Hudson Valley Entrepreneurs’ Forum

This morning, I went to Kingston for the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation’s one year anniversary of its Entrepreneurs’ Forum. The center could provide a much-needed resource for existing start-ups and – hopefully – a means of inspiring new ones through networking. Managing Director Les Neumann said the inaugural class of tenants is doing well and fresh interest is being expressed daily from entrepreneurs, startups, and investors from all over the world.

Interestingly, he mentioned Yuzhnoye, the Ukranian aerospace firm, as a likely tenant. That’s the same company that was scheduled to be presenting at The VentureBplan series at about the same time Neumann was speaking. HVCFI (since when does for make it into the acronym?) does have a relationship with RPI, whose incubator puts on the Bplan Series, so I guess it makes sense.

What struck me most, though, was a conversation I had with someone who is retired from IBM. Even after 37 years with the biggest force in the Hudson Valley tech industry, this gentleman said he was never aware of any of the organizations listed on the right which have been involved in trying to spur tech development in the region for much longer than has HVCFI. This speaks to the need for some serious marketing, networking, and overall outreach on this front.

Whether the HVCFI can do this on its own or whether some other piece is needed remains to be seen. One other problem that needs to be addressed: at 38, I’m pretty sure I was the youngest guy in the room. A vital entrepreneurial community needs lots of hungry 20-somethings.

I stuck around to hear presentations from the following HVCFI companies (not all of them startups).:

• Rosenbaum Media Group – PR and multimedia consulting company specializing in Web video.

• SimPlanR – A soon-to-launch time/project management application. I’ll be curious to see how it compares with my favorites, Backpack and Basecamp.

• FileOpen -PDF security/rights management tools for small- and medium-size businesses. This company has been around since ‘97 and has a pretty impressive client roster.

TechValley Links

• Arsenal gets $250Kfor clean-room transformation.
• Silicon Valley tech high school to close due to lack of enrollment. Meanwhile, Tech Valley High School to hold lottery to choose inaugural class of 40 from 136 applicants.

TechValley Links

• USAToday – IBMer is first woman to win the A.M. Turing Award, but still too few women in computing. Update: Related from Kottke.
• Times Union – RPI’s business incubator is buzzing, drawing startups from around the world.

TechValley Links

• Calendar - Know a tech company or entrepreneur worthy of a little recognition? The Center for Economic Growth is taking nominations for its 11th Annual Technology Awards to be presented at an April 11 luncheon in Albany.
• IBM – A former employee at Big Blue’s East Fishkill chip plant is suing the company for $5 million under the American with Disabilities Act after being fired for spending company time in an adult chat room.

Another List

This one from Forbes. Its 2007 Best Cities for Jobs survey ranks Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown at 27, down from 17 last year. It’s based on things like income and job growth and cost of living so, not surprisingly, the top cities are in the south and west. I don’t put too much stock in these lists, but it is interesting to see that the mid-Hudson Valley ranks ahead of Albany-Schenectady-Troy, to the north, which come in collectively at No. 30, and New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ, to the south, which come in at 75. No 1? Raleigh-Carey, NC.

Inc. 500; TechValley: 1

File under: “It’s new to me.” This came out last summer, but I have the excuse that this blog only launched last month . The lone TechValley company on the annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. is 6-year-old Albany wireless networking firm Infinigy, coming in at No. 208.

YouTube/RPI Redux

Thanks to Times Union business reporter Larry Rulison and his editors for this. I wrote to Larry on Saturday after this story on RPI’s YouTube haul turned up in my feed reader and, at about the same time, a friend and daily Times Union reader e-mailed to say that he had pointed Larry my recent post on the matter.

I mentioned to Larry that I thought some credit was due since I’d dug out the information on RPI from the SEC filing. Larry did original reporting on top of what I found a wrote full story, but I still felt that a small nod or at least a link was in order. I’ll concede that the question of whether I deserved credit and how much could be open to debate, and reasonable people can disagree. I know from my years as a reporter that most papers would have said so and left it at that. But Larry made his case, and then he made it right. What’s more, he did it on his day off. I appreciate that.

And for those of you who arrived here from the Buzz Blog and are wondering what the deal is with Techworking, I’ll tell you what I told Larry: I’m someone who works on the Web and is interested in technology issues and seeing the Hudson Valley tech industry thrive.

TechValley is great, but let’s face it: for all the talk of 18 counties, most of the action in TechValley really happens in the Capital Region. My hope for this young space is to bring awareness to tech happenings in the mid-Hudson Valley, where I live. Sure, we’ve got IBM and NXP. But I’m also trying to find and write about the startups and networking events that complete a healthy tech ecosystem. If you have any ideas or stories to share, please let me know in the comments or at gacannon [AT] gmail [DOT] com. Thanks.

RPI Scores on Google/YouTube Deal

The numbers are out on how the spolis of Google’s $1.6 billion purchase of YouTube have been divvied up. A small but interesting number amid the names of newly-minted multi-millionaires and the  expanded wealth of existing ones is the fact that TechValley’s own Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute, a Sequoia Capital investor, scored a stake worth about $3.5 million. A blip in terms of the legendary fund’s overall take of some $442 million, perhaps, but nothing to sneeze at.

Peak Pitch ‘07: Pray For Snow (and Funding).

Photo by Scott Fitchett

An interesting twist on the standard “elevator pitch,” Peak Pitch ‘07 gives entrepreneurs as much time to sell investors on their business ideas as it takes to ride a Gondola to the top of the mountain. Started in 2005, the series will for the first time have a New York presence March 16 at the Adirondacks’ Gore Mountain ski area. Troy’s High Peaks Venture Partners will host.

TechValley Links

• Calendar – The Journalism Program at the University at Albany will host NPR science correspondent Richard Harris for a Feb 7 discussion titled “NanoTech: What is it Anyway?” Layman’s answer: “small tech,” though I imagine they’ll go into a bit more detail Thursday. (via Times Union)