Angel investors in the spring and fall in New York

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Business plans for angel investors
Custom business plans

SmartStart Venture Forum, a local event in which 25 early-stage companies make eight-minute pitches to venture capitalists, and Universities of Upstate New York Venture Forum, or UNYTECH, both hold a venture forum in Buffalo.

Both venues are working together to promote each other's event and both will have a presence at each other's event.

SmartStart has been held in Albany every fall for the past four years, but it has pushed back its next event until May 2006 to not compete with UNYTECH, which is scheduled for Sept. 21-22.
"It's upstate's premier event for early-stage companies," said Honen, who is a president of the Empire State Venture Group Inc., the group that organized the SmartStart Forum. It is a collaboration among the Science and Technology Law Center at Albany Law School and other organizations in the private and public sectors.

The Center for Economic Growth Inc., an Albany-based economic development organization, will run the SmartStart forum and the UNYTECH event for the first time, beginning this year.

Competing events

Companies that have participated in SmartStart have received a total of $10 million to $12 million a year in funding.

UNYTECH, founded by the tech-transfer departments at eight schools, including the Rochester Institute of Technology, the state University of Buffalo and Cornell University, focuses on early-stage companies working on technology created at the universities.The event has led to companies receiving a total of more than $11 million, including federal and state funding, over the past two years.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the state University at Albany have become members as well.

The forums were siphoning participants from each other, but are now cooperating to bring the best investment environment possible to New York startups.

Bela Musits, a principal at the Troy venture firm High Peaks Venture Partners, has participated in both events.

"It make sense for the state," he said. "No sense in having two spring events or two fall events."

And can one company participate in both events? You betcha!