Startup Grind ROC

07/02/2025

Great night with so many entrepreneurs and creatives!

04/12/2024

Join your fellow startup and tech community members to celebrate the end of the Flower City AI conference and the end of another amazing year!

Our mission is to give startups everywhere the education and opportunities they need to build, grow, and scale their companies. Startup Grind realizes many bootstrapped and early stage startups can be 1 person teams or don’t have the opportunity to throw a lavish holiday party, so we wanted to get the community together in more-is-better fashion! Catch up and share your accomplishments with founders, creatives, devs, investors and the rest of our supportive community.

ENJOY FLOWER CITY AI

Get your tickets to the Flower City AI Conference here. Flower City Conference attendees will have free admission to the afterparty.

OUR VALUES

We believe in making friends, not contacts.

We believe in giving first, not taking.

We believe in helping others before helping yourself.

08/10/2024

Join the Startup Grind Rochester team for a special event in partnership with GrowNY! Celebrate this years finalists, meet and mingle with teams, mentors, and Startup Insiders across our broad community.

This event is a casual evening of networking to connect our incredible startup ecosystems across Upstate NY and beyond - as we welcome GrowNY Finalist teams from all around the world!

12/09/2024

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MONTH

Let’s see what’s new in the world of AI with our best and brightest AI startups pitching this month!

A Pitch In is an event where anyone can pitch their startup to the crowd and the crowd gives feedback. This event will focus on local startups looking for awareness and feedback.

AGENDA
5:30pm - Meet and greet
6:00pm - Pitches
6:45pm - W**e hour

PITCH FORMAT

Startup Pitch - 10 minutes
Open Q&A - 5 minutes

MEET THE FOUNDERS

Carolyn Spencer & Chad - CoPivot | Each year 1M+ businesses are started in the United States, and by their second year 20% fail. We want to change that statistic. CoPivot was specifically developed for curious, driven, and motivated - often overlooked - founders to guide their business-building journey. We have been through their experience and can empathize with their challenges. Request early access here.

Nikhil Shah - MARCIE | The US book industry made almost $30B in 2022. Print dominates, while ebooks (9%) and audio (10%) are on the rise. Yet, writers incomes have shrunk. MARCIE is a platform designed to help writers save time and money, so they can do more of what they love. Write! Meet Nikhil here.

Max Irwin - Max.io | Max knows a lot about AI. He event hosts the Flower City AI conference here in Rochester. Here about the latest and greatest in the world for AI from Max. Meet Max here

Your support helps our team run these events! Startup Grind Rochester is a volunteer-led community organization. We operate the Pitch In events free of charge, however, if you would like to support our community and help us grow please consider one of the paid ticket options! Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all soon!

08/09/2024

10/06/2024

A Pitch In is an event where anyone can pitch their startup to the crowd and the crowd gives feedback. This event will focus on local startups looking for awareness and feedback.

Join Lindsay Ward and the Small Business Development Center of Brockport to see some of their amazing founders pitch. Learn more about how the SBDC Brockport has helped founder with over $250M in investment and create +9000 jobs here or contact Lindsay here or visit them in person here.

AGENDA
5:30pm - Meet and greet
6:00pm - Pitches
6:45pm - Cocktail hour

PITCH FORMAT
Startup Pitch - 10 minutes
Open Q&A - 5 minutes

MEET THE STARTUPS

Country Luxe Co. | Sophie & Andrew (Co-founders) - Country Luxe Co. is a premium hand poured coconut soy candle company based in Newark, NY. Uniquely custom blend and hand pour products, such as candles, wax melts, and deodorizing room sprays. Brining you the simplicity scents of the country with a luxurious feel. In hopes that when our customers receive their products, it’s reflected in every way.

“Country Living Never Smelled So Good”

Unw**e’d | Jim Muir (Founder) - At Unw**e’d, we offer more than just a drink. It’s a focus on YOUR experience – our goal is to help you kick back, relax, and make memories with family and friends while enjoying w**es differently than ever before. Unw**e’d is Rochester’s first interactive w**e experience nestled in the heart of the historic midtown district in downtown Rochester, NY.

Rock Paper Straws | Karrie Laughton (Founder) - Together we can help keep our environment clean. One straw at a time.