September 2019

Greetings, friends of the HV entrepreneur ecosystem! You should have received the invitation to register for our upcoming Venture Fest at SUNY New Paltz only October 17, just six weeks away. This is shaping up to be a great ecosystem event, our first annual, of hopefully many to come in future years. We are continuing to work on our Oktoberfest theme and are happy to have booked the bandleader from Alpine Squeeze, a local German American festival band who will provide some authentic Oktoberfest entertainment during our networking at the end of the event.

To see more details on the great lineup of speakers and panelists, see the Venture Fest webpage. Help us make this the largest HV entrepreneur ecosystem gathering ever held in the Hudson Valley - please Register Now.

Entrepreneurs

HV Startup Fund recently invested in Consolidated Harvest Company (CHC), the parent company of Hudson Valley Harvest and Field Goods. CHC’s mission is to help meet the growing demand for locally grown food in the greater New York City region. CHC consists of five businesses which were merged into one enterprise with significant sales. CHC brings its customers the best food from the Hudson Valley and beyond by working with small and medium farms to source vegetables, herbs, fruit, meat, eggs, dairy, and more for its customers in New York City, the Hudson Valley, NJ, and CT.

Consolidated Harvest Company (dba Hudson Valley Harvest) includes:

Hudson Valley Harvest - delivers wholesale to restaurants, grocery stores, catering companies, cafes, coops, schools and corporations
Trusted Harvest - provides non-local, ready-to-eat wash and chopped produce alongside Hudson Valley Harvest
Field Goods - delivers weekly to consumers through drop locations including libraries, gyms, schools and private businesses

HVH and Field Goods have operated year-round since 2011. They also make their own delicious pantry staples that can be found in retail stores throughout the Northeast under the Hudson Valley Harvest brand.

HV Startup Fund has invested as part of CHC’s $1.5 million raise in July 2019. The capital will fund future business growth and the development of a new, more user-friendly mobile interface to meet customer expectations.

Johnny LeHane, a founding manager of HV Startup Fund, expressed his excitement about the opportunity to support HVH. “Hudson Valley Harvest is a great opportunity to expand our portfolio. It creates jobs in the Hudson Valley and has an economic impact throughout the region much bigger than just those jobs.”

CHC’s Michael Waterman added, “We’re excited that Hudson Valley Startup Fund’s vision is so well aligned with our mission. The breadth of expertise that the HVSF membership offers is a great bonus. We look forward to working with the fund and its members.”

For more information, Michael Waterman, MWaterman@canopyholdingsllc.com

Investors

The NY Area Angel Alliance was formed in 2018 to enable greater collaboration across NY area angel funds and networks. An example of collaboration is the sharing of deal flow. When a startup pitches to one angel group, the other angel organizations in the Alliance can quickly become aware of this startup. This helps startups reach more area angels faster in order to fulfill their current funding rounds. Click Read More below for a list of the Alliance members.

The NY Area Alliance is led by Sandy Wollman, who is also a co-founder and co-manager of Westchester Angels. If you are interested in speaking with Sandy about the Alliance, you can contact him here. If you are a startup currently in a raise, feel free to contact each angel group directly, if you determine they are a potential fit.

Leaders

Community Capital New York

Driving Capital. Building Prosperity. Transforming Neighborhoods.

A Nonprofit Lender for 30 Years

“At Community Capital New York, I’m part of a family. They are truly an asset to the entrepreneur. I’m not a number to them. They came to me when I needed them and are helping me build. I am living my dream,” Latreece Miller, Miller’s Touch Cleaning Service.

From Beacon to the city and back, Latreece Miller dreamt of starting his own business as he commuted daily to his full-time job as the Director of Environmental Services at a major New York City hospital. In 2011 he took the first step to launch Miller’s Touch Cleaning as a part-time business and in 2015, he resigned from his job, and never looked back.

Today Miller’s Touch Cleaning Services delivers a full range of quality cleaning services to medical, residential and commercial building offices in Westchester, the Hudson Valley, and New York City areas. We are proud to have supported his journey with a small business loan and the working capital he needed to improve marketing, fund new operational costs—and hire a diverse team of 23 employees.

As his staff expands, Latreece comments, “I am not in my business alone. I’m in with a group of people who feel like they are partners and family. You can pay people money, a high salary, but they have to feel like they are part of something and they will grow with you.”

At Community Capital New York, it’s our privilege to support the growth of entrepreneurs like Latreece. In addition to providing innovative and customized lending options, we offer one-on-one small business coaching, and free training programs like our 9-week, SCALE program for Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs. As a nonprofit, small business lender exclusively serving Westchester and The Hudson Valley, we drive capital and resources to start-ups, small business owners and affordable housing development typically excluded from our current systems. We are also an SBA lender and a CDFI, certified by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Learn more at www.communitycapitalny.org

Service Providers

Zulch Tax Consultants and Accountants provide individual income tax preparation, partnership tax preparation, corporate tax preparation, estate tax preparation, trust tax preparation, non-profit tax preparation, accounting, payroll, sales tax, bookkeeping, as well as other financial and business consulting services. Located in Red Hook, we serve many clients in Red Hook and Rhinebeck, and we also serve hundreds of clients across the Hudson Valley, Greater New York City area, and many other states.

The Zulch Tax team has been providing service excellence, with sensitivity to confidentiality and trust, to their clients since 1983. Our client rate of return for repeat business has been greater than 96% since the inception of the firm in 1983. We are very proud to have over three decades of experience and knowledge.

Kevin Zulch, founder and President of Zulch Tax Consultants and Accountants, is also a Founding Member of the HV Startup Fund, a group of local angels investing in HV startups. Services that could be of value to HV entrepreneurs (high growth startups and small businesses) include:

Prepare individual, corporate, partnership, estate, and trust tax returns
Set up and advise small businesses
Review company accounting systems and recommend improvements
Gather and prepare information required by lenders to help clients apply for loans and credit
Work with clients, attorneys, investment advisors and bankers on mergers, acquisitions, and expansions
Provide accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and sales tax services
Resolve IRS and state tax matters

For more information, or to schedule a tax preparation or accounting interview, contact us at 845-758-0096 or info@zulchtax.com

Before Silicon Valley, The HV

Matthew Vassar, Hudson Valley serial entrepreneur - Part II

Matthew Vassar had many of Ben Franklin’s traits and habits. He was an avid learner, entrepreneurial, and possessed a disciplined work ethic. He also had the civic altruism of Andrew Carnegie. By his fifty-third birthday in 1845, Vassar had much to celebrate. He had risen from being uneducated, financially unstable, and facing a bleak future to become

a well-read, educated, cultural leader
successful and wealthy, an expert serial entrepreneur
A civic and religious leader
head of a respected, influential and generous family
and, the President of the Hudson River Railroad, a startup.

But, as Steve Jobs liked to say in his product launches, ‘there is one more thing’.

Mathew Vassar would experience a spiritual call to create a college for women - the first college created for women. A legacy that would live on. A final crescendo, his encore career - Vassar College.

An entrepreneur’s journey home

Learning was a core value of Matthew Vassar. He was a life-long learner. He sought out educators and learned companions. He became a Trustee of the University of Rochester and his step-niece, Lydia Booth, an educator and entrepreneur, provided him with a foundation to build on.

With his business ventures solidly producing the equivalent of $10,000,000 per year (in 2019 dollars), he, his wife Cathrine and his confidential Secretary Cyrus Swan sent sail for England. The trip had two agendas, to visit his homeland, and second, to enrich his knowledge for the Vassar College startup.

A trip to Versailles and viewing a life-size statue of his cousin Guy, in front of Guy’s Hospital, fueled his ‘spiritual calling’. Vassar College would become his Versailles. And, his life-size statue would greet students and visitors at the front door for years to come. He now had a technicolor vision of his educational venture and legacy.

On February 26, 1861, Vassar established his college. He brought a custom-made tin to the ‘launch’ occasion. Inside the tin were $12,000,000 (2019 dollars) in stock certificates and a deed for 200 acres of land. Under his arm, he carried the architectural drawings for the Main Building and landscape design for the campus. Surrounding Vassar at this launch were his fellow founder-funders, including his good friend and neighbor, Samuel S.B. Morse (see June and July newsletter).

For the remainder of Vassar’s life, his energy, enthusiasm, and attention were devoted to Vassar College, the Hudson River Railroad (which morphed into the New York Central Railroad), and his beloved Springside home estate. His entrepreneurial journey was complete.

Epilogue

On June 23, 1868, Matthew Vassar died suddenly delivering his resignation, farewell speech during an annual meeting of Vassar College Trustees.
Every February 26th the Vassar community celebrates Founder’s Day.
Matthew Vassar, Jr & John Guy Vassar, nephews and philanthropists, founded and funded Vassar Brothers Hospital, Vassar Brother Institute,Vassar Home for Aged Men (now the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center), John Guy Vassar Orphan Asylum, and the Vassar-Warner Home
In 1927, Vassar College became the first of what was called the ’Seven Sisters’ because of its affiliation with Ivy League schools

Ending with the once-popular tribute song to Matthew Vassar…

And so you see, to old V.C.

Our love shall never fail.

Full well we know that all we owe

To Matthew Vassar’s ale.

This Before the Silicon Valley, the Hudson Valley blog offers a 400-year narrative journey honoring the Icons of entrepreneurship and their impact on invention, innovation, and commercialization in the Hudson Valley.

Don Delaney

Contact welcome: Donald J. Delaney, HV Entrepreneurship Historian & Blog Writer for the HV Venture Hub. You can reach Don at don@dondelaney.com

Events

September 9 (Newburgh): Hudson Valley Women in Business (HVWiB) monthly meeting

September 12 (White Plains): May 30 (White Plains): Westchester Angels Investor Meeting (for accredited investors) and After Meeting Networking (open to all)

September 12 – January 30, 2020: 60 Hour Entrepreneurial Training Program. Do you have a business idea and don’t know where to start? Have you started a business and need help with what to do next? Then our program is for you!

September 23, 25 or Nov 6 (Kingston): Hudson Valley Women in Business (HVWiB) Weekday Retreats, invitation-only, intimate workshops focused on creating consistent, sustainable business

October 11: Hudson Valley Tech Festival is now accepting speakers and participants to showcase regional tech businesses and talent. Contact Yulia Ovchinnikova at festival@openhubproject.com

October 14 (Kingston): Hudson Valley Women in Business (HVWiB) monthly meeting

October 15: Connect Plus, a women’s networking event sponsored by WEDC, SCORE & the Darlene L. Pfeiffer Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at SUNY Ulster Kelder Center, 5:30-7: 30 pm

October 17: 1st Annual Venture Fest, signature event for the broad HV entrepreneur ecosystem, hosted by the HV Venture Hub, Presenting Sponsor - The Pasternak Family Foundation, at SUNY New Paltz, 12:30-6: 30 pm

October 24: Think Dutchess Business Excellence Awards. 5:30-9pm at the Grandview in Poughkeepsie. Sponsorship and advertising opportunities available. Tickets on sale now at https://bit.ly/33BpmtY.

October 30: Ribbon Cutting and 5th Anniversary Celebration, BioInc@NYMC. Contact Deborah Novick for details at dnovick@nymc.edu

November 22 (Valhalla): Grow Your Business Conference at the Westchester Community College