One of David Lord’s first impressions of Buffalo took place long before he moved his company Guidesly into Seneca One downtown.
About a decade ago, the New England Patriots fan went with a friend to ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando to watch his team’s opening game. The Pats had won the Super Bowl the season before, and Lord was in town for an executive retreat.
The line to get in was “ridiculous,” and the pair said they knew someone already inside to get by. Once inside, they saw one table with a couple and two open seats. Lord and his friend, both decked out in Pats gear, offered to pick up their tab if they let them sit with them.
Although the couple hated the Pats, they said, “No problem. Come on in.” Lord would find out it was a Buffalo couple on their honeymoon.
“It always stuck with me how incredibly nice those people are,” Lord said. “I’ve probably told that story 500 times.”
Lord went on to found Guidesly, a vertical software-as-a-service platform for outdoor recreational guides that won $1 million at the 2023 43North Finals. He recently moved his business to the Queen City.
Other members of 43North’s latest cohort had stories similar to tell, from Stepwise CEO Jane Chen going to the grocery store her first day in town and having a stranger offer to help her carry her overfilled shopping bag home to Kredit Academy CEO Evan Leaphart and COO Mike Gross asking a local at Bella Ciao where they should go to watch Sunday’s Buffalo Bills game. The Buffalonian said they should come watch at his house and gave them his phone number.
Lord and the other 2023 winners officially moved in Jan. 9 to 43North’s offices at Seneca One. They join 29 other startups (or businesses that work with startups) that are based in the downtown building, which is now one of the main hubs for the tech ecosystem in Buffalo.
M&T Tech and M&T Tech Academy are also based at Seneca One.
Here are all the startups based at Seneca One:
2023 43North finals winners
- Guidesly, which offers services such as booking, payments and communication with clients for outdoor recreational guides. The startup moved its headquarters from Topsfield, Massachusetts and has three of its seven employees based here.
- KAV, previously based in Redwood City, California, creates custom helmets that are designed to reduce brain injuries and save lives. The company’s CEO Whitman Kwok is getting an apartment here and its executive team will rotate through Buffalo.
- Kredit Academy, based in Miami, offers a secured credit card designed for first-time users, particularly young adults and teens, that emphasizes education over spending. Currently, two of its six staff are based here.
- StepWise, previously based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aims to make home electrification cost effective, specifically for EV charger and heat pump installations, by optimizing existing electrical panels. Four of its five staff, including three of its founding team members, will be based in Buffalo.
- StoreCash, which moved here from San Jose, California, has partnered with retailers in more than 200,000 locations so that its users get real-time notifications with QR codes to get maximum cash back at stores. Two of its four workers will be based locally.
Other 43North tenants at Seneca One
- AMPAworks
- Circuit Clinical
- Kickfurther
- MagnusMode
- Peanut Butter
- Verivend
- BetterMynd
- CleanFiber
- Infiuss Health
- Mod Tech Labs
- Squire
- Strayos
- Work Automate
- TechBuffalo
- Bounce Imaging
- CoachMePlus
- Latte
- Otrafy
- Twipes
- Whose Your Landlord
Serendipity Labs’ resident members with designated offices or team rooms
- The Gist
- Peacock Consulting, LLC
- Endeavor
- CleanCapital LLC
- REES (coming soon)
Other Seneca One startup tenants
- Azuna
- PCI
- AML Rightsource
- Odoo
