Tagged: startups

When the first StartFast Venture Accelerator begins this morning in Syracuse, the clock will start ticking for nine startups hoping to turn their big idea into a profit maker.

Modeled on similar accelerators around the country, the teams have 100 days to soak up as much advice and support as they can. They're also given seed money and workspace.

StartFast is the creation of two local entrepreneurs, Chuck Stormon and Nasir Ali. In return for the investment and admittance into the program, Stormon and Ali get a small stake in the company.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) was in Rochester Wednesday for a progress report on a high-tech project the state helped fund.

Three early stage companies - Intrinsiq Materials, Quintel USA and Omni-ID - have set up shop at Kodak's Eastman Business Park.

The venture-backed project was first announced two years ago.

Since then, the three companies have filled 39 jobs. The target date for the 250 jobs originally pledged is still about three years away.

"When you're working with emerging companies, it takes longer," said Greater Rochester Enterprise CEO Mark Peterson, who was involved in landing the project. "This is a milestone today because we're at a start point where now we're really going to start to see movement."

Brian Page and Benjamin Onyejuruwa stood in front of the panel of judges with their hands full of groceries in an attempt to show how much easier their invention - an electronic ID and key programmed into a bracelet - could be.

The duo are roommates and freshman at Clarkson University. They made the trip down to Syracuse University on Friday to pitch QuickWhrist for a chance to win seed money from the university's Emerging Talk program.

Even as a freshman, Onyejuruwa already holds a patent for the technology.

Mobile payments are the hot new thing in our digitally connected world.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was one of the first to enter the space with Square. (Square recently revamped its app in a bid to capture a larger chunk of the market.)

E-commerce giant PayPal recently launched its own mobile payments platform with PayPal Here.

And now Rochester has a horse in the race: Quantum Loop Solutions' NuSale.

"We're not going head-to-head with them at all," says Quantum Loop Solutions CEO Sam Weiner. "The way you approach a giant is not to attack their head, you attack their toe."

NuSale's opportunity is the app's "end to end" experience, says Weiner. "It helps small merchants run their entire operation on a mobile device."

Craigslist dominates the world of online rental listings.

Newdigs.com is trying to change that.

“It’s kinda like that Craigslist apartment section, but on a Google Map,” says Newdigs CEO and co-founder Ben Munson.

The Rochester-based startup will soon be taking on the national Goliath in cities across the country.

After nearly two years of beta testing in the Rochester market, Newdigs says its user-friendly, highly searchable platform is ready to leave the nest.