graFighters, an online gaming startup founded by Syracuse University students through the Student Sandbox initiative at our supporting member The Tech Garden, has been advanced to full-time status at the incubator. The company's founders also teamed with SU faculty member Anthony Rotolo to create a second startup named enormo.us, a "storytelling company" that helps businesses communicate in the new-media environment.

For more information, please see the news release from The Tech Garden. According to the release, graFighters is the second graduate of the Student Sandbox (a collaborative of six area colleges funded by the Kauffman Foundation) to graduate to full-time status at The Tech Garden. The first was Brand-Yourself.com, which has grown to a staff of seven plus a dozen interns. For a list of student incubators affiliated with our member incubators, please see the table here.

A dozen student-initiated business concepts that were mentored this summer through the Student Sandbox program at our supporting member The Tech Garden recently "demoed" their business plans in a mock venture presentation, according to coverage in the Post-Standard newspaper. The winner, Black Orchyd, received a $1,000 start-up grant. For a full list see the Tech Garden's news release.

Demo Day was the capstone to the Student Sandbox program, which is a collaborative of the Tech Garden and six Central New York colleges. For more information on the connection between student incubators and our member incubators, please see this list.

The Syracuse Community Test Kitchen, a kitchen incubator-within-an-incubator collocated with our member the South Side Innovation Center (SSIC), will double in size and add production capacity, according to recent coverage on the website of the Post-Standard newspaper.

The new equipment will allow local food entrepreneurs to make actual production runs of specialty-food products and other recipes developed at the Test Kitchen. The SSIC and the Test Kitchen operate under the umbrella of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management.

Our supporting member the Syracuse Technology Garden has announced the graduation into nearby commercial space of Destined Studios, a web, graphics and multimedia studio. For more information see the news release here. The Tech Garden also announced it will host an office of Venture Connects, a program of SUNY Morrisville State College, offering entrepreneurs with an associate degree the chance to earn a bachelor of business in entrepreneurship in small business management. More information here. 

Entrepreneurs on the Near Westside of Syracuse, a neighborhood that is the focus of a major public/private revitalization program driven by the artists, artisans and technology businesses, will benefit from services provided our member the South Side Innovation Center. For more background see this news release from Syracuse University or the Near Westside Initiative's website here.

SSIC is a microenterprise incubator serving the city's South Side. It operates under the umbrella of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University's Whitman School. The Near Westside Initiative is also known as the SALT District (standing for Syracuse Art, Life and Technology — but also a word play on the area's heritage as a salt-works center).

Our supporting member the Syracuse Tech Garden has taken the second class of undergraduate entrepreneurs into its summer Student Sandbox, a 4,000 square-foot space within the incubator that will house about a dozen student businesses for 12 weeks of intensive coaching designed to prepare them for successful commercial launch.

The Sandbox is a collaboration between the Tech Garden and the multicampus e-nitaitive funded in Central New York by the Kauffman Foundation. Background on the program is available in the attached news release, and in coverage at the Post-Standard's syracuse.com website. A complete list of student incubators affiliated with our members is athttp://bianys.com/student_incubators.

Student companies participating this year are: Read more

The business-incubation programs at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU (NYU-Poly) and SUNY Downstate Medical Center, both supporting members of our association, collaborated on hosting the 2010 annual members' meeting of our association. Several presentations and announcements are attached.

Building on a NYSERDA business-development program review we produced at NYU-Poly the previous day (those presentations will be posted in a few more days), our annual meeting was dedicated in part to exploring the question of how better to connect startup and early-stage companies statewide to the uniquely powerful financial and business resources of New York City.

A discussion panel of distinguished guests (see photo gallery) included:

• Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City;
• Steve Cohen, NYS deputy commissioner of economic development for economic empowerment and small business at Empire State Development;
• Brian McMahon, executive director of the New York State Economic Development Council; and
• Richard Honen, co-chair of the Capital and Innovation Group at Phillips Lytle LLP and managing director of the firm's Albany office.

More detail and presentations after the break. Read more

The Stardust Entrepreneurial Institute (SEI), based in Auburn, has joined BIA/NYS as a new member.

SEI is a not-for-profit organization founded in early 2009, with the goal of assisting regional entrepreneurs in getting access to the information and resources they need to get their businesses up and running. Through an extensive partnership network, SEI provides services such as business coaching and on-site business-plan assistance. SEI also hosts several ongoing educational and mentorship programs.

In the fall of 2010, SEI will officially launch its incubator program, starting with 700 square feet available in SEI's newly renovated building on State Street in downtown Auburn. For more information on the SEI and its incubator program, please email Operations Manager Kevin Casey McAvey, with additional contact information available at our membership directory here.

We warmly welcome the Stardust Entrepreneurial Institute and its incubator program to membership!