Ten startups were selected as winners of Buffalo Business First’s second Inno Fire Awards. Their stories show the passion and diversity of the local startup scene. Learn more about Big Wheelbarrow below; see the others here.
Big Wheelbarrow
CEO: Sam Eder
Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Seneca One Tower, Buffalo
What the company does: Developed supply chain software that creates a unified view of suppliers, aggregators and logistics for local food
Big Wheelbarrow started with a passion for local food and a desire to help farmers create more consistent wholesale business, which at the time came from restaurants.
The startup began as a business-to-business marketplace that would smooth over hiccups in the local food supply chain process.
The problem was that the team was on the phone constantly.
“I had the supplier management burden,” said CEO Sam Eder. “We did things we set out not to do. We couldn’t work with smaller producers because it was too much time. A big producer was a one-call shopping experience.”
So the business developed a set of tools that automated the process and, over the last three years, shifted its focus more toward food retail, particularly because of the pandemic. Between that and moving to Buffalo at the start of 2022 after winning a $500,000 43North prize in 2021, momentum has been building for the startup.
In 2022, the business grew 401% in year-over-year food transaction sales and the first two months of this year are outpacing the same months last year by more than 10x.
