The startups to watch this year all have founders who looked at the status quo and thought, “What if we could find a way to do this better?”
That theme connects a team developing a new medical invention, a logistics company building inland ports nationwide, the developer of an AI-powered voice tone analyzer, an attorney offering payroll software as a service, and a startup with new helmet technology. All are based in the Capital Region.
Some of these companies are in the middle of raising funds — one even raised $50 million from a venture capital firm — and others are digging in their heels with what they’ve got, setting up headquarters and growing client bases.
Meet the founders behind Albany’s startups to watch this year.
Epic Airway Systems
Schenectady-based medical device startup Epic Airway Systems is moving ahead with a new round of investment.
The company opened a pre-seed round of $1.5 million last year, said Dr. Eric Moses, Epic Airway’s chief medical officer. So far, it has raised $100,000 in cash with $400,000 committed.
Epic Airway Systems makes a device that’s meant to simplify the intubation process. It combines the two intubation tools used today — a tube that goes down the throat and a mask with a tube that slightly enters the airway — into a single device.
The startup says its device would make better use of time during medical emergencies, potentially saving lives.
The device does not have FDA approval yet and the company is pre-revenue, Moses said.
“We’ve made progress, we have momentum,” Moses said.
The focus now is finding the right kind of investors, Moses said.
“It’s a medical device startup company that is projected to be very high yield. So in seven years, it’s like a 20-times projection in valuation. So that’s a lot of money to be made. But it’s also the long shot.”
Moses said the plan is to grow its manufacturing operation in Glens Falls to 60 jobs as the company scales.
Industry: Medical devices
Founders: Dr. Eric Moses, Dr. Sridhar Musuku (inventor)
Founded: 2020
Headquarters: Schenectady
Markets EQ
Markets EQ, which launched in August with backing from Capital Region investors, is focused on raising more capital this year.
Markets EQ is an artificial intelligence tool that can analyze pitches and presentations and give feedback based on questions users ask. The company’s software can take audio and answer questions like, “Was I on message?” It gives feedback by pulling from datasets. It officially launched Dec. 1.
Founder Sean Austin said Markets EQ closed its pre-seed funding round of $500,000 and has opened its seed round. The company is seeking $3.5 million and already has some funding committed.
“That is our Q1 target for EQ for venture capital. ... We are all in on raising this round,” he said. “There will definitely be an A round, a B round. We think there’s just such a huge marketplace. We can keep growing.”
The company has upcoming meetings with East Coast venture capital firms to help raise that money. Early investors from the region include Sam Clifford, owner of the Albany Patroons, and Derek Foster, owner of Daigle Cleaning.
The Markets EQ software is made for professionals who work in communications, investor relations and finance. Austin said the company is starting to meet with large public relations firms to pitch the product.
“Communication has a lot of value,” Austin said. “From the public company to PR firms, we think it can be very valuable for a lot of people."
Industry: Artificial intelligence
Founders: Sean Austin, Daniel Shields
Founded: 2023
Headquarters: Saratoga Springs
Rail Modal Group
Rail Modal Group set up its headquarters in the Albany region at the end of last year after a capital raise of $50 million.
The rail logistics company has established what it calls “inland ports” to connect exporters located around the interior of the United States with ports on the West Coast via rail.
The idea secured an investment from The Baupost Group, a Boston-based hedge fund, which provided $50 million in capital in September.
“It’s a massive testimonial to what our enterprise is,” said CEO Greg Oberting.
RMG operates in six states with established inland ports in Nebraska, Texas, Kansas and North Dakota.
Oberting said that, right now, containers that come into the United States’ western seaports are dispatched to just three distribution facilities in the country via train: Chicago, Kansas City and Dallas. From there, containers are trucked to their final destination and back for export.
RMG’s solution is to construct train access points — the inland ports — to shorten the trucking distance from companies to distribution points. That way, trains can move 300 containers at a time instead of one truckload, reducing the number of miles on the road and decarbonizing the supply chain.
RMG has set up in 5,000 square feet of office space at 12 Cornell Road off of British American Boulevard in Latham.
The number of universities here made the Capital Region an attractive area to recruit compared to where the inland ports are located — rural areas with low unemployment rates.
“The intellectual capital that exists in Albany is strong across the board,” Oberting said, “whether you’re talking accounting and finance, commercial, in sales, operational — I’ve been able to source in my past over the last several decades, many, many different varieties of skill sets, with strong core qualities and capabilities very economically compared to other regional markets that we operate at.”
Industry: Shipping and logistics
Founder: Greg Oberting
Founded: 2019
Headquarters: Latham
Forework
Delmar-based labor attorney Emina Poricanin has spent much of her law career defending companies from lawsuits filed as a result of payroll issues.
So she created a solution to help businesses avoid that: Forework, a package of payroll processing and tax software that has built-in access to labor and compliance experts.
Poricanin has her own law firm, Poricanin Law, that is based in three locations in the state, including Albany. In her 15 years as a labor/employment lawyer, Poricanin said she’s defended many companies against expensive payroll compliance lawsuits and recognized that payroll errors were a pain point for businesses.
The company licenses its software to employers such as health care providers, schools and professional services firms, among others. The company also charges a fee based on the number of checks it prints for clients.
The ability to have access to labor and compliance experts is what sets Forework apart from competitors like ADP, Poricanin said.
The company works with businesses that have anywhere from one to 5,000 employees. In total, it runs payroll for 20,000 workers.
The past 12 months have been key for the growth of Forework. Poricanin said the company has started to onboard larger companies more frequently, going from companies with 200-400 employees to those with 1,500.
“We have the process down, it happens a lot faster. The sales process has been expedited and streamlined as well. So that’s how I measure growth — how quickly we can onboard larger businesses,” she said.
Over the next five years, the goal is to grow revenue 10% each year, she said. Poricanin said in the next two years, she’s aiming to be able to focus on the big picture instead of being in the weeds.
“There are still many opportunities out there that, in growth mode, we just haven’t had the time to capitalize on,” she said.
Industry: Software as a service; financial tech
Founder: Emina Poricanin
Founded: 2020
Headquarters: Delmar
Kirsh Helmets
Schenectady-based startup Kirsh Helmets made its silver screen debut in December in the movie “Ferrari.” The company’s team is hoping the exposure will help Kirsh gain traction and investors as it keeps growing.
“We can’t, on our own, go and attack every vertical. We need people to come to the table and support us ,” said Jason Kirshon, founder.
He said the helmet is different from other head protection on the market because it mimics the shape of the human head and disperses energy made on impact by having a liner filled with fluid.
The interior of Kirsh’s half-shell helmet is lined with a silicone material rather than the traditional foam material, making it less bulky. The design is made to better fit a person’s head, preventing movement once the helmet is in place.
The company is growing its national sales and working toward the development of more helmet models to expand into industries beyond motorcycles.
In 2023, the company got its helmets on the shelves of stores west of the Mississippi River for the first time. They are now stocked in 120 Harley Davidson and Indian Motorcycle stores nationwide, said Donnie DeVito, president and chief operating officer.
“Our expectation is for that to more than double in 2024 with the strategy that we have to continue to open,” DeVito said.
The success of the half-shell helmet — Kirsh’s original design — is leading Kirsh to explore other models and uses. Kirshon is developing a full-face helmet, which is more popular among riders in Europe and, once certified, would open up a whole new audience overseas.
Other potential uses for the technology include construction helmets and sports helmets such as for football or hockey.
To expand into those other uses, Kirsh needs to fundraise. The company is seeking $3 million to $5 million in investments, part of which would be used to create and test the full-face helmets. To date, Kirsh has only done small raises to pass milestones, anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 at a time.
“We’ve retired a lot of the risks. We’ve been able to show that we can make a quality product, that we can do it in a repeatable way, that we can engage customers, both at the B2B level and at the consumer level. People are willing to pay the price for the product and the technology,” DeVito said.
Industry: Consumer goods
Founders: Jason Kirshon
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Schenectady
