The citizens of Egypt and Tunisia have driven unprecedented change in a period of 2 months. This is the type of disruptive change we need in Buffalo. But we don’t need change just for change sake, we need a clear vision for the future of how we are going to resurrect Buffalo from the depths of economic purgatory. So here is a start on a vision to bring about a rebirth of the Queen City.
Small high growth businesses are the life blood of our country they drive innovation, jobs and create wealth. Instead of investing $80 million dollars to develop retail stores on the water front lets invest money to incubate small businesses in Buffalo at a rate never seen before. Business incubators are all over the world from developing countries like Rawanda to high growth economies like Silicon Valley. The idea is to create a community of small start up businesses under one roof where they can share common infrastructure overhead and knowledge. By incubating these businesses and providing a connected culture so that they can share ideas the success rate of these incubated start ups tend to be much higher than if they were on their own.
The BIG Idea
Set up a Buffalo Incubator Group (B.I.G.) on the water front that has a partnership with the leading Western NY universities to monetize new technologies and innovation around three areas that were the original old growth industries for Buffalo that have now since past their prime.
1. From Grain products to Health and Wellness solutions. The empty grain elevators that litter the side of lake Erie are a symbol of how strong Buffalo was in the food industry. The future of food is now at the intersection of food and medicine. What we put into our bodies, how we treat our bodies is just as important to fight a disease as taking a pill or seeing a doctor. Buffalo can be at the forefront of investing in companies that figure out how to solve the growing diabetes and obesity epidemic which left untouched will cause our health care system to bankrupt our country. For context, roughly 86 percent of Americans age 18 and older may be overweight or obese by 2030 and related health care costs would double every decade and could reach $956.9 billion in 2030. Futhermore, 52 percent of Americans will be diabetic or prediabetic by 2020, up from about 40 percent today. Buffalo can be at the forefront of developing food products, technologies and health and wellness solutions that address the growing obesity and diabetic epidemic.
2. From Electric power to alternative energy. New technologies in alternative energies from solar to wind to hydrogen. We can be the leaders in clean alternative energies just like in 1900 we were the leaders in electric power.
3. From heavy steel to alternative materials. Material science is a booming field. Materials like new plastic polymers, fibers made from recycled materials or material that has the strength of steel but the weight of plastic. Just like heavy steel in the 50’s alternative materials are a future high growth industry for Buffalo.
B.I.G. will prosper without government involvement and without government dollars. It will be funded 100% by private investors who will gain equity stakes in each start up.
The naysayers will have reasons as to why it will never work in Buffalo. Lack of talent, lack of ideas, lack of capital to name a few…For which I say…if it happened in Egypt and it happened in Tunisia….Why not us Buffalo?
