From working in the Pittsburgh area and in corporate America to coming to Western New York and living the startup life, Mike Mainier has built a career around being a cross-industry problem-solver.
What began as an operations manager role at FedEx has evolved into co-founding and being chief technical officer at some of Buffalo’s most promising startups.
“There’s an actual term for folks I’ve kind of adopted: multipotentialites,” he said. “You love to maybe go very deep on something for like seven to nine months and become really ingrained in it and then pull back. Go over to the next thing.”
Why it matters: A burgeoning tech community like Buffalo needs entrepreneurs and leaders like Mainier who create companies and teams, as well as bring experiences and perspectives to the Queen City.
A native of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside of Pittsburgh, Mainier went to Robert Morris University for his bachelor’s in communications, master’s in information systems management and doctor of science in information systems and communication.
While aspiring to work in broadcast and communications, Mainier in his early 20s was a wedding videographer.
“I loved to play with videography and got the chance to have some mentors in high school that really fostered that creativity and also love of tech,” he said.
Pursuing higher education gave him the opportunity to build on the tech component, while keeping the communications background.
After working for about three years turning around underperforming FedEx centers, he's gone back and forth between more startup-type businesses and the corporate world, depending on his educational and family pursuits and needs at the time.
In 2014, Mainier got the opportunity to work at HSBC Bank as an assistant vice president as a digital project manager in the global liquidity and cash management department. The job, along with the cost of living and real estate market, led him and his family to relocate to Hamburg.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Jon DeWald, who is also Mainier’s brother-in-law, came to him multiple times over the years with different business ideas. In 2019, one of Jon's ideas led them to co-found HelixIntel, which provides digital tools that help companies track, maintain and acquire equipment and other physical assets. About three years in, Mainier quit his day job to focus full time on the startup.
As the pair grew the company, which closed last year a $11 million Series A round and now has a team of about 21, Mainier started to get that multipotentialite itch.
“It’s sort of like raising a child,” he said. “You’re there every step of the way and it starts to grow up, take shape and grow and do things. … Then I started to look to the future. Okay, what’s next?”
He found his next role at AireXpert, a fast-growing Buffalo startup that’s raised $4 million and had 2023 revenue of $1 million. He officially started there in April as chief technology officer. The company employs about 11.
The company, which delivers maintenance, repair and overhaul-focused communication, automation and collaboration solutions for aviation and aerospace technical operations, was looking for a technology leader. And the airline space had plenty of challenges for a multipotentialite like Mainier to tackle.
“It just happened to be the right moment, right timing, and here I am,” he said. “It’s been really great.”
