Partners » The Tech Garden
The Tech Garden
The Tech Garden connects clusters of entrepreneurial activity across New York State.
It's the nexus for learning about tech markets, tech trends and drivers shaping growth.
It's the gathering place for people interested in launching new ideas, raising capital, finding strategic advice, and mentoring the next big ideas.
The Tech Garden's mission is to stimulate high tech entrepreneurship, foster the development of emerging growth companies and support technology commercialization. Since it was launched in 2005, The Tech Garden has assisted more than 400 entrepreneurs and The Tech Garden's state-of-the-art incubator is now home to 30 early-stage ventures that have drawn investment capital and top talent from across New York State, as well as from Ireland, Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Tech Garden incubation companies currently employ more than 100 people, with a payroll of more than $4.5 million. More than 7,000 people have attended Tech Garden events such as tech expos, seminars, pre-seed workshops and other programs.
The Tech Garden is a statewide initiative, with satellite offices in the Albany and Long Island regions, providing tech community leadership through national and statewide programs such as the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP) and a DoD Commercialization Assistance Program that assisted 26 New York State companies receiving DoD SBIR grants.
The Seed Capital Fund of Central New York, a private angel network, is also based at The Tech Garden.
Resources at The Tech Garden include:
- Customized support services to help develop business acceleration roadmaps
- Connections with experienced mentors
- Access to angel investments and venture capital
- Networking events and extensive partnership networks
- Entrepreneurs in residence programs
The Student Sandbox: Turning great ideas into new business ventures
A new initiative of The Tech Garden is The Student Sandbox, an innovative program designed to become a national model for capturing talent and launching new enterprises by the best and brightest students at world-class regional colleges and universities. The goal of the program is to identify student entrepreneurs and provide them with a structured assistance program to nurture new business ideas under the supervision of business and community leaders, along with seasoned entrepreneurs who are committed to retaining talent in Upstate New York. Studies show that 84% of incubated businesses remain within the region where they were incubated. This represents an enormous pipeline in the Central Upstate New York region which boasts 38 colleges and universities and 138,000 students.
The Sandbox’s objective is to accelerate the process of ideation, development and deployment through mentoring and coaching, with an end-goal of producing student businesses capable of seeking growth capital from angel, venture or traditional financial sources. The project is a collaboration between The Tech Garden, and Kaufmann Foundation Enitiative schools (Syracuse University, LeMoyne College, Cayuga Community College, Onondaga Community College, Morrisville State College and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry). Student teams from each of the Enitiative Schools are eligible to apply.