People turn into entrepreneurs at different points in their life and for different reasons.
Some get the drive early.
The second annual Buffalo Inno 5 Under 25 feature finds a new crop of young adults working vigorously on their startup companies.
They will join a broader community of Western New York entrepreneurs that has gained an increasing sense of purpose over the past decades, as a way to express professional ambitions and turn dreams into life-changing wealth.
Flock to corporate safety? These five could certainly do that.
They’d rather build something with their own hands.
Parker Bray, 21
Raise the Bar Woodworks • https://raise-the-bar-woodworks.business.site/
In Parker Bray’s case, that's literally with his hands.
While most of this year’s 5 Under 25 honorees are focused on high-tech scalability, Bray brings that same mentality to Raise the Bar Woodworks.
The 21-year-old Strykersville resident and Saint Bonaventure University marketing major has always had a handyman’s mentality. When his grandfather gifted Bray with a full set of woodworking tools in Christmas 2019, Bray had the wherewithal to turn his hobby into a business.
Raise the Bar has all the workit can handle with one-off custom signs for businesses, and Bray is preparing to move the company to a larger facility in town.
He was accepted this year into Bona’s Laine Business Accelerator, where he plans to figure out how to take his aptitude and turn it into a repeatable, scalable business.
Bray will earn his bachelor’s degree in 2023, and then he plans to turn Raise the Bar into his full-time project.
“I know there are going to be challenges as we grow and get bigger,” Bray said, “but I’d rather be working on my business than for a business."
