The Hudson Valley Venture Hub, founded in 2018 at the SUNY New Paltz School of Business to serve as a resource and central node to build connective tissue among the region’s entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem, got a major boost last January when Empire State Development chose the organization as the Hudson Valley’s designated Innovation Hotspot, bringing new funding of $250,000 a year for the next five years.
Eliza Edge, the Venture Hub’s director, says the funding and visibility came as a welcome boost. “The Hub has been around a few years, but it wasn’t nearly as robust as we’ve managed to make it since being named an Innovation Hotspot,” she says. “Before this, the Hudson Valley didn’t have a designated one, while the other nine regions of the state had had hotspots up and running for 12 years. And when the state makes this designation, you see all kinds of ripple effects—more startup accelerators, more incubators. We have so much creative energy here, and there’s a lot of the startup ecosystem that has developed organically, but without the funding that needs to come with it for maximum effectiveness. In a lot of ways we’re working to formalize and build from the ground up an infrastructure that’s existed in other regions for over a decade.”
"We’re running an accelerator program with 20 of the strongest technology-forward companies that come out of our region." —Eliza Edge, director of the Hudson Valley Venture Hub
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Even before the new designation, there were success stories to tell: a first-time entrepreneur with a patent-pending product who was able to develop a 3D-printed prototype at SUNY New Paltz; a gluten-free baker who was connected with an established industry leader for advice on planning their business’s future in light of inflationary and workforce challenges; a founder who got support redesigning and relaunching their web presence and modernizing their strategy to achieve new growth. Resources are free to entrepreneurs, who are chosen with an eye to their potential for achieving larger scale commercialization. Besides highly individualized incubation and acceleration services, participants are given opportunities to connect with funders and angel investors at a wide variety of gatherings.
“As the official hub, we’re tasked with coordinating a wide range of entrepreneurial activities,” says Edge. “Part of my job is to serve as the convener and bring people together in useful ways—we just had an angel investors’ breakfast a couple of weeks back, bringing them together with entrepreneurs in the higher education space and with professors. But the biggest change, with the new funding, is that we’re running an accelerator program with 20 of the strongest technology-forward companies that come out of our region, and we’re working very closely with them.”
Part of the mission all along has been expanding business resources to underserved communities; as of 2023, 70 percent of the businesses served by the Hub were woman- or minority-owned. The flavors of creativity involved are infinite. Edge says that a good number of startups build on the area’s existing strengths. “We have a good-sized handful of what I like to call technology-forward consumable food products and agri-tech,” she says, “which is very much aligned with regional priorities. One company, Blondery, has created a brownie that stays gorgeous and fresh and delicious even when it’s shipped. The owner, Auzerais Bellamy, is out of Peekskill; she’s got a storefront down there and she’s revolutionizing the brownie industry. Then we have an innovative English muffin company, and another that’s making stuffed bagels. So a lot of the companies we work with are moving in spaces that are ripe for disruption, which is a great fit for what we’re trying to achieve overall.”
Besides the food, the Venture Hub works with companies in the SAS (Software as a Service) space. For example, one company is working to streamline driver booking for charter bus companies. There are also clean technology, financial technology, and sharing economy startups—all aligned, Edge says, with the priorities outlined by regional and state leadership. “A big goal is to diversify opportunities,” she says. “Our tourism sector is wonderful—it’s bringing in a lot of dollars—and we aim to seed and invest and lay the groundwork for future companies that will provide other types of jobs and solid incomes. As someone from the Hudson Valley, a big part of my vision is to provide the kind of job I was looking for when I left the area at age 18.” In its first year as a designated Innovation Hot Spot, the Venture Hub has created 26 new full-time equivalent jobs, and generated $4.5 million in private investment secured and revenue increased.
You can get a taste of the possibilities on March 28 from 5:30 to 8pm, when 10 entrepreneurs will be presenting their best pitch decks to a group of potential investors at the Biannual Startup Showcase Night at the Senate Garage in Kingston. “We’ll be awarding cash prizes, which are nice, but the real value is that we fill the room with the community,” says Edge. “Local investors, service providers, elected officials, fellow entrepreneurs—you never know what will come of it, maybe a potential investor or partner, maybe potential sales down the road.”
