August 16, 2022
Buffalo Startup Coffee Reboots Every Tuesday at HANSA
BootSector revives weekly startup coffee every Tuesday at HANSA at 7:30am. Kubed Root wins 2nd at UB Cannabis Challenge with its indoor co-farming model.
Coffee, Plants and Expos Oh My!
Wake up with Coffee
"The event is free. You don't have to register! Stop in and meet people that can help you overcome your challenges and provide advice"
Buffalo Startup Coffee powered by BootSector meets at HANSA Workspace every Tuesday at 7:30 am
The Buffalo startup community wants to see you in person. Yes you! The event is free. You don't have to register! It's going to happen weekly until it doesn't. Stop in and meet people that can help you overcome your challenges and provide advice.
Everything old is new again. Back in 2010, a small group (a packed morning was 10 people) of startup-interested folks used to gather for coffee on Tuesdays at Spot on Chippewa. It was the accidental founding of Buffalo's startup community. Prior to the pandemic - Jack Greco and Clark Dever rebooted that concept and blew it up to 150 people a week.
This is not that. But this is an attempt to gather the startup community in a relaxed environment to talk, to encourage chasing the impossible, and grow as a community. So come drink coffee with us and invite every entrepreneur you know!
PARKING INFORMATION: From 7:30 am to 9 am, attendees will be able to park in the lot across from HANSA Workspace or free street parking is available until 9 am.
Updates can be found in the #buffalo-startup-coffeechannel on the WNY Startup Community Slack- Connect with Asif or any of the wonderful volunteers if you need an invite to the channel.
Community Builders to Know: Meet Jonathan Wess
Jonathan Wess (404 Link Removed) is a graduate of Canisius College '21 with a degree in Political Science and Entrepreneurship. Throughout his career, he has devoted his time to helping revive older/shrinking organizations and helping new entrepreneurs find the resources they need to be successful. His passion is for helping tell the stories we don't usually hear, helping people find out how much they have grown and helping people to learn about family members who have passed away. This was the basis for when Jonathan created his own business, Timecapsule → Family Connections, a video journaling service that provides the questions to help people build a heartfelt journal for your future self and future families.
"Buffalo has had a lot of firsts, we changed a nation with our inventions and our drive."
Why be involved in the WNY Startup Community?
"The Buffalo Start-up community is just blooming and involves people from all around Western New York. Being able to learn new cultures, amazing stories, and meet incredible people with an auspicious drive is why I love the startup community".
Recently, Jonathan is helping organize Buffalo Start-up Week (404 Link Removed) 's expos and programming. He is motivated to help entrepreneurs find resources. While growing up in Williamsville, Jonathan watched Buffalo's startup community grow .
"With all the development and the strong beauty in the startup community, Buffalo will continue to grow and become a hub. Buffalo has over 200 years of history that revolves around entrepreneurship. Buffalo has had a lot of firsts, we changed a nation with our inventions and our drive. We can do that again. We can be the symbol for new architecture with beautiful buildings raising our city to the sky.
We can be the host to the rest of the cities in New York helping us to feel the culture of what being a New Yorker, outside of New York City, is actually like. Enjoying our history, but embracing a modern future on the world stage is how we need to grow."
WNY Startups on Fire
Kubed Root
Kubed Root (404 Link Removed) was founded by Elias Martinez (404 Link Removed) back in 2018. Kubed Root is a facility which rents out indoor growing spaces. "The best way to think about what we do is to imagine an indoor community garden, a coworking space for indoor agriculture or even as a storage facility for plants."
Elias' mission for Kubed Root was simple, "Getting involved with farming is fraught with barriers to entry. Many can not get involved with agriculture due to a lack of money or land. We are on a mission to make indoor agriculture, affordable and accessible to all."
With that Kubed Root was founded as "the world's first indoor co-farming space, utilizing Farm Space as a service (FSpaaS). A place where novice and expert Urban Farmers can come to grow their own food, shielded from the harsh elements, supported by the community and supported by knowledgeable professionals from seed to post-harvest. Year-round."
This past July, Kubed Root won 2nd place at the UB Cannabis Industry design Challenge (404 Link Removed) "We looked at what a pivot of our business model would look like if we catered to cannabis cultivators."
"We're looking to change the rules and regulations..."
As with any new industry, the cannabis industry's growth has come with its own set of unique challenges and Elias is positioning Kubed Root to help. "We're looking to change the rules and regulations for medical cannabis home grow and the way some terms are defined which excludes and discriminates against people that live in small spaces, federal housing and are homeless or housing insecure. We are also advocating for the creation of 'personal cultivation facilities' which would allow us to operate in the cannabis space."
Connect with them (404 Link Removed) to explore how you can help!
Want to be a part of the excitement?
Get involved! BootSector is a non-profit organization founded to support the WNY Startup community. We're volunteer-led and always looking to build our family.
Contact megan@joinbootsector.com for more information about how you can get involved, and how BootSector can support your mission in the WNY community.