Rudin’s career didn’t start in the medical sector. When the pandemic began, she was manufacturing a hemp-blend fabric diaper that Sandy Beck, her mother and the founder of Tidy Tots Diapers, had invented. But when New York State issued a call for help, Rudin answered. What she saw shocked her. Materials that were used as PPE “didn’t look to me like they should work as PPE,” she recalls.

This sparked her deeper investigation into the market for medical isolation gowns, protective garments worn by healthcare workers to prevent exposure to fluids, droplets, and contaminants during patient care. These gowns are made from fluid-resistant or fluid-impermeable materials, come in disposable and reusable forms, and are classified by performance levels.

As people around the world grappled with gravest pandemic since the “Spanish flu” of 1918 – 1920, Rudin learned that medical isolation gowns had remained largely unchanged since the 1960s. She also discovered a system in crisis – and a market that was ripe for reinvention.

Understanding The Problem

Most disposable gowns are made of thin, non-breathable plastic that’s subject to tearing and causes worker discomfort from overheating. Many of these gowns fail basic performance standards such as AAMI PB70, which evaluates liquid barrier performance. The Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI), an independent non-profit organization, found that over half the gowns they tested failed.

Later, the ECRI listed isolation gowns as one of the top four hazards in healthcare. Subsequently, Scientific American and Kaiser Health News reported that disposable gowns were leaking 400% to 1400% more fluid than allowed. Rudin studied this research, but she also performed her own in-depth customer discovery through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) I-Corps program.

Nurses and doctors told her how they felt unsafe. One said they’d “rather be wearing a garbage bag” than their hospital-issued gown. Nearly 90% of registered nurses are women, but most isolation gowns were designed for men. Ill-fitting gowns are uncomfortable, but they’re also less effective for protection. Plus, the thin plastic that’s used requires disposal, a cost that hospitals would prefer to avoid.

Creating a better gown wasn’t just an opportunity. It was also a responsibility. Drawing upon her experience with textiles, Rudin adapted Tidy Tots’ diaper material into a reusable, breathable, lab-certified isolation gown that can withstand 300 industrial washes. “IsoGuardian is a revolutionary product redefining safety, savings, and comfort for medical professionals,” she explains.

Overcoming Adversity and Getting “Explosive” Results

IsoGuardian’s early days weren’t exactly easy. The company contended with a fraudulent lease and a landlord who didn’t really own the building. There were also a series of unfortunate events, including a catastrophic roof failure that flooded the facility, destroying equipment and inventory. Pipes froze. The county condemned the building and locked its doors. Rudin’s team couldn’t even recover their materials. “COVID was a nightmare,” she says.

Yet amid the chaos, she secured small grants, refined her manufacturing process, and developed a proprietary three‑step seam‑construction method. The seam is so advanced that the machine needed to make it doesn’t exist yet. IsoGuardian has since filed patents on both the seam and the process. In overcoming adversity, the company also forged valuable relationships.

After its early struggles, IsoGuardian found a home at the STEAM Garden, a business incubator in Albany, New York with maker spaces. The company also became part of the incubator at Albany Medical Center. There, IsoGuardian learned to navigate the complexities of entering a regulated medical market. A two-week clinical pilot provided what Rudin calls “explosive” results.

IsoGuardian collected 148 surveys about its isolation gown across four departments at Albany Medical Center. Nearly all the respondents said they felt safe while wearing it. Moreover, 91% said the gown was easy to use and 88% said it was comfortable. The strong, positive feedback from the pilot study led to IsoGuardian and Albany Med to bypass the second pilot phase and move towards conversations about potential use on a larger scale.

Connecting with FuzeHub to Scale Growth

IsoGuardian also connected with FuzeHub, the statewide center for the New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NY MEP). In 2024, the company participated in FuzeHub’s prestigious Commercialization Competition, which is part of the Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund. IsoGuardian was awarded $50,000 to scale production and bring its medical isolation gown to market.

In the United States, the market for reusable gowns is valued at over $2B. At FuzeHub’s Commercialization Competition, the judges were impressed by how IsoGuardian’s gown combined a substantial cost savings with superior safety and environmental responsibility. Healthcare providers want innovative solutions, but the startups that create them also need assistance.

“I am a solo entrepreneur,” Rudin explained. “I move mountains, but I would be nowhere without community support – and especially FuzeHub.”

A Gown That Performs Where Others Fail

IsoGuardian’s performance data proves the value of its solution. For example, the gown’s rated water penetration is 0.01 g. That’s time times better than the 0.1 g minimum. Competing reusable gowns can withstand ~1 pound of hydrostatic pressure, but the IsoGuardian gown withstands a whopping 67+ pounds of pressure. It has significantly greater tear and burst strength and is also breathable.

Hospital purchasing departments like the return on investment (ROI). An IsoGuardian gown costs $45, but it lasts for 300 uses. That makes the all in per-use cost just $0.38 to $0.88, depending on the laundering method. By contrast, single-use disposable plastic gowns of the same level cost $1.46 to $2.97 each. For a large hospital system using 60,000 gowns per month, the savings can exceed $100,000 monthly.

The environmental impact is also dramatic. A single IsoGuardian gown can replace 300 disposable plastic products. Over the course of five years, this reduces hospital waste by 65,000 tons. To put that amount in perspective, consider that this projected waste reduction is equivalent to 289 Statues of Liberty by weight and volume.

That’s an appropriate analogy for the Empire State, and Rudin seeks to supply most of New York State’s medical isolation gowns within the next two years. Long-term, she envisions expanding the business into Level 4 gowns, the highest level of protective apparel for healthcare professionals. IsoGuardian is also aiming for FDA Class II medical device compliance for using the gown in surgery.

“We’re laying the foundation of a house we think is going to be massive and long‑standing,” she explains. “It’s not just about today—it’s about tomorrow.”

That unmet demand in 2012 sparked what would become Death Wish Coffee, a brand built on boldness, quality, and the belief that “life is too short to drink bad coffee.”  Since day one, Death Wish Coffee has been proud to caffeinate the masses near and far with the natural energy they need to tackle whatever life throws at them. Today, the company is headquartered in Saratoga Springs and operates a manufacturing facility in nearby Round Lake. Approximately 65 people work at the two upstate New York locations.

Promises Kept

As Master Roaster, Ferreira is responsible for ensuring that the brand keeps its promises. For the past ten years, he’s helped shape the flavor, consistency, and character of every roast that’s produced. He starts work each morning with a fresh cup of coffee and a deep dive into the previous day’s production. That includes tasting every lot of coffee produced.

“Ensuring maximum quality of products out the door, as our loyal customers have come to expect,” is how he describes it. Once all the packaging checks and data reviews are complete, Ferreira shifts to making sure that production teams have the high‑quality raw materials they need to keep operations running smoothly.

Part of what sets Death Wish Coffee apart is its use of robusta beans, an underappreciated species that delivers up to twice the natural caffeine of arabica. Some connoisseurs dismiss robusta for lacking the smoothness and acidity of arabica, but the right sourcing, roasting, and blending creates what Ferreira calls “a lot of depth and body” while delivering the bold flavor profile and natural energy that customers crave

The culture at Death Wish Coffee mirrors the intensity of its product. Ferreira describes the team as “scrappy go‑getters that love to get things done,” fueled by passion and plenty of clean caffeine. Being surrounded by like‑minded people who share that drive brings energy to each day and makes solving new challenges feel exciting rather than daunting.

Organic and Fair Trade Certified

One of those challenges is navigating a global supply chain that’s increasingly unpredictable. Climate swings, logistics disruptions, and geopolitical events can all impact coffee availability. Yet Ferreira credits strong leadership and deep relationships with importers and cooperatives for helping the company maintain quality without compromise.

The company’s commitment to Organic and Fair Trade sourcing fosters stability and long‑term resilience. Organic farming avoids synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which helps maintain soil health and long-term productivity. Fair Trade sourcing builds long-term partnerships between buyers and producers, promoting price stability and reducing volatility.

Every bean that’s used in the company’s everyday roasts meets U.S. Department of Agriculture (UDSA) standards for Organic and is Fair Trade Certified™. This commitment supports distant coffee farmers and their communities in countries that include India and Peru.  As Death Wish Coffee’s packaging puts it: “No decent land? No decent coffee. That’s no way to live.”

Before shipments of “green,” unroasted coffee leave their country of origin, the quality of the beans is carefully checked. There are several rounds of what Ferreira calls “sensory analysis” before the product reaches Death Wish Coffee’s warehouse. “If you do not have a quality raw product, you will never have a quality finished product,” Ferreira explains.

A Bold and Flavorful Future

Among his career accomplishments, Dave Ferreira takes the greatest pride in the roasts and flavors that he’s helped develop over the years. “Seeing the reactions of customers trying something you have created that becomes their new obsession will never cease to amaze me and bring fulfillment to my role,” he says.

As for the future of Death Wish Coffee, Ferreira’s outlook is unmistakably optimistic. “The future is bright!” he explains. With new ideas already in the pipeline, he’s excited to see how Death Wish Coffee continues to evolve while staying true to its bold, flavorful roots and mission to fuel customers’ thirst for life.

CarbonCLAIR is an environmental technology startup based at City College of New York. Its trio of undergraduate founders is developing an energy-efficient, mobile air purification and carbon capture system designed to promote sustainable air quality at construction sites and other hard-to-access settings.

“Our mission was to find a solution to improve air quality in urban areas,” said Fares Al-Lahabi, co-founder of CarbonCLAIR. “The ultimate vision now is to be a very strong name in sustainable construction.”

Student project

Al-Lahabi, now a Civil Engineering student at Manhattan University, met his partners, Elsa Cojab and Nazarena Soria Hadad, in the fall of 2023 when the three were engaged in an apprenticeship program through the City College Initiative to Promote Academic Success in STEM (CIPASS). Their team, which Al-Lahabi led, was charged with identifying a problem and building a prototype solution.

“One street in Harlem is called asthma street because of how poor the air quality is,” Al-Lahabi said. “We wanted to build a solution to that.”

The team also recognized the need to provide an economic incentive for people to use their air filtration device, so they added carbon capture. The CarbonCLAIR Mobile unit collects particulate matter and carbon dioxide emissions in real-time, processing 1100 cubic feet per minute while using only 130 watts of electricity.

“It doesn’t need to be connected to any power grid,” Al-Lahabi said. “The system is so energy efficient it can be run on solar.”

As a result, CarbonCLAIR can be used just about anywhere.

Getting the ball rolling

The success of the CarbonCLAIR prototype showed Al-Lahabi, Cojab, and Hadad just how much commercial potential their device had and set them on the path for a busy and productive 2024 during which they availed themselves of every resource they could.

“The New York State ecosystem for research and development is really strong,” Al-Lahabi said. “It is definitely a factor in how we reached where we are right now. Programs like I-Corps and the Zahn Innovation Center set you up. They make you do customer discovery, they strengthen your business model and so forth. Once you go through that, the ball gets rolling.”

The customer discovery process led Al-Lahabi and his partners to some key contacts, including Mount Sinai Hospital and PurpleAir Inc., a Utah-based purveyor of air quality sensors.

Mount Sinai and CarbonCLAIR are collaborating on a $35,000 pilot program, funded by a National Institutes of Health P-30 grant, to use the CarbonCLAIR mobile unit and air sensors to monitor air quality at 27 households during the construction of a bus depot in Jamaica, Queens. PurpleAir did its part by gifting CarbonCLAIR $3,000 worth of sensors.

Meanwhile, the team was entering and winning competitions and forging ahead with its R&D. In November, one year after creating their mobile unit, they presented the latest version at the FuzeHub-sponsored New York State Innovation Summit.

Preparing to graduate

As 2024 drew to a close, CarbonCLAIR applied for several initiatives, and so far, has enrolled in seven of them, including the national I-Corps and programs aimed at scaling and commercializing technology.

The company has been nominated for New York City EDC Founders’ Fellowship, which could mean a year of free lab space at a new lab in Brooklyn. In addition, CarbonClair has been asked to submit a proposal as a finalist for a $30,000 pilot project on Governor’s Island.

“The hope is that by the end of 2025 we will have launched two pilot programs and collected data from these,” Al-Lahabi said.

The company then plans to return to the Innovation Summit—this time as a participant in the Commercialization Competition. Al-Lahabi said the many conversations he has had with folks at FuzeHub have given him the knowledge and confidence to keep going.

These conversations also helped him make a decision. He will graduate from Manhattan University in May 2026, and will then devote himself to CarbonCLAIR full time.

“And from there we take it further and fly.”

“We thought it was a great opportunity to make a product that would be highly beneficial for people and because it is upcycled, it is also great for the environment,” said Amber Adams, co-founder of Geneva-based Stil-Bène. “So, you have this double win.”

Planting seeds

Adams started her professional life far from food manufacturing, as a sound engineer on Broadway. After 10 years, the “brutal” hours were starting to wear on her, and she left that career to form Siena Development with partner John Zuccarello. Siena provides product development services to food and beverage manufacturers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups. Adams and Zuccarello honed their skills in taking foods and beverages from formulation to distribution, but did not yet have a product of their own.

That changed when they met Dr. Elad Tako, Associate Professor of Food Science at Cornell, through the university’s Food Development Department Industry Partnership program. Tako was doing research into the stilbenes in grape pomace and their impact on digestive health. The partners were fascinated by the idea and saw an opportunity to keep grape pomace out of landfills, where it decomposes and creates greenhouse gases.

“We’d found something we were excited about,” Adams said. “So, we formed a company and created this product.”

Heard it through the grapevine

The trio of Tako, Adams, and Zuccarello named their new company Stil-Bène in recognition of the organic compounds at the heart of Tako’s research but stylized to include the word bène, which means “good” or “well” in Italian. They named their product, which contains not only grape pomace but a variety of gut-supportive vitamins and minerals, GR8PE (pronounced like the fruit) to denote its eight health benefits.

The two-year-old company is preparing for a soft launch, with the first shipments of GR8PE scheduled to take place by the end of October, 2024. It has developed two regular flavors—grape and neutral—and a limited-edition dragon fruit variety while supplies last. The products are available for pre-order on the Stil-Bène website.

Although most marketing has come through word of mouth and a bit of social media, GR8PE has been getting noticed. Last year, it was a finalist for both Grow-NY and the FuzeHub Commercialization Competition and in late 2022 took the grand prize in the first New York Concord Grape Innovation Awards.

This all happened at about the same time the company was engaged in its first procurement of pomace from the Finger Lakes region, something it can do only once a year when vineyards are harvesting and pressing.

“Since it was our first harvest, we were also getting our processes set up,” Adams said. “So, we were trying to do all of this at the same time on a very condensed timeline. That was a challenge.”

Growing plans

Currently, the company outsources its production; however, future plans call for a single facility where it can handle everything from in-house processing to distribution.

Adams also envisions a future in which other food and beverage companies use GR8PE as an ingredient.

“Since we developed the technology to neutralize the grape taste it makes it very simple to incorporate into other products,” she said.

On the sales front, the company plans to eventually begin selling on Amazon, and then possibly in health and wellness centers. It is working with the proper authorities to ensure its health claims can be backed by scientific data. Once GR8PE becomes more established, the company will approach well-known chains such as GNC.

Endicott Coil Co. (ECC) is a Binghamton-based supplier of coils, transformers, and inductors for a variety of markets, including medical, nuclear, and defense. The family-owned company is celebrating its 70^th birthday this year, with a story that reflects the history of the Southern Tier and proves ECC to be a model of both resilience and consistency.

“This company has gone through some tougher times,” said President Ralph Coon. “But the owners are very committed to the Southern Tier, honoring the legacy their parents invested in and making sure it continues well into the future.”

Building on relationships

ECC was born as an offshoot of IBM and was originally contracted to make reed relay coils for circuit boards. This close collaboration lasted more than a decade, as both companies grew.

Exact dates are unknown, but at some point early on, ECC’s founder retired, and Abe Piaker, an accountant renting office space at ECC’s plant, along with his brother Phil, agreed to purchase the company and take over its leadership. Ownership is now in the hands of their descendants, along with members of the Smyk, Becker, Jackson, and Foldes families, most of whom still call the Southern Tier home.

Over the years, ECC has diversified its client base, products and capabilities. Today it is a multi-faceted supplier that works closely with customers to design and build parts that meet niche needs. “We fill all those little holes in your product showcase where people might not want to play,” Coon said.

Coon joined ECC a year ago, bringing three decades of industrial experience. He “cut his teeth” at GE, he says, but found himself gravitating toward environments, like ECC, that allow for a more personal touch. ECC employs about 70 people, and he knows everyone by name.

“That is how I like to manage things,” he said.

A forced evolution

ECC’s progression from a sub-supplier for IBM to a main supplier for a client list that includes SpaceX, Parker, Valcor and Westinghouse was something of a “forced evolution,” Coon said. In its early days, the company operated by selling large numbers of lower-priced components.

“What they looked for back then was ‘give me more volume and I’ll keep turning out widgets,’” he said. “But we all know the story. In the late ’80s and early ’90s it became a race to the bottom in pricing. IBM was divesting out of the area, which created turmoil both in the community and the product line. The pressures made them rethink who they were as a company.”

The result was a shift from high-volume, commoditized items to “high-mix low-volume” manufacturing where ECC could differentiate itself as a highly responsive, value-added supplier.

“Ultimately, our quality is focused on being there to support in the design, in the first pieces, in the R&D,” Coon said. “We’re there at the production level and you can count on us for short lead times and quality parts when you need them.”

The company still makes some commoditized components but has shifted much of that work to an exclusive manufacturing partner. It will manage that process for clients who want lower costs and are willing to accept a longer lead time.

“We’re a one-stop shop.” Coon said. “It is part of protecting the business you have while you’re trying to grow in other ways.”

New Horizons

Over the years, ECC’s resilience has been tested not only by economic challenges but by rapid changes in technology, most notably the shift from coils to solid-state boards.

“There is a break point somewhere in the product life cycle where it goes obsolete because the product is not tech-forward any longer,” Coon said. “We’ve lost six-figure accounts at the drop of a hat. That doesn’t mean we don’t have opportunities in those products. It means you’re back at the start of the life cycle where you must make a new design, prove it out, make sure you’re the preferred vendor, all those good things.”

Coon envisions a future in which ECC continues to focus on those niche products with “fairly low volume, complexity and a need for precision” while also growing vertically.

“We will probably move away from coils into sub-supply, sub-assembly of small boards and simple control units,” he said. “We think that is a good avenue to grow some value. Most of our clients use those, and they are part of what we design for, so we understand them. There is a good possibility we will move in that direction to expand our horizons.”

Education and Internships

“I took in-depth tours of several upstate New York manufacturing facilities through that program,” Handy says of his experience with Otsego Northern Catskills (ONC) BOCES, which provides shared educational programs to school districts in Delaware, Greene, Otsego, and Schoharie counties. These in-depth tours “piqued my interest in manufacturing,” Handy explains. “There’s something special about taking a raw material and seeing a finished product at the end,” he adds.

After graduating from Sharon Springs Central School, Handy attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts. At WPI, he studied aerospace engineering and led projects in the Surface Metrology Lab, which he also managed for two years. He also interned at Integrated Liner Technologies in Rensselaer and at Temper Corporation in Fonda, New York. Temper is a leading manufacturer of custom rings, seals, and spacers for aerospace and other industries.

From Employee to Entrepreneur

Handy’s internship led to an offer of employment, and he worked for Temper as a design engineer for five years. During this time, he re-connected with Kline and co-founded the prototyping business that bears both their names. When full-time entrepreneurship called, Handy answered. Today, he and Kline work out of garages in Sharon Springs and Norwich, New York. The company’s expertise is engineering thermoplastics, but Handykline Prototyping also works with composite materials.

Handykline’s 3D printing services cover four technologies: fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS), and multi jet fusion (MJF). Critics might dismiss FDM and SLA as desktop technologies for hobbyists, but Handykline uses advanced post-processing techniques to achieve tolerances and surface finishes that are acceptable in several industrial applications. Depending on the material, parts sizes can range from 11.1 x 14.9 x 14.9 inches to 24.6 x 19.2 x 17.9 inches (HWD).

3D Printing Capabilities

Handykline uses FDM to create 3D objects from popular thermoplastics such as PLA, TPU, ABS, and PETG. The company also uses SLA with various resins. FDM can achieve tolerances of +/- .008 inches, and SLA supports tolerances of +/- .004 inches. Depending on part geometry, FDM’s layer thicknesses range from .004 to .016 inches. Vapor smoothing or plating is used to improve a part’s surface finish. With SLA, layer thickness ranges between a smooth .001 to .012 inches.

SLS 3D printing is used with nylon-based materials and thermoplastics while MJF is for nylon-based polymers. SLS can achieve tolerances of +/- .010 inches, a layer thickness of about .004 inches, and a surface finish between 65 to 100um that uses bead blasting, vapor smoothing, or plating. MJF supports tolerances of +/- .012 inches, layer thicknesses of about .004 inches, and a surface finish of about 65 to 100um using the same post-processing methods.

Growth Services

Today, Handykline’s customers include a large healthcare company, local machine shops, and other manufacturers. Recent projects include functional prototypes and tooling. The Sharon Springs startup can also leverage metal 3D printing and is planning to launch 3D scanning services and non-destructive quality testing later this year. “By leveraging other modes of manufacturing as well as some software integrations, my goal is to grow Handykline into a comprehensive cloud manufacturer and solutions provider,” Handy says.

When Handy contacted FuzeHub for assistance recently, he took another important step in building the business. FuzeHub connected Handy to the Advanced Institute for Manufacturing (AIM), the Mohawk Valley’s New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NY MEP) center. With assistance from AIM, the company is pursuing ISO 9001, AS9100, and CMMC certifications. Handykline is also looking to grow out of its garage environment, but while staying in the Mohawk Valley.

“It’s my home and it’s Connor’s home,” Handy says. “We don’t plan on leaving it.”

Ashlawn Energy LLC is the Binghamton-based developer of the VanCharg™ system, a rechargeable battery providing multifamily residences and commercial office buildings with safe, cost-effective energy.

Norma Byron, President of Ashlawn, said the company’s vanadium redox flow battery is a “cousin” to the hydrogen fuel cell but uses a liquid electrolyte. It charges during off-peak hours, taking power from any electrical source, and stores that energy for use during peak hours. The battery lasts up to 30 years and, because it is water-based, will never catch fire.

Ashlawn currently is focusing on the New York City market because of a new greenhouse gas emissions law, utility programs, FDNY policy, and the sheer number of buildings there. The company plans to use its 2023 Commercialization Competition prize to purchase equipment to ramp up production.

“I am not a techie.”

Ashlawn got its start in Ohio, in 2008. Byron had been working in the defense industry, where she studied fuel cells as a power source for munitions. She became interest in green energy and in keeping electricity flowing when the sun wasn’t shining, or the wind wasn’t blowing.

“I am not a techie,” Byron said. “I have no technical background whatsoever. What I do bring is business knowledge.”

The idea, therefore, was to leverage existing technology. A friend suggested the vanadium redox flow battery because of its long-life and safety record.

“I looked into it and decided it was something I should be doing,” she said. “I contacted the original inventor, in Australia, and got a licensing agreement.”

That agreement has since expired but was enough to get Ashlawn a Department of Energy grant to fund its initial research. The company was working with a utility, but Byron decided that was not the best way to go.

“When I started looking at what kind of market to develop, we determined buildings were the best place to look,” she said. “It took a long time to figure all this out. In the meantime, we filed five patents and developed five prototypes.”

Welcome to New York

In 2019, Ashlawn took up residence in the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator at Binghamton University.

“We initially were doing testing there, but we have moved into a bigger space, and we’re augmenting that to do battery assembly,” Byron said. “So, we’re making fast progress, but that is after many years of not-so-fast progress.”

The $150,000 Commercialization Competition award will fund the purchase of a stack assembly press.

“When we’ve done battery assembly before it was a few people doing it manually,” Byron said. “By automating the process we can reduce assembly from a week to a day and remove any guesswork.”

Ashlawn relies on interns, consultants, and contract workers, but once the new equipment is in place “we will definitely be hiring,” Byron said. “Probably two assembly workers to start, then an engineer and we’ll go from there. I can see adding QC (quality control) people.”

Moving to automated assembly required new CAD drawings, so Ashlawn turned to AMT, the New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership center for the Southern Tier, for funding to work with the Rochester Institute of Technology. Byron also is working with AMT on a project involving endplate designs.

“They have really helped us,” Byron said. “We’ve also worked with Rev Ithaca Startup Works and did market research through the NSF’s I-Corps program.”

Focus on the Future

I-Corps was key in helping Byron define her market. At first, she was excited about everything VanCharg™ could do.

“What I learned is that it doesn’t matter what it can do, if you focus on everything, you’re not going to focus on anything,” she said. “I think that advice has been critical to our success to this point. We chose a path and we stuck with it.”

That path led directly to New York City. But it will not end there.

“A lot of cities look to New York to be a leader and then they are happy to follow along,” Byron said. “So, in five years we want to be in at least two more cities.”

“Once we have production up and running,” Tessa says, “we have big plans.”

A Non-Conventional Career Path

Tessa grew up in Orange County, New York until her family relocated to the greater Philadelphia area, where she attended high school and then college. As an undergraduate, she networked her way into a human resources job with a Fortune 500 company, where she worked for six years. A Fortune 100 company recruited and hired her into its informal HR executive leadership training track, where Tessa realized her passion for business and employment law. The company created an Employment Law Specialist role for her in its legal department, and she supported attorneys and HR functions by day and attended Widener University, Delaware School of Law at night.

Tessa graduated from Widener Law in 2013 and was admitted to the New York and Massachusetts bars. She helped domestic violence survivors in Boston, then took an eight-month sabbatical in Israel. When she returned to the U.S., Tessa was recruited by an international law firm to work with a former judge opening its Binghamton office. Her non-traditional career includes a stint as a Confidential Law Clerk to a Supreme Court Justice before she founded The Law Office of Theresa M Levine, P.C., where her practice includes advising small business owners on business and employment law issues, litigation, and ending domestic violence. She describes her move to the Southern Tier as “one of the greatest strokes of fortune” in her life and continues to “love the Binghamton area for its welcomeness.”

Tessa’s law firm connected her closely with the local startup community. Eric Krohn, Director of Business Incubation Programming at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, occasionally offers what Tessa calls “less traditional business referrals” to her firm. One such referral was the founder of eHempHouse Corp (now doing business as Ag-e-Gen under Tessa’s leadership). Andrew “Andy” Neal, now Chief Technology Officer (CTO), recruited Tessa for the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position. Andy holds several patents for energy-efficient inventions and has two approved patent control treaty (PCT) applications covering his work with Ag-e-Gen. Tessa says she enjoys being “surrounded by brilliant people” and advises that “you have to not be afraid to join in.”

Leveraging University Assets

As part of Ag-e-Gen’s growth strategy, Tessa has forged connections with several prestigious universities, including Cornell, Columbia, and Clarkson. The NYS Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture at Cornell AgriTech Center, through its Executive Director, Cathy Young, introduced Tessa to Daniela Vergara, Ph.D., who now holds a seat on Ag-e-Gen’s board of advisors and brings a background in Genomics, Statistics, and Evolutionary Biology that have been a huge asset to the growing company. Columbia University’s Executives in Residence (EIR) program connected Tessa with Joe Dickson, a seasoned executive with a background in clean energy and the dairy industry. Joe’s connection with Barbland Dairy in Fabius, New York has created an opportunity for the company to field test and demonstrate The Farmer’s Log.

Turning Waste into Value

Today, Ag-e-Gen is developing the world’s first mobile biological waste-to-biochar conversion system. Biochar, a human-made carbon that is similar to charcoal, is produced by pyrolyzing (oxygen-deprived, high-heat combustion) organic waste. Biochar sequesters carbon, which can be incorporated into the soil to multiple advantages. Carbon sequestration, the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide, is cited by the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) as a way to reduce global climate change, and soils that are enriched with biochar support the healthy colonization of beneficial microbes. In turn, this supports plant health and helps to prevent runoff that can cause algae blooms. Healthy soil also offers increased nutrient bioavailability to crops and keeps water in the ground and available to root systems instead of running off.

Ag-e-Gen is also talking to food waste companies and piloting a program to convert hemp waste into what Tessa calls “green oil.” This liquid isn’t digestible, but Tessa believes chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that makes it difficult for humans to digest, can be filtered to produce what she calls “full-spectrum cannabinoids without any chemical processing.” Cannabinoids are a class of chemical compounds that include cannabidiol (CBD), which medical studies suggest can be used to reduce pain and inflammation. From cows to crops to CBD, the Ag-e-Gen family of companies is getting ready for great things under Tessa’s leadership.

Powerful Partnerships

 
If Brian Bischoff’s name sounds familiar, it might be that you remember him as a co-founder of Innosek, which partnered with UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on a FuzeHub Manufacturing Grant in 2020. Innosek continues to provide innovative additive manufacturing services, but Bischoff became even more intrigued with an idea from one of the UB professors that he’d collaborated with.

In a separate project, Bischoff then worked with Professor Shenqiang Ren of UB’s Department of Chemistry on conductive copper inks. In addition to medical wearables and flexible electronics, applications for copper-based inks include radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags, antennas, shielding against electromagnetic interference (EMI), solar panels, and heated seats in cars.

Conductive silver inks can be used in many of the same applications, but customer discovery revealed a significant marketplace need for an alternative. UB invited Bischoff to license its technology, and Copprium’s conductive copper inks are now patent-pending. Today, Bischoff says, “We have a really good pipeline of potential customers” and will be ready to make and sell products soon.

In part, that’s because UB’s Department of Chemistry partnered with Copprium on a FuzeHub Manufacturing Grant for a manufacturing scale-up. Although there are New York State companies that have won multiple FuzeHub awards, Brian Bischoff may be the only person to enjoy the R&D benefits of two different FuzeHub Manufacturing Grants at two different companies.

Conductive Copper Inks

 
Today, the market for all conductive inks is $4B per year. Silver inks make up 70% of that market, but silver is a precious metal that’s subject to considerable price volatility. By contrast, the price of copper has remained relatively stable over the last 10 years. The form-in-place product that Copprium is preparing to sell can be applied to flexible substrates and offers important performance advantages.

For example, Copprium’s conductive copper inks are solderable but silver inks are not. That’s important in the electronics industry, where soldering is used to bond components and provide electrical connections. Unlike silver inks, Copprium’s conductive copper inks are also capable of sintering, a thermal process that causes liquid to solidify, at low temperatures.

In addition, Copprium’s copper-based inks resist corrosion and oxidation. Plus, they’re compatible with traditional equipment for screen printing, direct writing, aerosol jetting, and related printing technologies. Because these inks can be used in a non-inert environment, the presence of reactive gases won’t produce chemical reactions. They’re also shelf-stable and shippable at ambient temperatures.

Checking All the Boxes

 
“We check all of the boxes,” Bischoff says of Copprium’s products. He could easily say the same of his own professional career. After graduating from UB with a degree in industrial engineering, Bischoff worked for Sumitomo Rubber USA, which makes tires at a former Goodyear facility in Buffalo. Bischoff then left Sumitomo to work as an engineering manager for another firm while he started Innosek.

Today, he’s back at Sumitomo as an off-shift maintenance supervisor and engineer. When he’s not managing all of the plant’s electrical and mechanical requirements, he runs Copprium from a UB-owned satellite building. The heavy-duty schedule leaves him time to “sleep on the weekends”, he jokes, but understanding how big manufacturing lines work will benefit his business.

Buffalo Business First has named Brian Bischoff to its 30 Under 30 List, and he’s served as a Board Member of the Buffalo Niagara Manufacturing Alliance and as a part-time Additive Manufacturing Instructor for the Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology. For other inventors and entrepreneurs, Bischoff offers the following advice. “Every roadblock is not a stopping point,” he says. “Keep on pushing and learning.”

“There is a big shift in Energy Star guidelines and there will be similar shift in building codes that will drive a push toward triple-pane equivalent products,” said John Costa, CEO of SunThru. “That is the problem we are addressing by working with customers to insert aerogels between two panes of glass.”

Early Days

As a Mechanical Engineering major at Union, Costa spent a lot of time in the aerogel lab with his good friend, Adam Forti.  They were so engaged in their work with professors Ann Anderson and Mary Carroll that they kept a hammock in the lab for naps.

When they graduated, Costa went into the pizza business with his father but kept in close touch with Forti. The two decided to get into business together, using Forti’s idea for aerogel insulation. They took their plans to Anderson and Carroll, who had started SunThru to leverage the aerogel manufacturing process they had invented years earlier. The professors were impressed and invited their former students to join the company in January 2020.

The new team applied for a National Science Foundation Phase 1 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant and received $256,000. It also gained entry into NSF’s I-Corps customer discovery program.

“That program is phenomenal,” Costa said. “We did about 200 interviews in six weeks with people throughout our industry and learned a lot about windows.”

Unfortunately, potential customers disliked the translucent aerogel inserts they were shown. Using the NSF grant, the team engaged the Union lab in coming up with transparent aerogels. In three months, it did.

“That was a major turning point for us,” Costa said. “We developed a plan on how we would go about scaling from there.”

Growing Panes

With Union’s technology, SunThru was limited to 5” by 5” aerogels.  The next logical step was 14” by 20.” SunThru searched for the right equipment, but soon realized it would have to build its own machine. The company pitched its plan for the Supercritical Oven for Monolith Aerogels, or SOMA, to FuzeHub and won the 2021 Commercialization Competition and a $50,000 prize.

SunThru then spent 2022 building SOMA, with the help of a consultant hired thanks to NYSERDA’s Manufacturing Expertise-in-Residence (MEIR) grant program.  Costa said that would not have happened without FuzeHub’s support.

“There are a lot of parts to making it all come together,” Costa said. “Now we’ve got this device that does exactly what we want it to do. We have not made a perfect 20” by 14” aerogel, but we are fairly confident we will get there in the coming months.”

Once it has hit that milestone, it plans to build a second-generation SOMA at a cost of about $1 million. This version will be scalable to allow SunThru to create incrementally larger aerogels with the goal of eventually reaching 5’ by 10’.

Seeing the future

SunThru’s long-term plan is to sell its products to residential glass manufacturers who would insert them between double-paned windows. In turn, these windows would be sold to companies like Anderson Windows & Doors and Pella.  The company expects demand for its aerogels to grow as stricter energy efficiency requirements take hold.

“In five to 10 years, we hope to be in most window products in the Northern climate zones in US,” Costa said.