Entrepreneurial momentum has been hard to miss this fall. Springboard’s Entrepreneurial Huddle aligned with the Buffalo Bills’ home opener, turning game day into a gathering point for the region supporters and founders. Luminate NY in Rochester awarded a combined $2 million dollars to its ninth cohort of photonics companies at the intersection of optics, health and bio-manufacturing. The Central New York Biotech Accelerator through Upstate Medical University awarded the third Alan W. Rothschild Innovation Award in honor of Rothschild’s creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and to provide support to startups who demonstrate excellence in biotech innovation.

43North wrapped up its final cohort, awarding $5 million to five companies, including Health-centric tech start-ups and New York State’s Innovation Summit, coming up October 27-28, 2026 will bring deep tech innovations from all over the state to one spectacular showcase. .

To bring biotech into the conversation, NewYorkBIO partners with regional leaders to host Mini Pitch Days that built to help early-stage life science founders turn that science into investable companies, and to put them in the same rooms where the region’s broader innovation story is being told.

NewYorkBIO Mini Pitch Day

On September 10, nine early-stage life science companies participated in NewYorkBIO’s second annual Buffalo Mini Pitch Day, co-hosted with University at Buffalo’s Business and Entrepreneurship Partners team. Participating companies came from UB’s Incubator program, regional partnerships, and downstate:

  • Immunotolerx — Ernest Smith, CEO
  • Meditati — William Mangione, Founder & CEO
  • Neurovascular Diagnostics — Kerry Poppenberg, CSO
  • NexOnco.AI — Karla Paniagua
  • POP Biotechnologies — Jonathan Lovell, CEO
  • Sensible Vascular — Kevin Macwan, CEO
  • Amedea Pharma — Tim Mikhelashvili, CEO
  • Axenica Bioscience — Naveen Bangia, CEO and Kelly Cycon, CSO
  • BiRed Imaging — Carlos Gutierrez, CTO

Investors, fellow founders, and ecosystem leaders convened at the University at Buffalo’s Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences to hear ten-minute pitches followed by real-time feedback from judges with deep industry expertise in therapeutics, device and health tech including Labcorp, Egret Healthcare Ventures, DevicePoint, Excell Partners, and Haima Therapeutics.

 Before the Pitch: Building Confidence and Network

In the weeks leading up to the event, every company was matched with a mentor from NewYorkBIO’s network of biotech executives, founders, and regulatory experts. As mentors, they support the fellows by reading the decks closely, questioning the assumptions underneath them, and coaching participants on how to tell their story succinctly. Teams had the option to gain a second look from Science Branding Communications (SBC) to sharpen the science for an efficient pitch. That preparation showed, with some companies sharing that their mentorship rounds changed not just the deck but how they talk about the company.

The judges’ constructive critiques were specific, experienced, and delivered while the decks were still on the screen, building upon the mentorship foundation. Participating founders noted this as the most valuable part of the day. After assessing scores and quick deliberations, the judges selected three teams as the top pitches who earned free access to NewYorkBIO’s Innovation Summit: Immunotolerx, Neurovascular Diagnostics, and Sensible Vascular.

Beyond the Pitch: Cultivating Connections

The reception that followed was just as valuable as the pitches themselves. Founders left with new collaborations underway — with judges, with mentors who stayed engaged past their formal commitment, with investors in the audience, and with ecosystem leaders from across New York state. Participants were clear that they came for more than a pitch. What they were after was fundraising momentum, advisory relationships, continued mentorship, and visibility inside the New York life sciences ecosystem. Mini Pitch Days are building blocks NewYorkBIO leverages to connect founders to the people who can help them scale.