BINGHAMTON — Companies involved in the spring cohort of the Soft Landing New York program finished the session with a three-day, in-person market exploration bootcamp in New York City from April 19-21. The bootcamp coincided with the annual Center for International Business Advancement Global Forum on April 20. The theme of this year’s event was […]
BINGHAMTON — Companies involved in the spring cohort of the Soft Landing New York program finished the session with a three-day, in-person market exploration bootcamp in New York City from April 19-21.
The bootcamp coincided with the annual Center for International Business Advancement Global Forum on April 20. The theme of this year’s event was “Soft Landings and Smart Takeoffs: Driving Innovation and Economic Growth Across Borders.”
Startups from both the fall 2022 and spring 2023 programs were invited to participate in panel discussions, where they could share their experiences with market exploration and customer discovery in the U.S.
“Come prepared with hard questions, different scenarios, and the most open mind you can,” Eric Krohn, director of the business incubation program at the Koffman Incubator, advised at the outset of the spring session. “Give it your all. You will get out of it what you put into it. And as I’ve seen from the last cohort, amazing things happen.”
Soft Landing New York is based at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The Koffman Southern Tier Incubator is located at 120 Hawley St. in Binghamton.
A partnership between Binghamton University and Cornell University, the Soft Landing New York program helps foreign companies evaluate and navigate their way into the U.S. market through programming, mentorship, and student assistance.
In the preceding weeks, program participants embarked on a series of workshops about the U.S. business environment. They also participated in practical bootcamps on both customer discovery for the U.S. market and market entry and go-to-market strategy in the U.S. Participants were also paired with mentors from the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator and student research teams from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Soft Landing New York’s spring 2023 cohort included companies from sectors that included clean energy, food and agriculture, health care, export logistics, fashion, and education.
During an initial Zoom session at the start of the spring session, each participant was invited to give a brief presentation on their company’s product or service, audience, and goals for expansion into the U.S. market.
About the incubator
Opened in 2017, the 35,000-square-foot Koffman Southern Tier Incubator includes offices, high-tech labs, wet labs, dry labs and common areas, as well as co-working spaces that encourage collaboration between companies, per its website.
PARTICIPATING COMPANIES
The companies taking part in the spring cohort included:
- Ireland’s Hub Controls has developed an energy-saving smart thermostat that helps users sell carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market.
- Brazil’s GH Solar allows everyday consumers to independently generate their own renewable energy.
- Italy’s Buzzup is developing sensors and data analytics that track pollination for beekeepers, farmers, researchers, and food producers.
- Egypt’s Carraina has developed a frozen breakfast that satisfies all of the nutritional needs established by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
- Nigeria’s DayDone has developed e-commerce software to help farmers organize, modernize, and optimize their businesses.
- India’s EF Polymer uses food waste to develop a super- absorbent biodegradable polymer that helps farmers save water, reduce fertilizer use, and increase yields.
- Canada’s Hybridyne Health uses AI to create a more accurate and consistent way to diagnose prostate cancer.
- Bulgaria’s Responsa Prevent offers consulting services to make schools and other workplaces safer.
- Guatemala’s Tu Consejeria connects people to app-based mental health services in English and Spanish.
- Canada’s Pash Group is working on a cross-border e-commerce platform that allows people around the world to buy used cars from developed countries.
- Togo’s Togo Cargo has developed an app that helps businesses track shipments, manage inventory, schedule deliveries, and access real-time updates on shipments.
- Uganda’s naRoho trains women to make sustainable handbags, footwear, and other leather items in exchange for fair wages.
- Nigeria’s Univacity is an easy-to-use admissions platform that helps students and recruiters apply to institutes worldwide, making education more accessible across the globe.