Azuna Raises $4MM Series A; Inno Fire Award Winners Named

Check out what happened in the WNY Startup Community this week and what you can look forward to next week.

Weekly Recap

February 13-19, 2023

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Let's Launch Together!

Good Neighbor Fund is hosting a Launch Party at Thin Man Brewery (Elmwood) on March 3, 2023 at 5:30pm (see event → - tickets are a sliding scale, pay what you can). This event (food, drinks, and networking) is open to supporters, the startup community, and anyone that is interested in learning more about GNF and its opportunities.

All ticket proceeds (after deducting credit card processing fees) and contributions raised during the event will directly fund new micro-grants in 2023.

Come hang with BootSector!

Winter is still sticking around, so consider warming up at these events.

• Buffalo Startup Coffee - Tuesday, February 21 @ HANSA (7:30am-9am)
• Rochester R Users - Group Meetup - Wednesday, February 22 @ University at Rochester (6-8pm)
• When Going Viral: The Rise and Fall of the Hoverboard | Max Ringelheim (404 Link Removed) - Thursday, February 23 @ Virtual (11am-Noon)
• And many more! Check out the events calendar here

How Can You Help The WNY Startup Community?

BootSector's mission is to empower, educate, and support the next generation of local entrepreneurs and startup leaders.

Think that's pretty cool? Here's one way you can help this week: Send a friend this link to share this mailing list!

Celebrate Our Startup Community

Congratulations to the Second Annual Inno Fire Awards Winners!

• BetterMynd (404 Link Removed) , an online therapy tool for college students
• Big Wheelbarrow (404 Link Removed) , a supply chain software company that creates a unified view of suppliers, aggregators and logistics for local food
• Braidbabes, a provider of on-demand braiding services
• Ellicottville Greens, a modular, organic farming startup
• Garwood Medical Devices, a medtech company which has developed technology to treat infections on metallic orthopedic implants
• Jerry, a car ownership "super app"
• PostProcess Technologies, a solutions provider for the additive manufacturing industry
• Squire, a business management software platform for independent barbers
• Strayos, a software platform to map underlying geological conditions for mining operators
• Wellconnected, a web-based platform for community-based organizations

The honorees will be recognized at a cocktail party from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, at HANSA, 505 Ellicott St. Click here for more information. (404 Link Removed)

JMS Technical Solutions lands a big deal!

JMS signed a big contract to recruit at least 150 Salesforce technical professionals. The roles will be remote, full-time jobs with salaries around $180,000 to $220,000. Recently, JMS helped sponsor Buffalo Startup Week (404 Link Removed) Thanks JMS and congrats!

Read more on Buffalo Inno (404 Link Removed)

Azuna is raising a Series A round!

Azuna started raising a $4MM Series A funding round and already has $2.5MM committed. Azuna tripled year-over-year revenue in 2022 and expects to quadruple revenue this year. The startup recently opened a new headquarters and content studio at 410 Main St. in Buffalo. Congratulations and best of luck going forward!

Read more on Buffalo Inno (404 Link Removed)

Startup Funding

Got any leads?

Have an interesting startup funding resource for entrepreneurs that you want to share with the WNY Startup Community? Let us know! Send BootSector your lead!

Startup Jobs

Odoo is hiring - seriously, a lot of people!

Posted in the WNY Startup Community Slack, Odoo Buffalo is hiring talented software engineers. Odoo offers a split schedule of 3 days in office and 2 from home.

• Ten Full Stack Developers https://www.odoo.com/r/U9o
• 25 Technical Support Specialists https://www.odoo.com/r/iJy
• 50 Software Engineer Interns https://www.odoo.com/r/Vi8G
• 30 Account Executives: https://www.odoo.com/r/8fw
• Five Business Systems Analyst: https://www.odoo.com/r/4JB
• a recruiter https://www.odoo.com/r/2xf; and
• a chef https://www.odoo.com/r/j4D

Parting Thoughts

Entrepreneurship Works

This week, I read a story about Viridi Parente's (404 Link Removed) $500k workforce development investment in Buffalo's East Side. This is yet another example of how startups can make a meaningful impact on our neighbors, communities, and cities.

Startups solve problems. And when our startups are community-minded, these solutions can have a deep and lasting impact.

Jordan Walbesser Executive Director, BootSector Donate to BootSector today!