Innovation or In-Ovation? The 43North Experience

Pardon the pun. Innovation is huge here in Buffalo, so there is no question. The 43 North Experience will have us all in awe, and in ovation in face of so much applied genius.

When I followed a really good lead to the Design Innovation Garage, also known as D!G, I learned that entrepreneurs and small businesses can use this former warehouse space to work and build their business. Before you climb the “Steps to Success” in the D!G space, you traverse the hall of 43N, 43 North, an incubator that is inspiring by its mere existence.

A Governor’s Vision

The way it was explained to me, 43 North is a vision turned competition. Not unlike the Ki~Line tagline, Gov. Andrew Cuomo envisioned, empowered, and succeeded. He envisioned a rebirth of Buffalo, set the intention to “make a bold, fearless, beautiful, entrepreneurial city on the rise” together, empowered the vision, intention, and the city with the “Buffalo Billion” initiative and the energetic collaboration with the New York Power Authority, and succeeded in a win/win for everyone involved.

No Free Lunch, but 2 Million Bucks

Start-ups who participate in the 43North competition can win a significant amount of money, a decade of tax relief, expert mentorship, and incubator space on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus’ Innovation Center. There is a catch: winners must bring their business to Buffalo. Clearly, there’s no free lunch. Looking at winners from past competitions, it appears like keeping the business in Buffalo is the right thing to do – a win-win for the entrepreneur and the city.

This past week, 43North and Buffalo celebrated finals.

This Happened

Out of 542 ingenius submissions, 142 made it to the semifinals on Wednesday. 16 finalists went into the qualifying round on Wednesday, 10 finalists came out of the finals award round this afternoon, and eight teams won $500,000 each. Winner of $1 million was Oncolinx, a start up that is developing cancer treatment that will make chemotherapy redundant. No more “treatment” that kills the good cells along with the cancerous ones. Instead, the are developing a drug that will activate the bodies own immune system to attack and remove only the cancerous cells. All teams had amazing ideas and concepts and products.

Buffalo continues to transition into a role model community for the rest of the nation. Buffalo is transforming itself, its people, and is impacting innovation and health across the country and the whole world. Bravo Buffalo, bravo 43N, yay Western New York!

Your Turn!

If reading this inspired you, and you want to pursue your own journey into a career transition, or entrepreneurship, call me! I can help you with that! Phone number is on the Contact page.