Jamie Sonneville’s smiling face shone out over Times Square recently after the unveiling of a huge billboard on the NASDAQ building celebrating the Wayne County native’s million-dollar startup’s entry into the Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab.
In just a few years, Sonneville has ushered her company—Agri-Trak, a provider of agricultural data-tracking software that helps manage farm operations and maximize output—from idea to market with the help of coaching from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Venture Creations Incubator. Venture Creations offers startups advice, events, and networking assistance packaged into an incubator program.
Agri-Trak, which recently topped $1 million in funding, was one of four companies to graduate from the program last week. Lux Semiconductors, Sign-Speak, and Panacheeza were the others—and despite sharing mentors, the budding firms are as different as their names suggest:
■ Founded by Graeme Housser and Shane McMahon, Lux Semiconductors has raised $10 million for its Smart Metal microelectronics packaging platform that allows more chips to be integrated together into a single system and to be kept cooler.
■ Sign-Speak, founded by Nikolas Kelly, Yamillet Payano, and Nicholas Wilkins, has developed a proprietary AI software that translates sign language into text or voice, with features comparable to voice recognition technology. The company has raised $3.5 million.
■ It’s not all tech: Panacheeza, which has raised over $400,000 and shipped 6,000 orders, is a plant-based cheese similar to Parmesan made of just five ingredients—cashews, nutritional yeast, and three other spices.
“In about six months, Panacheeza has transitioned from entering the incubator to entering the marketplace,” said co-founder Janessa Steenberg, an RIT graduate who was the first to participate in Venture Creations’ Ignite program, which is designed to extend the incubator’s resources to promising student-run businesses. “Being an incubator company has allowed us to meet major milestones, move into a larger manufacturing facility to meet demand, and graduate into a viable business.”
Added Steenberg: “The structure and access to our coach’s experience laid the foundation for our success.”
VCI has graduated 54 companies, with approximately $500 million in total funds raised. Thirteen of those companies have been acquired, and 31 of 41 non-acquired companies are still operational. In addition, 85 percent of the companies have maintained a regional presence.
Speaking at the ceremony was RIT President David Munson, who remarked on the school’s intention to offer more support for entrepreneurship.
He discussed the planned establishment of an Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which is intended to serve as a hub providing resources, mentorship, and other aids under one umbrella. Its building blocks will be several supports the school already offers — including VCI, the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship, and the Intellectual Property Management Office — but it will come with fresh initiatives too, like a new accelerator.
“Our explicit mission is to establish our university as a recognized leader in the pursuit of launching, managing, and scaling businesses,” he said.
The keynote speaker was Chuck Gershman, founder of OWL-AI, a VCI graduate company headquartered in Fairport that makes sensors that can detect and classify objects around a vehicle. His advice to the new grads, among other things, was to maintain their purpose as a North Star while navigating rocky startup waters.
“It’s crucial to know your ‘why’ and always emphasize the purpose behind why you do what you do,” he explained. “Your ‘why’ is the beacon within the chaos.”
Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].
Really worthable information