"Stay uncomfortable."
It’s CEO Lena Levine’s biggest piece of advice for other business owners, and it’s a mantra she follows as a Buffalo entrepreneur.
“You always have to put yourself in the good uncomfortable situations, because that’s when growth happens,” she said.
As founder of Forcoda, a Buffalo-based software development company that celebrated its 10-year anniversary this month, she’s built her business this way. Over the past five years, she’s opened a second office, added staff and implemented new technologies.
Her next move? Launching another company, Startup Mentor AI, on Aug. 1.
The new venture is built on methodologies Forcoda has developed in-house to help businesses with concept validation and increase changes for successes. The subscription-based platform aims to help teams with entry-level products who perhaps don’t yet have the budget for Forcoda’s custom, white-glove service.
“We’re taking that process and methodology and packaging it into the AI platform, so that way it can be accessible to founders now across the world,” Levine said.
The company is doing paid pilots with the University at Buffalo and Startup World Cup, a global competition and conference for entrepreneurs, tech CEOs and venture capitalists.
The idea came from talking with startup founders on a weekly basis through Forcoda. From there, Levine also got over 100 responses to a survey and scheduled more than 40 one-on-one interviews.
“That’s what informed what features I want to include, and again, align solutions with challenges that people have,” she said. “I’m essentially following my own advice.”
She will run Startup Mentor AI and Forcoda as separate businesses and expects to grow the former from just her to a team of three by year-end.
Forcoda, which helps with market research and data, as well as building and designing a product, has increased year-over-year revenue by 25% each of the last about three years. The company works with both startups and enterprise client’s innovation teams.
Within the last five years, she’s grown her Forcoda staff from around seven to 15 and she opened a Miami office at Brickell City Centre.
“I saw the opportunity of a tech market there and an opportunity to tap into the Latin American and more international markets as well,” she said.
Over that period of time, the company has also gone from having nearly all of its clients in Western New York to now 80% as it expands its geographical reach.
The business looks at challenges from multiple angles, which gives Levine an advantage since she has a technical, business and product design background. She also utilizes new technologies, like machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“I’m always on the lookout for new technologies and how we can add more value to our customers,” she said. “That’s one of our company values.”
