The Western New York startup scene has made some major strides since Jack Greco first began coming to Buffalo 15 years ago.
But there’s still plenty of work to be done, he said. And Greco would know better than most.
Greco co-founded ACV Auctions, which won the 43North competition in 2015 and four years later became Buffalo’s first unicorn – a startup that has grown to have sales topping $1 billion. The company now has a market capitalization of nearly $2.5 billion.
Since his exit from the startup in 2018, the Rochester native has become a serial angel investor in the local community.
He’s directly invested in 132 companies. Greco also launched a venture fund last year, investing mostly in business-to-business software companies.
“Buffalo is a place where we still have a lot of nodules – a lot of little things going on – but we’re not ‘there’ yet,” said Greco, who spoke Tuesday evening during Buffalo Startup Week at Seneca One. “We know that. I don’t think there is a ‘there’ that we will ever get to, but wherever ‘there’ is, we are farther away from it than we want to be.”
What hasn’t helped is that the pandemic changed the business world and the economy, especially with the rise in remote work that has minimized some natural interaction that helps strengthen a startup ecosystem, he said.
“A lot changed after Covid, at least it did for me, when it came to what the community really looks like,” Greco said.
“Since Covid, there’s not that critical mass that has the gravity to pull people together,” he added. “Having life inside that ecosystem is really important, and it all works around this concept of together.”
More than anything, the Buffalo Niagara startup scene – which has expanded rapidly over the past decade – needs to make more noise about what is going on in the area, he said.
“If you make a lot of noise, people will pay attention,” Greco said. “If Buffalo does what…
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