Saturday, August 2, 2014

Startup Grind Buffalo - July 29, 2014 - Featuring Mitchell Patterson from Armory Square Ventures

One of my favorite events recently is called Startup Grind Buffalo, A global startup community designed to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs - See more at: http://startupgrind.com


Why do I love it? 
Why does it matter? 
Well those are great questions. Let me explain a little more. The event is powered by GOOGLE for Entrepreneurs and just like it says in the tag line above, its meant to help educate, inspire and connect people to do great thingsm and this is why I love it! Why it matters to me and why it matters to anyone, is that it gives anyone a chance to network, grow and help others that are trying to build a company. Go back 5 years and there was nothing like this in Buffalo. I have met so many great people, watched relationships grow and businesses thrive with all of the opportunities these kind of events bring to the table! 
Why wouldn't you want to be involved in this!?!?
Infotech Niagara and Algonquin Studios were sponsors for July! Thank you for your support!



This month we hosted a great Venture Capitalist - Mitchell Patterson from Armory Square Ventures. He is on the left standing next to our Host Eben Piazza of Gripe-O.




We had new faces at the event which is always great to see! Thank you Vanessa, Danielle and Aliya for coming and we hope to see you again!


Oscar, Matt and Jack are enjoying the drinks and conversation!



Steve, Chris, Jon and Joe forging great relationships while helping Buffalo grow!


Patrick Whalen is the Chief Operating Officer for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and DIG Buffalo is one of his latest projects, and I cannot tell you how great he and Jessica Edwards (DIG Curator) are for the Startup Community! 


 We had around 80 people total show up which means a great amount of networking and stronger relationships are growing!



Now here is something cool for all you Entrepreneurs, what better way to sharpen your skills speaking in front of an auidence to help with your elevator pitch! First Greg from Redline Rentals came up to tell us about how we can rent a sports car for an hour or a day and live large! 



Then came John from vidbolt.com a neat video service.




Chris from the Atinga Project where sandals made from used taxi tries made in Rwanda!



Of course our awesome camera and filmaker Neil Carroll from Nickel City Graphics getting this on film!


Dave from Buffalo BottleCraft showing off his bottle opener made from a real puck!



And Harry from Harry W Cardin & Assoc. offering free consulting services to new businesses!


And finally we got to sit down and hear from a true investor into businesses Mitchell Patterson of Armory Square Ventures, who shared some pretty wild approaches to getting VC's to listen to new ideas and businesses and what to avoid when reaching out for money! One of my favorite things I heard was that Mitchell said that he knows lots of Entrepreneurs that haven't started a business yet, and that they are all around us as they are good at solving problems.