Things started looking good for Rebecca Brady and her company, Top Seedz, during the question-and-answer section of her pitch Thursday night at the 43North finale event.
Howard Draft, one of the judges who would decide whether Brady’s company would win a hefty award that night, eschewed the typical questions about product viability and growth for a comment on Brady’s artisan crackers.
“I tasted it today,” he said. “It’s frickin’ ridiculous. It’s one of the best crackers I’ve ever had in my life.”
That was the vibe that led Top Seedz to be crowned the $1 million grand prize of the state-funded competition, which exists to support the innovation economy in Buffalo. Companies accept the 43North investment in return for 5% of their company and a pledge to operate from Buffalo for at least a year.
Seven other companies won $500,000 runner-up awards, including Buffalo-based startups BetterMynd and Verivend, along with Zealot Interactive, Big Wheelbarrow, Flox, Shearshar and Infiuss Health.
Buffalo-based Ognomy made it all the way to the finale event but was among two companies that were sent home Thursday empty-handed.
The winners join a group of more than 50 previous awardees who have been through the 43North program since 2014. 43North has evolved in recent years to focus on more mature companies that have raised money and been through other accelerator programs. Each startup will receive extensive support and mentorship and be closely watched going forward
But the story of the night was Top Seedz, which employs 20 employees from its headquarters/production space in Cheektowaga.
Even before it started making waves in the 43North competition, Business First closely covered the company’s growth:
All about Top Seedz:
From the beginning, Brady has been an obsessively hard worker whose product resonates with supermarket buyers and end customers. But from sales to manufacturing, it has remained a manual operation that is closely managed by the CEO herself.
That will have to change if Brady meets the goals she set forth Thursday evening. She told the judges that Top Seedz is in 350 stores now, including many Wegmans and Whole Foods. Using the 43North investment, she said the company would expand to more than 6,500 supermarkets in the next five years, which would give it around $100 million in annual revenue.
The $1 million investment will be used to dramatically expand production – including either a significant renovation or an additional local manufacturing facility.
Brady plans to automate the production process, and expressed confidence that she could do so without compromising the quality that makes her company attractive in the first place. She’ll be hiring sales managers and manufacturing engineers over the next few months.
Top Seedz had a good run up until now, but the pace and scope of Brady’s vision is about to change for good.
“We are going to grow quickly so we are going to need a lot of people,” she said.
A closer look at the other winners Thursday:
- Zealot Interactive, an Arlington, Virginia-based music tech startup that pairs instructional hardware with curated content marketplace, led by co-founder/CEO Shaun Masavage.
- Big Wheelbarrow, an Austin-based SAAS startup that helps grocers manage their supply chains, led by co-founder Sam Eder.
- Flox: Hailing from London (United Kingdom), founder Imtiaz Shams will pitch an ag-tech suite of technology tools that helps chicken farmers manage their flocks.
- Verivend, a Buffalo-based fintech startup focusing on payments. Verivend was co-founded by three veteran local entrepreneurs, including CEO Rodney Reisdorf, Jonathan Ebel and Aaron Santarosa.
- ShearShare, a Texas-based mobile marketplace that connects beauty stylists to open seats at hair salons, led by co-founder/CEO Tye Caldwell.
- Infiuss Health, a startup that seeks to promote access to clinical trials in Africa, led by co-founder/CEO Melissa Bime.
- BetterMynd, a web-based platform for college students to access therapy. The company is led by CEO Cody Semrau, who relocated from Rochester to Buffalo in 2020.
