, it wasn’t complete. Li aligned with the upstate capital mission per se, except in this broad sense of you need to have good investment opportunities, you need good entrepreneurs. And this program lays the foundation and sets the stage for our next generation of entrepreneurs who are enrolled in colleges and universities in New York who we want to retain, as we just heard our previous panel retain this talent in New York. It is, it serves us all to, to continue this program that on a personal level, I had had incredible experiences with. And so, yeah, it made sense to end and the board bought that and agreed to it. And I had some, some key stakeholders on the board who had, I think, a lot of influence in encouraging that. So thank you to our sponsors specifically in the caucus,

Richard Honen – 00:16:02 –> 00:16:14

because we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out in a caucus here who I believe you really you started the, you know, the idea of that back in the old CNBC days 

Noa Simons – 00:16:14 – 00:16:37 

and well, it’s a great program that deserves to continue. And so the it ends up that we now have a separate 501c3 to be able to apply for grants and to  accept philanthropic contributions. And so we’ve changed a little bit the structure here, but it’s all under the auspices of Upstate Capital in service to our broader ecosystem and in service to the community.

Richard Honen – 00:16:37 –> 00:17:05

And these days we take it as a given that that’s who runs it. And that’s but, you know, it started, you know, on the academic side and, you know, very heavily scientific side. And it wasn’t necessarily intuitive then that an upstate capital would be, would take this over that an upstate venture connect would be populating the judges with as many of its, you know, its contacts. But now we think of it as that’s that’s just how it is.

Noa Simons – 00:17:05 –> 00:17:06

Yeah.

Richard Honen – 00:17:06 –> 00:17:22

So on this derivation thing. So tell me is that that’s how the business plan kind of became, became to where it is. Tell me how each of you got to to these jobs. Olivia, I’ll start with you. How did you get here?

Olivia Goldstein – 00:17:22 –> 00:18:46

So I, I actually left the region when I first graduated and in high school, and I swore up and down is like, I’m not coming back. I was like, That’s it. I was like, See you later. But I found myself in, in 2016, 17. I was at the time living overseas in India, and I was working on my startup and I ended up moving back to upstate New York,  specifically in Buffalo, where I live now. And when I was, when I was there, I had, I didn’t know anyone in any professional capacity at all. I knew one person, one and everybody else was people I grew up with. And that one person, he actually introduced me to Nasralla. So you can imagine how the rest of this kind of falls into place. But for me it’s a special relationship because Nasser was actually the first investor in my company. So through Start Fast Fund one. So it’s, it’s a nice story because ultimately, as I’ve gotten to know him and more people in the ecosystem, I first as a founder and then ultimately kind of moving into the community building side of things after I exited my company and then after that kind of joining as a general partner as well. So really it all stemmed from good people that just introduced me to other good people that has helped keep me around and loving this community.

Richard Honen – 00:18:46 –> 00:18:48

Noa, who was your Nasser?

Noa Simons – 00:18:48 –> 00:18:52

Dick Fredrick. My, my Nasser is Dick Frederick.

Richard Honen – 00:18:52 –> 00:18:52

Okay, 

Noa Simons – 00:18:52 –> 00:18:56

So he helped us get the Angel Fund

started in the Hudson Valley.

Richard Honen – 00:18:56 –> 00:18:56

Yeah,

Noa Simons – 00:18:56 –> 00:19:12

He had helped me with some business advising for a biotech company in Orange County a couple of years before that. And he was on the board at Upstate Capital and said, you know, I think you’d be a great, great fit for this and the rest is history.

Richard Honen – 00:19:12 –> 00:19:20

Yeah. So why, why is it important to you? What, what you know, what drives you to do this every day?

Noa Simons – 00:19:20 –> 00:20:47

Yeah, I’m from upstate New York originally. And similarly, my dad told me I should probably get out of Dodge when I turned 18. And I, you know, there is some certain pride and to proving my father wrong that I can actually have a career in upstate New York. The world’s changed a lot in the several years since then, but I think for me, what gets me excited about doing upstate capital work and continuing to do it is around the people that I have built relationships with and the connections that we’re able to facilitate. And when I think about that in a broader context, I think about the economic impact, I think about the empowerment of entrepreneurs, I think about the economic vitality that is evidenced through the deal flow that we look at and report on. And I’m inspired by innovators and entrepreneurs and the people who build these businesses and, and to have a part in that in some small way by helping making access to capital easier for them is really exciting. And for people like David Brown and and investors who are part of this network to give them good opportunities to get them excited and give them a reason to be here is really, really powerful.

Richard Honen – 00:20:47 –> 00:20:49

Olivia What, what’s your why? 

Olivia Goldstein – 00:20:49 –> 00:21:51

My why so thought? Starting a company is really, really hard and I think it’s even harder, especially if you’re a first time founder. And I, when I went through this journey, I just relied so heavily on the goodness of other people to help connect me to kind of what I needed. So, you know, part of it probably is a little bit of a give back as is trying to help the people that, you know, somebody helped me. So maybe if, you know, they help me, if I help the next person, it’ll kind of continue this like chain reaction where then somebody else will, will help the next person. I think that’s a big part of it. But honestly, I sometimes think that selfishly, I miss being a founder and I love, I love being an operator and I, I love helping companies and founders. So I think that’s what kind of drives me every day, too, is just getting to know all of the amazing things that that people are working on in this region and helping helping them on their journey.

Richard Honen – 00:21:51 –> 00:21:56

Yeah, you feel like you you’re using a fairly high percentage of your brain work, 

Olivia Goldstein – 00:21:56 –> 00:21:56

right,

Richard Honen – 00:21:56 –> 00:22:02

When you’re sitting with the founder and trying to understand. Well, exactly, you know, what is that and how does it work and how do you make that right?

Olivia Goldstein – 00:22:02 –> 00:22:02

And and 

Richard Honen – 00:22:03 –> 00:22:03

they’re really smart.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:22:03 –> 00:22:17

Yeah. And founders are also like very naturally optimistic people. They have to be right. Otherwise you wouldn’t be starting a company. You have to be optimistic. So it’s just this, this energy feed that you get back and forth. It’s I don’t know it’s it’s a lot of fun.

Richard Honen – 00:22:17 –> 00:22:27

So on the optimism note, let’s talk about the future. What, what’s next?

What’s next, both for the respective organizations and the things that you’re doing and for the region?

Noa Simons – 00:22:27 –> 00:24:15

Yeah, I really feel like our region is, it’s gone through so much change and evolution and the eight years that I have been leading Upstate Capital and it really feels like we have I think we’ve actually turned the we’ve turned a corner in that we are now expansive. It’s not like we’re not just kind of waiting for it. We’re almost at the precipice. I think we’ve passed the precipice and people know about upstate New York and people know about this. The importance and the value in looking at these regional, you know, second tier, you know, not major cities hubs for innovation. And so I think we’re riding the wave that’s sort of big picture. That’s what it feels like to me. I think we’re we’re now we’re riding a wave. And I saw both of our organizations, I think, evolving as we have done over the last eight years to meet the needs that arise as the ecosystem evolves is it’s exciting and that’s what we’re doing. And so this VC community work that we started focusing on this year, the convening and reconvening people in different ways is something that I think a lot about because it well, I think Zoom and technology is awesome. I think there’s no replacing human face to face contact and that’s been a core pillar of upstate Capital’s existence since its inception. So continuing to do that, continuing to use technology and tools and synchronous and asynchronous ways of bringing people together on really important topics. And then looking at collaborative opportunities with UBC, with other organizations that we have the deep relationships with is exciting. I’m going to let Olivia answer that and then talk about something we’re working on together.

Richard Honen – 00:24:15 –> 00:24:15

Okay.

Olivia Goldstein – 00:24:16 –> 00:25:41

Yeah. So I think between UBC and some of the things that that know I mentioned at UPS Capital,  we are at this point in our ecosystem where things are, things are really bubbling and there’s a lot happening and I think from our perspective, one of the things that that we really want to do now is how can we expand our resources in our network for the founders in upstate New York? I mentioned before, we’re at this point where we’re tracking like 700 high growth businesses in upstate New York, which is more than anyone could have imagined when UBC first started in 2010. And so a lot of what we want to do now as an organization is how can we find more resources to serve the founders in this region? So for us, what that means is finding more access to experienced founders and mentors that can kind of really be that guiding force for a lot of these early stage founders. And through that, showcasing them kind of what’s happening in the region. And I think, you know, from the Upstate Capital perspective very similarly, it’s like we have so many opportunities for our access to really good deals now for investors. So it’s all about how can we think about expanding our network outside of this area to really showcase what what’s happening here, because there’s a lot happening.

Noa Simons – 00:25:41 –> 00:25:43

Yeah, there’s a lot happening

Richard Honen – 00:25:43 –> 00:25:47

and other things that you’re working on

that you want to talk about or.

Noa Simons – 00:25:47 –> 00:26:54

Yeah, so Olivia mentioned her list of 700 companies. She just shared that with us and we have uploaded it and are looking at the data in our data visualization platform. Invest New York dot org, which is a tool that, that we have invested in for our ecosystem similar to the business plan competition, something that we’ve all talked about for years of wanting to have a way to map and track the activity and the players. We’re doing that in this investor platform. So that was something that we started this spring and and we are now looking at this founder fellowship concept of, of working together and in bringing a small group of high growth founders focused on fundraising. So we’re finding the intersection of, of they need access to capital we can help on the what do you need and who are you and what else do you need? And bringing that together into a pilot project that we are looking to push out later this year.

Richard Honen – 00:26:54 –> 00:27:01

All right, Very good. Final thoughts that you knew when you asked me to do this and that it would not go very long.

Noa Simons – 00:27:01 –> 00:27:01 

Yeah, 

Richard Honen – 00:27:01 –> 00:27:38

So that, so final thoughts either about what we should be doing here in the region, because we’re all very mindful, I think, of our kind of responsibility. And by the way, I agree with both of you that the time there was a time when we used to feel like we had to kind of apologize for being from upstate New York. So you’re, you’re meeting your people in Silicon Valley and had to explain to them and I don’t know, I don’t think that we I think we’re more secure than, than that now. But what are your final thoughts on what you think we as a group should be doing  and we’re just kind of keeping our eye on?

Olivia Goldstein – 00:27:38 –> 00:28:25

It’s funny you say that because I was just at a conference and somebody said to me, they’re like, like I was like, I live in Buffalo. They’re like, What are you doing in these random places? I was like, They’re not random to me. I was like, What are you talking about? I snap back at people, though, I don’t care. So I think final thoughts. I mean, there is there’s a lot of companies in this region and a lot of them really need help. So my my ask for, for anyone. And I think there’s really an opportunity for if you kind of think and reflect on yourself of how you can give back to two companies, you know, whether that’s time, whether that’s, you know, access to your network mentorship, there’s a lot of ways to really lean in and offer support to companies so that we can really kind of help level them up and continue to grow.

Noa Simons – 00:28:25 –> 00:29:10

Yeah, And I think I think that’s a great point about companies and everybody’s got something to offer. I believe that too. I think that my final thought is, is that if you find if you can see a way to work together with someone else where where we used to have fiefdoms and now we have, you know, more collaboration, this is the culture of abundance and the sense of abundance rather than the culture of scarcity. I think we manifest what we imagine. And so if we imagine that we live in a culture of abundance and we live with abundance, we should find ways to cooperate and collaborate and work together on things, because I think that makes the world a better place and makes our community stronger.

Richard Honen – 00:29:10 –> 00:29:18

Well, you know, we’re fortunate that we have the two of you who put such a premium on collaborative entrepreneurialism.

Noa Simons – 00:29:18 –> 00:29:56

And that’s not saying there’s no competition because competition is real and petition is healthy, because I think somebody earlier said that you’ve become complacent, right, without it. And I think that competition is healthy and good, that the blending of that in the co-op petition word, I think is really how I like to live, because I think you get that sort of juice of like, you know, or, you know, we want to do the next thing. We want to keep driving, we want to keep growing, we want to keep getting better. But, and so we don’t want to become complacent. But I think we should work together because because we can and because it makes everything better, I think, for people.

Richard Honen – 00:29:56 –> 00:30:05

Yeah, agreed. And on behalf of the ecosystem, I thank both of you for everything you’re doing and for your time today. So thank you very much.