Troy, NY – Uncle Sam’s Original Home

When I lived in Boston in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I got to know John Miller through Young Entrepreneurs Organization. We were both in the Boston chapter and in the same forum group. It was a powerful time in both of our lives as we were each running our first company at the time. Now, 20+ years later, we are each deeply involved in creating a startup community where we live. John’s spending his time these days in Troy and his story of what’s happening there right now follows.

Troy, NY is beginning its renaissance; a great city of the past uniquely poised for the future. It has grand architecture befitting one of the richest cities in the country in its heyday. Uncle Sam is ‘the’ iconic symbol of American patriotism and is a Troy native. Troy is home to historic schools such as RPI. Many movies have been filmed here due to the architecture. Troy is one of the beautiful cities along the Hudson River. Where else can you see bald eagles flying around from your office window.

You can feel the energy in the air. Something exceptional is happening here. It is not just the revitalized downtown and a booming tech and gaming industry that make this area on the Hudson river ready for its second coming. It is individuals and local companies at the center of this rally. Yes it is home to top gaming companies including Vicarious Visions, 1st Playables and Agora Games. What else makes this special? It is the massive grassroots support for growing an entrepreneurial ecosystem. When someone in the community needs help the others are there. Dozens of people and companies are giving freely of their time and resources to make Startup Weekend and GrandSlam Alley a success. Both these efforts are something the whole community is rallying around.

GrandSlam Alley is a business accelerator in the heart of downtown Troy run by full time entrepreneurs and business people. We have the focused goal of growing prosperous businesses, creating jobs and making this area the gaming capital of the world. We are just opening our doors and we have already seen dozens of local companies interested in becoming part of GrandSlam Alley. We won’t let companies settle in for the long haul – we help you set milestones that will either prove out your business model quickly or shut you down and out you go. Move forward or fail fast and try something else. We hope to find the next Zynga – but our core goal is to grow small companies into thriving businesses that contribute to the local ecosystem. We are confident that we can do this repeatedly with the continued support of our business community as well as the local Government agencies. Local universities and accelerators as well as the upstate venture funds have all shown a keen interest in working together to foster upstate entrepreneurship.

The Capital District is just a short and beautiful train ride from NY City. It is a great place to raise children and have a balanced family life. The cost of just about everything is less up here than in ‘the city’. We have growing Nano and Biotech industries and excellent universities that feed them including Albany State, Sienna, Skidmore, Russell Sage, Union, and RPI. We will never be Silicon Valley but we can and will grow successful companies and build out a great entrepreneurial ecosystem.