FoodNerd founder Sharon Cryan presents during the 2024 43North Finals.
Geoff Ralston hadn't been back to Buffalo for years until this summer.
Not only did the creator of one of the first web mail services, which became Yahoo Mail, come back to his hometown in June to attend an event in support of the startup ecosystem, but he returned several months later to serve as a judge for last week's 43North finals.
It was the startup accelerator and incubator's 10th anniversary competition in front of around 3,000 people at Shea's Buffalo.
And does he ever like what he's seeing.
"I think anyone walking off the street would walk into Shea's and say this is incredible," said Ralston, the former president of Y Combinator, who had worked at Yahoo! as vice president of engineering and chief product officer.
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"To come back to Buffalo and see what 43North has built - a little late being 10 years in now but we finally found each other - is so impressive. It's just a joy to see everything going on here."
Ralston was impressed by the prize pool being offered by 43North and how that has helped attract such impressive startups to Western New York. 43North now offers five $1 million investments in selected companies.
There's been around 1,000 applicants for the startup competition that past two years, and this year, that included 70 tech companies from Buffalo. One of which, health food provider Food Nerd, was among the winners.
"A million dollars for a startup can be the difference between success and failure," Ralston said. "It's huge for these startups to be here."
The growth of the entire startup and tech ecosystem has Ralston bullish about Buffalo.
"It heartens me to see Buffalo coming alive," he said. "That's what this represents - it's renewal, it's growth, it's excitement."
Ralston moved to Buffalo at age 5 and spent his formative years here, and he graduated from Williamsville South. He left for college - where he received a bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College and master's at Stanford University - and never considered staying in Western New York, he said. He wound up landing in Silicon Valley.
"There was nothing here for me. I wanted to program computers and build stuff, and I couldn't do that here," Ralston said.
But that's no longer the case. He said there's something special going on in Buffalo now.
"What was surprising to me was the connection I still have to the city," he said. "It's weird. It doesn't leave you. The overall feeling for me is one of love and warmth."
Initially, Ralston came back to attend an event hosted by Endeavor WNY after Alan Rosenhoch, managing director of Endeavor's local branch, reached out to ask if Ralston would be part of a national selection panel for the entrepreneur network. They were connected through an old friend of Ralston's family.
It was during that initial visit that Ralston met Colleen Heidinger, 43North's executive director, who invited him back to judge the 43North finals.
Ralston feels it is important to impart on entrepreneurs the importance of optimism and belief.
"You have to be almost foolishly optimistic if you want to be a founder and against all odds, you have to believe you're the one who is going to make it," he said.
Last year, Ralston left Y Combinator to take on personal initiatives, including a focus on artificial intelligence and what this next wave of tech will mean for the future. He's also done an array of speaking engagements centering on what lies ahead with AI's impact.
He no longer has family in Buffalo, but he can see himself potentially being here more often.
"We'll see," he said. "It will have to be people like Colleen and Alan calling me up."
42 North, 43North collaborate on Beyond Boundaries beer
A special beer offering has come out of a collaboration between the 43North startup incubator and accelerator and 42 North Brewing Co.
42 North has crafted a west coast pilsner to help celebrate 43North's 10th anniversary competition, which was held last week at Shea's. The beer, Beyond Boundaries, infuses a traditional pilsner with west coast hop varietals, simcoe, chinook and tonatiuh.
The partnership was formed when the two entities with very similar names decided to celebrate and make light of the fact that they do very different things but sometimes are mistaken for one another.
"When 43North approached us about collaborating on a beer, we thought it was a great idea," said 42 North's founder John Cimperman. "We also thought it would be cool to integrate a little west coast into a traditional pilsner - much like 43North is infusing a little bit of Silicon Valley into Buffalo."
Beyond Boundaries is available at both 42 North's East Aurora and downtown Buffalo taprooms, as well as venues in and around Buffalo's Theatre District.
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