SYRACUSE — The first year of the StartFast Venture Accelerator program began May 14 with nine teams from around the country.

The three-month program will focus on helping the startups develop and validate a prototype product and secure enough funding for them to move forward with their work. Organizers chose the nine teams from a group of more than 300 applicants around the world.

Two members of the team from Mozzo Analytics relocated from Philadelphia to Syracuse to work with StartFast. A third member, Michael D’Eredita, is a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies and a fourth lives in Oneida.

The chance to connect with a deep network of mentors and investors will make StartFast worthwhile, D’Eredita says.

“All those things will help accelerate progress,” he says. “It’s proving out so far. The people we’ve met and the discussions we’ve had are helping us accelerate the way we hoped.”

Mozzo Analytics developed a system that extracts links from a user’s Gmail account and then offers an organized summary of the links searchable by people, topic, and time. The system features a powerful engine that allows the information to self-organize, D’Eredita says.

Users don’t have to set any parameters or teach the engine anything, he explains. They simply use their email as they normally would and the system pulls and organizes the links itself.

Company leaders say their system can do the same thing for attachments and eventually hope to serve corporations and other organizations as well as individuals.

PadProof’s founders, Aaron Drenberg and Timothy Beckford, originally hail from Orlando, Fla. They’ve developed an iPad app, which is available now, that allows professional photographers to share photos with clients. The clients can view and purchase the photos directly from the device.

They say the perspectives on strategic direction and targeting customers they’ll gain at StartFast will be valuable. Beckford says they came across StartFast while searching for accelerator programs online.

He says he and Drenberg were impressed with StartFast’s managing directors, Chuck Stormon and Nasir Ali. A program like this is exactly what the company needs right now to take its next steps, Drenberg says.

StartFast is part of the Global Accelerator Network. The network grew from the TechStars program that began in Boulder, Colo. in 2007. TechStars has since expanded to Boston, Seattle, and New York City and includes a separate program for companies working on cloud computing and infrastructure.

The network includes 45 accelerators around the world. StartFast is focused on software and Internet firms and those developing mobile apps.

The accelerator is housed in 14,000 square feet at the Onondaga Tower, the former HSBC building, on East Jefferson Street in downtown Syracuse. The program occupies the building’s entire third floor.

Each company chosen for the program receives $18,000 in seed funding. StartFast investors receive a 6 percent stake in exchange. The companies also get access to a number of in-kind contributions from national sponsors like Google and Rackspace through the Global Accelerator Network.

The Seed Capital Fund of CNY (SCF) is providing 40 percent of StartFast’s $2 million in funding. The rest is coming from private investors. The initial funding round will allow StartFast to run for four years. 

Other teams in the program include the following:

– BitePal of Ithaca is a restaurant deal service that works through cell phones.

– Cayo-Tech of Tel Mond, Israel has developed a mobile application that can notify a user’s family and friends with information needed in an emergency.

– RevoPT of Ithaca designs Web and mobile applications to make physical therapy more personalized and effective through home exercise programs.

– Tivity of New York City is a social network for people looking to find, schedule, and share active lifestyle activities.

– Streamspec of Syracuse and New York City is an image-based Internet advertising company.

– CanVita of Denver and New York City provides visual and evolving résumés for the social Web.

– YouGift of New York City is a platform for sending greetings and gift cards via social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Teams receive regular coaching with mentors from around the country and from Stormon and Ali.

CLAY  —  Business at Seneca Chiropractic & Family Wellness has been growing at breakneck speed since the practice moved into a new headquarters building in the town of Clay at the end of last year.

Patient volume is up about 20 percent, according to Theodore Baldini, a chiropractic doctor who co-owns Seneca Chiropractic. And revenue has jumped 10 percent, he adds.

“A lot of it is referrals,” Baldini says. “When we moved in, the people that were already here, it created a buzz from them.”

Seneca Chiropractic didn’t move very far — 150 feet or so. Its new home, a freshly constructed 2,500-square-foot facility, sits on the same plot of land at 7960 Oswego Road as its previous headquarters. 

That previous headquarters was a 1,300-square-foot former Cape Cod house. It had been Seneca Chiropractic’s home since Baldini founded it in 2000 along with David Isabella, who is also a chiropractic doctor.

The two men still own and operate the practice, and they own the land on which it sits on Oswego Road. They decided to build a new headquarters because Seneca Chiropractic was growing, according to Baldini.

The practice’s revenue typically increased by between 5 percent and 8 percent annually, he says. However, he declined to share a revenue total.

Baldini and Isabella considered adding on to the old Cape Cod, Baldini says. They decided it was more cost-effective to build a new structure instead.

Construction started in June 2011 and was complete in time for Seneca Chiropractic to move into the new facility at the beginning of December. After the practice moved, workers demolished the Cape Cod and put in a new parking lot.

The work cost $445,000, Baldini says. Seneca Chiropractic used its own cash reserves and a loan from HSBC Bank USA, N.A. to finance construction.

The new facility, designed by Niagara County–based GreenTree Builders, Inc., has a health-lecture room, a conference room, and five patient rooms, including one dedicated to massage therapy. Seneca Chiropractic only had two patient rooms at its old headquarters. 

And the new headquarters building could be outfitted to hold more patient rooms if demand continues to increase, Baldini says.

“We have the ability to run more,” he says. “We were originally going to make this conference room into two rooms.”

Seneca Chiropractic also has the option of adding on to the back of the building. Baldini and Isabella own land behind the building, and they could expand its footprint up to 4,000 square feet, Baldini says.

Despite the rapid growth, Seneca Chiropractic currently has no plans to increase its staffing levels, according to Baldini. The practice employs four people in addition to its two owners. Three of those employees work at its headquarters.

The chiropractic firm also operates offices in Camillus and the village of Manlius. It leases 1,400 square feet in Camillus and 1,000 square feet in Manlius.

Isabella travels as needed to the Camillus and Clay locations. A third chiropractic doctor, David Stevens, works primarily in Manlius.

The new headquarters isn’t the sole reason behind Seneca Chiropractic’s growth, Baldini says. He also credits a recent focus on wellness.

“As opposed to how we used to just be acute back and neck pain, we’ve shifted toward a wellness paradigm including nutrition and weight loss,” he says. “With the expanded types of services, we’re seeing people who want to be healthier so they don’t have to go on arthritis and cholesterol medicine.”

The broader focus started when Seneca Chiropractic was still in its old building, Baldini says. But it gained muscle with the new location and its health-lecture room. For example, the practice used that room to host a lecture on how athletes should eat before a competition, according to Baldini. 

Contractor

Seneca Chiropractic dedicated its new headquarters to the general contractor in charge of building it, Andy Partis. He was the sole proprietor of AP Builders, which he ran from Cortland County, Baldini says.

Partis suffered a brain aneurism shortly after finishing the Seneca Chiropractic job, according to Baldini. Partis died a few days later at the age of 41, Baldini says.

“He was a great guy,” Baldini says. “He cared about our project. He went out of his way, made sure that we got exactly what we wanted.” 

Small-business owners in the Northeast are optimistic on their prospects for growing revenue but less hopeful about the outlook for the U.S. economy, according to a survey released by TD Bank May 22.

Just under three-quarters of small-business owners in the Northeast, 74 percent, said they were expecting to meet or exceed their revenue projections this spring, the survey found. That would make the spring better for companies than the first portion of the year, when 60 percent of small firms reported meeting or exceeding their revenue projections.

Optimism about the U.S. economy was significantly lower, however. A mere 26 percent of survey respondents said they were optimistic about the nation’s economy.

“Small-business owners are resilient, so although their confidence in the U.S. economy may be lacking, many still feel they are in a position to boost their revenue stream,” Phil Daniels, TD Bank market president for upstate New York and Vermont, said in an e-mail. “Economic confidence hasn’t deterred their confidence in running a successful business.”

Employment was one of the survey’s brighter spots, as 95 percent of those responding planned to maintain or increase their staffing levels over the next quarter. Additionally, 27 percent wanted to hire one or more employees.

Less than one-third of small-business owners intended to increase their capital investments — 29 percent. Of those who do plan to ratchet up capital investments, 6 percent plan to boost them by 15 percent or more over the next quarter.

Large numbers of owners aren’t cutting back on capital investments, though. Another 59 percent of small-business owners expected to keep their capital-investment level steady in the upcoming quarter.

“Of course, we would like to see higher numbers regarding capital investments,” Daniels said. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see a boost in numbers if we asked this question again in July. Our research and feedback from our customers has led us to believe that well-capitalized small businesses are likely to spend and invest in technology, workforce development, and improvements to their existing facilities in 2012.”

Most business owners weren’t enamored with the prospect of moving to new commercial space in the next year. Among survey respondents, 86 percent said they are somewhat unlikely to move or very unlikely to move.

A more affordable lease was the top reason small-business owners said they would move, with 27 percent of owners giving that response. And 25 percent said they would move for a larger commercial space. 

Other reasons for moving included a more desirable business location, which 21 percent of owners cited, and an opportunity to buy space, which 16 percent of business owners named. Only 7 percent of owners said they would move to a smaller space, while 4 percent said they would move to be closer to home.

In a final survey indicator, small-business owners indicated that their mood has not worsened over the last year. A majority of survey respondents, 65 percent, claimed they are as happy or happier today than they were a year ago.

ORC International conducted the survey for TD Bank. ORC, which is based in Princeton, N.J., polled 500 business owners by telephone in Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, Boston, and Philadelphia in April 2012. Surveyed owners represented companies with annual sales of $5 million or less.

TD Bank customers in other regions of the country have expressed sentiments similar to those in the Northeast survey, according to Daniels.

“We conducted the same survey in our Mid-Atlantic and South regions earlier this year, and the results and expectations were very similar,” he said. “Overall, we’ve seen strong growth in our small-business loan portfolios this year throughout our Maine to Florida footprint.”

TD Bank, headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. and Portland, Maine, has more than 8 million customers and offers retail, small-business, and commercial-banking products. It has over 1,280 locations in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and metropolitan Washington, D.C. areas, as well as the Carolinas and Florida. TD Bank had $122 billion in total deposits, including more than $20 billion in New York State, primarily in the Albany and New York City metro areas, according to June 30, 2011 FDIC statistics. The bank is a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto (NYSE: TD). 

Doyle Security Systems, Inc. isn’t abandoning the Syracuse area, even though two recent acquisitions mean it will no longer be using its Central New York location to serve clients in the Albany region.

In fact, the company wants to grow in Syracuse through acquisitions or hiring, according to Kevin Stone, Doyle’s executive vice president and COO.

Doyle Security Systems, which is based near Rochester in the town of Hen-rietta, acquired two Albany–area firms on May 4 in a pair of stock sales. The firms are JMS Alarms, which was headquartered across the Hudson River from Albany in the city of Rensselaer, and LPE Security & Fire Alarm Systems, which had been based outside Saratoga Springs.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of either deal. Doyle Security Systems used Davis Mergers & Acquisitions Group Inc. of Long Grove, Ill. and Profitability Consultants Inc. from outside of Buffalo as consultants in the transactions, Stone says.

The two acquisitions add a total of 10 employees to Doyle Security Systems’ work force, which had previously numbered about 100 people, according to Stone. It also gives the firm a physical location in the Albany area, where it previously did not have one, he says.

Doyle Security Systems will now base its Capital Region operations in 2,500 square feet of leased space at 9 Washington St. in Rensselaer, Stone says. The firm will use that space, which had been JMS Alarms’ headquarters, to consolidate the operations of JMS Alarms and LPE, he adds.

The physical location in Rensselaer means Doyle Security Systems will not have to serve its Albany–area customers from its Central New York office, according to Stone. The company had been covering the Capital Region from its office in the Syracuse area.

That office is located in 2,500 square feet of leased space in Suite 1 at 24 Corporate Circle in DeWitt. It has nine employees.

Serving the Albany area is going to be a bigger task after the acquisition. Doyle Security Systems added thousands of customers in the Capital Region when it acquired JMS Alarms and LPE Security.

“We had a couple hundred accounts down there already,” Stone says. “And we acquired approximately 2,000 accounts.”

Doyle Security Systems will keep the former owner of LPE, Edward Stano, as its regional manager for the Albany area. JMS Alarms’ former owner, Michael Stewart, is assisting with his company’s transition and also has the option of working with Doyle Security Systems in the future.

“He might stick around as a consultant,” Stone says. “He’s leaning toward retirement, but that’s up to him.”

Central New York plans

Doyle Security Systems wants to expand in all of its current markets, according to Stone. They include Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Erie, Pa., — and Syracuse.

“We’re aggressively looking to grow in all of the markets that we’re in,” Stone says. “First and foremost, we’ll continue to look for acquisitions. And Syracuse is on the top of our list.”

The security firm will also consider growing organically by directly hiring more employees, according to Stone, who did not share specific hiring projections. It currently has more than 2,000 clients in the Syracuse region, he adds.

Company background

Doyle Security Systems is headquartered in an 18,000-square-foot building it owns in Henrietta. It has a total of 31,000 clients.

In 2011, the firm generated just over $12 million in revenue, Stone says. It averages 8 percent annual revenue growth, but the Albany acquisitions should help push growth up to 10 percent in 2012, he adds.

The company provides residential and commercial security alarms and closed-circuit television. It also provides medical monitoring services. 

The security side of the business is becoming more interactive for customers thanks to new technologies, according to Stone.

“Everybody has iPads and iPhones and BlackBerries,” he says. “We’re finding ways to integrate those technologies so that you can monitor your alarm system from your hand, control your thermostat, and control your lighting.

“Closed-circuit television is also becoming very popular,” Stone continues. “Residentially, we’re installing a lot of cameras in the home that people can look at on their smartphones.”

Medical monitoring is a source of rapid growth, Stone says. Doyle Security Systems’ medical-monitoring division, launched a little more than five years ago, already generates about 15 percent of its annual revenue, he adds.

The medical-monitoring side of the business includes personal medical alarms and medication dispensers. A personal medical alarm allows an older adult who lives independently to call for help by pushing a button. A medication dispenser is a piece of equipment that disperses medicine at preset intervals and can contact a Doyle Security Systems employee if the medication is not taken in a timely manner.

“That is much cheaper than the alternative, which is to send a nurse to distribute medication on a regular basis,” Stone says.
“Because we’re in the medical monitoring business, we have a 24-hour call center, and we’re looking for products that we can put out in the field and monitor them for a monthly fee.”

Doyle Security Systems was founded in 1919. John Doyle has owned the company since the mid-1980s and is also its president and CEO.

The firm also has branches in the Buffalo and Erie, Pa. regions, in addition to its locations in the Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany areas. 

SYRACUSE — Construction crews will put the finishing touches on the long-planned Central New York Biotech Accelerator in the next few months.

The joint project of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) will open in early 2013. The 40,000-square-foot building, located at 841 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse, will have office and lab space for as many as 21 companies and more than 100 scientists, technicians, and entrepreneurs.

The accelerator will be focused on businesses developing technologies related to life sciences and the environment. That will include firms working in fields like pharmaceuticals and medical devices as well as in areas such as bioenergy and alternative fuels, says Arthur Stipanovic, a professor at ESF and interim co-director of the accelerator.

The facility’s leaders are in the process of hiring a permanent director now, Stipanovic adds. They’re hoping to find someone with solid business and startup experience who will provide regular coaching and mentoring to tenants.

Organizers also have some initial leads on possible accelerator companies, but nothing firm yet, Stipanovic says. Many of the firms are likely to come from Upstate Medical, ESF, or other area colleges, but that’s not a requirement, he adds.

Companies could have no connections to local universities at all, he says. Their founders might have started their careers at another local business, for example.

Stipanovic notes that while there are other incubators and accelerator programs in the area, the focus on biotechnology is what separates the Upstate-ESF project. And while Cornell University runs an incubator focused on life sciences, commuting to Ithaca could be a challenge for a Syracuse–based startup team, he adds.

The accelerator’s tenant companies will be able to tap into the extensive expertise and equipment at both Upstate Medical and ESF. Others in the area, such as Syracuse University, could help the firms as well, Stipanovic says.

“We hope to give client companies physical spaces, but also the resources they need,” he says.

The facility has faced a challenging road to reality. Plans for the building date back at least 10 years, Stipanovic says, and the project has faced a number of delays related to its ultimate location and funding.

The $25 million project is funded mainly by the state, he adds, plus some federal support.

The construction manager on the project is LeChase Construction, which is based in Rochester, but has Central New York offices in Syracuse, Ithaca, and Binghamton.

The building was designed by the S/L/A/M Collaborative, which has offices in Syracuse, Atlanta, Boston, and Glastonbury, Conn.

The accelerator building is part of a broader redevelopment led by Upstate Medical of the surrounding area. The development, known as Loguen’s Crossing, will eventually include residential and additional commercial space.                       

CENTRAL SQUARE  —  Oswego Health plans to open a new medical center this fall after it completes $5 million in renovations at a building in the village of Central Square.

The health-care organization has yet to set an exact opening date for the facility, which is located at 3045 East Ave. Oswego Health started work in January 2012 and will call the building the Central Square Medical Center when it opens later this year.

The renovated medical center will hold a new urgent-care office, laboratory, medical-imaging center, and physical-therapy center. It will also contain three operations that have been in the building since before work started: Primecare Medical Practice, a Lifetime Health Medical Group Pharmacy, and a Home Aides of Central New York office.

The primary-care practice, pharmacy, and home-aide office are remaining open as construction continues, according to Jeffery Coakley, vice president for strategic services at Oswego Health.

“We wanted to maintain some of the services that were already in the community, including the primary care,” he says. “Once this is functional, we really want to use this to help us attract other physicians to the community.”

Construction crews are completely redoing the building’s interior. Between 40 and 50 construction workers will be onsite at the peak of construction, according to Oswego Health. They are installing new ceilings, walls, and floors, as well as reworking its layout. In addition, plans call for installing new electrical service and a generator at the facility.

Other renovations include a 1,200-square-foot expansion that is under way, bringing the two-level building to 22,000 square feet. And the work encompasses some exterior changes, such as new canopies on the building’s front, rear, and side.

The front and rear canopies will give shelter to patients who are being dropped off by car, Coakley says. The side canopy will create a space for ambulances to pick up patients if they need to be taken to a hospital — although ambulances will not be dropping patients off at the center.

Plans also call for a new 14-foot sign in front of the building. And workers will replace the facility’s cedar siding with clapboard-style cement.

“There’s cedar siding here that we found was rotting in some areas,” Coakley says of the facility, which was built in 1977. “It’s an excellent building, but it’s over 30 years old.”

Hayner Hoyt Corp. of Syracuse is the general contractor for the project, and Syracuse–based King + King Architects LLP is its architect. That’s the same team that handled design and construction for Oswego Health’s Fulton Medical Center, a 70,000-square-foot facility that opened earlier this year at 510 S. Fourth St. in Fulton.

Oswego Health projects that the center will take 4,150 medical images, perform 10,000 lab draws, and host 2,000 physical-therapy visits in its first year. It predicts 38 patients per day will visit the urgent care, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, including weekends and holidays.

About 40 employees will work at the center once construction is completed, up from a total of around 10 who work in its private practice, pharmacy, and home-aide office, according to Coakley. Some current Oswego Health employees may transfer to the center, but a majority of the jobs will be new positions, he says. Oswego Health will post the positions on its website as they become available.

Project history

Oswego Health bought the facility on East Avenue in Central Square for $750,000 in April 2011, after Lifetime Health Medical Group decided to shutter its primary-care operations at the site, Coakley says. Lifetime Health Medical Group is a subsidiary of Rochester–based the Lifetime Healthcare Companies and a sister of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, Central New York’s largest health insurer.

The planned closing prompted the New York Department of Health to start talks with Oswego Health about the health-care organization expanding its reach in Oswego County, Coakley says.

“This is really part of what we’d consider a primary-care initiative in Oswego County,” he says. “It’s been a very long time coming.”

The state awarded Oswego Health and several partners $8.34 million in HEAL NY funding. Most of the funding, $5 million, is earmarked for the construction, acquisition, and equipment needed to create the Central Square Medical Center. The remaining funding will go toward renovations at other primary-care sites in Oswego County.

Those sites include Oswego Health-owned locations in Mexico, Parish and Phoenix, as well as Oswego County Opportunities, Inc. practices in Fulton and Oswego. They also include a Northern Oswego County Health Services, Inc. practice in Pulaski.

Work at the other sites is similar to that at the Central Square Medical Center, although it is not as extensive, Coakley says.

“We’re going to be improving facilities to bring them up to current codes and standards for the Department of Health, as well as implementing a new health-information system,” he says.

The Oswego Health system includes Oswego Hospital in Oswego, the Springside at Seneca Hill retirement community in Volney, and the Manor at Seneca Hill skilled nursing center in Volney, which has 120 beds. The nonprofit organization has 820 full-time employees and 164 part-time employees. It generated $110.9 million in revenue in 2011 and projects $115.4 million in revenue in 2012.   

DeWITT  —  Managing construction waste doesn’t just stop drywall scraps from clogging landfills, said a speaker at a May 24 seminar. It can keep cash in contractors’ pockets and lead to safer, happier workers. 

“From a contractor’s perspective, do you know why I really want to do this?” Stephen Beck, the chief sustainability officer at LeChase Construction Services, LLC, asked his audience. “Because by eliminating waste, I can improve my bottom line. Every dollar I don’t spend in terms of materials not incorporated in the project — you know, materials that I have to pay someone to take away — goes to my bottom line.” LeChase is headquartered in Rochester, but has Central New York offices in Syracuse, Ithaca, and Binghamton.

Beck, who is also LeChase’s director of science and technology and director of its commissioning services group, was the speaker at the seminar. The seminar, titled “Comprehensive Construction Waste Management,” looked at ways to reduce or eliminate wasted materials on the jobsite.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s Upstate Chapter arranged Beck’s presentation, which took place at the headquarters of the structural engineering, landscape architecture, and building science firm Klepper, Hahn & Hyatt at 5710 Commons Park Drive in DeWitt.

Construction activity contributes between 40 percent and 45 percent of all waste being placed in U.S. landfills, Beck said. Transporting building materials to those landfills and dumping it in the ground is an environmental problem, he added.

Then, he mentioned that construction waste is costly.

“That’s what got my management’s attention,” Beck said. “When I started showing them statistics — that we could easily affect a 10 percent reduction in our material costs on a project.”

Two years ago, LeChase established a minimum diversion threshold of 75 percent for all of its projects, according to Beck. In other words, the company diverts at least 75 percent of construction waste from landfills.

Beck recommended setting up a construction waste-management plan. It could include designing to prevent waste, planning to prevent it, and implementing techniques that reduce waste or reuse it on the jobsite. It could also include recycling. 

In broader terms, firms should reduce waste, reuse it, and recycle it, Beck said. Reducing waste is the most efficient, he said.

However, Beck conceded that designing to prevent waste is not always easy, particularly for contractors that aren’t involved in the design process.

“Designing to prevent waste — as a contractor, I can’t do that,” he said. “But I have good friends in the design community, and when we’re engaged in a construction-management relationship, it gives the contractor the ability to work directly with the design professionals.”

One design technique that can help cut down on waste is using standard modules of materials, Beck added.

“We know that drywall comes 4 feet wide,” he said. “It’s 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 feet tall. Well, work on a 2-foot increment. Because if you don’t, you’ve created waste by design.”

When it comes to planning, Beck suggested “just-in-time” delivery, where contractors arrange to limit the amount of material stored at a jobsite.

Such delivery can lead to more efficient work, as crews do not have to move large stocks of material back and forth to clear different areas, Beck said. It can also cut down on damage to materials, from light fixtures to masonry, he continued.

“Every time you handle a material, there’s an increased likelihood that the material’s going to be damaged,” he said. “And there’s an inherent waste there, because you’re wasting human effort, you’re wasting the fuel that’s used in the vehicle to move the material.”

Other waste-management techniques Beck discussed included setting up a central cutting area to encourage workers to reuse salvaged materials and asking vendors to take back pallets.

Those strategies can help keep the jobsite clean and improve workers’ moods, Beck added.

“Tradesmen don’t like to work in an unclean environment,” he said. “It slows them down. It’s a tripping hazard.”