Upstate Venture Connect (UVC) Founders and Leaders

In this episode, Patrick Bosek talks with Sean Assent, co-founder of Empower, about his unconventional path from a 25-year healthcare career to becoming a software founder. Sean shares how years spent working with data, strategy, healthcare systems, nonprofit boards, and adaptive skiing ultimately converged into the idea for a platform that helps community-based organizations operate more effectively. The conversation explores what it really takes to become an entrepreneur later in your career, including the financial and family tradeoffs, the importance of learning the startup ecosystem, and the value of mission-driven teams. Sean also shares where Empower is today, what comes next for the company, and why better technology and data can help strengthen organizations serving some of our most vulnerable communities.

In this episode, Patrick Bosek talks with Rebecca Brady, founder of Top Seedz, about her journey from New Zealand to Buffalo and from stay-at-home mom to building a rapidly growing food company. Rebecca shares how she went from selling a handful of crackers at a farmers market to landing on shelves at Wegmans and Whole Foods and eventually scaling to 70+ employees, 3,500 stores, and roughly 10,000 boxes a day. The conversation explores the power of networking, product-market fit, disciplined scaling, and using competition and sports-inspired thinking to build an efficient, energetic culture. Rebecca also reflects on resilience, taking smart risks, and how winning 43North helped her step out of the day-to-day and start building Top Seedz for its next stage of growth.

In this episode, Patrick speaks with Peter Dean a serial entrepreneur and longtime member of the Upstate New York startup community. Patrick and Peter trace his career shaped by experimentation, resilience, and a deep belief in people-first culture. Peter shares the lessons behind building three different start-ups in three very different industries.Peter tells the stories behind Athletic Dynamics, scaling the outdoor e-commerce company Upside Over, surviving its collapse during the 2008 financial crisis, and ultimately growing RenderTribe into a successful agency that was acquired by Media Logic. Along the way, they dig into business-model innovation, the realities of cash flow and founder risk, and how culture can become a genuine competitive advantage when employees feel trusted, supported, and connected to a shared purpose.

Patrick Bosek talks with Lauren Washington—serial entrepreneur, community builder, and Director of the University at Buffalo’s Cultivator Program—about her amazing journey through multiple ventures to helping shape Buffalo’s startup ecosystem. Lauren shares how winning the first-ever 43North with her social listening startup “Keep Up” taught her hard lessons about platform risk and building on someone else’s APIs. From there, she talks through founding a community, Black Women Talk Tech, before pivoting back to commercial start-ups by launching Funder. Finally, Lauren explains how UB’s Cultivator accelerator deploys first checks and provides mentorship to help Western New York founders compete on the global stage.

Patrick Bosek sits down with Michael Gursha (Point Curve CEO, UNY 50 member, and UVC board member) to explore how Upstate New York shaped his path as a builder. From launching Dream Water at Syracuse and experimenting with an early social recommendation startup, Michael shares what he learned about pitching, traction, and when quitting is the smartest move. He breaks down how founders can build a real support network—peers, advisors, and investors who want the hard truth, not just the highlights. The episode closes with Michael’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence journey at Syracuse and how that experience sparked the next chapter: co-founding Point Curve with his brother and leaning into the power of ecosystem-driven growth.