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Participants in Element 46, the official startup incubator program
of Westchester County, celebrate their completion of the program. From left to right: Maura Gedid and Eric
Kaye, founders of Windyside Spirits; Joan Jia, founder of Hastings Tea and Coffee; Carolin Dohle, founder of Pink Hub; and Jennifer Perry, CEO and founder, Sacred Seeds Enterprises, LLC.
SCORE Westchester — which provides mentor- ship and both in-person and online education to entrepreneurs in the area — has seen an uptick in interest in recent months, particularly from people who would like to start service businesses. “During COVID, we found that as unemployment increased, more people were looking for opportunities to start their own businesses,” says David Kellogg, chairman of the organization. “We are working with a very di- verse group of clients who are coming at this not with MBAs but with a real passion and confidence that they can deliver value to customers.”
One client is Lewisboro resident Scott Binger, who sought advice from Kellogg and another volunteer at the organization for the past six months on how to grow his custom, cloud-based applications business, Evolytix, which he runs from his home and an office in Ridgefield, Connecticut. “We work with many cli- ents in the Westchester area,” says Binger. “I think it’s a vibrant, exciting place to do business.”
He’s likely to have more company in the future. Westchester Innovation Network (WIN) is working on a plan to attract and retain key innovators in the county for five, 10, and 25 years or more. It is match- ing innovators with companies that are willing to help them test their products and services. “The whole idea is for these entrepreneurs to grow and to really grow Westchester,” says Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of the Business Council of Westchester, which launched the initiative.
WIN is working with the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona College to im- prove support for minority- and women-owned busi- nesses. The institute will start by focusing on opportu- nities in Mount Vernon.
To keep the action going, the county — along with local universities and other organizations — are pour- ing resources into stimulating entrepreneurship and new-business creation.
In 2021, 218 businesses completed the Launch1000 program, a course started during the pandemic to help local residents start businesses or create in- come streams for themselves, according to Novick. Participants learn how to evaluate their business ideas, test them with potential customers, and de- termine how likely they are to succeed. “People tend to build their businesses in the places where they’re living,” says Novick. “Helping them get their new ventures off the ground is a way of helping them put down roots here.”
So far, the results have been promising. “The vast majority were already generating revenue when the program ended,” adds Novick.
The county’s startup incubators and accelerators are also filling up. In White Plains, the by-application- only Element 46 incubator, founded in 2019, has been offering mentorships to 15 startups at a time. The county’s official incubator offers education on how to start and scale a business idea, give startups access to desk space for six months, and offers founders access to professional service providers and mentors who are experts on business strategy.
The Westchester County Biosciences Accelerator, a six-month program in White Plains introduced by the county’s Office of Economic Development in 2019, offers entrepreneurship education and networking opportunities to seed-stage ventures in areas such as therapeutics, digital health, diagnostics, research tools, and materials technology.
In January 2022, the biosciences accelerator launched its second cohort, made up of 12 biosciences entrepreneurs looking to grow their ventures and at- tract funding. The county has a well-developed bio- sciences industry, with 20% of the state’s bioscientists employed in Westchester, according to Novick. The accelerator, in conjunction with the 2022 Accelerator for Biosciences in Connecticut, had its 10th annual pitch day on May 12.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY GOVERMENT
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