After successful summit, no mistaking Island’s identity

By GREGORY ZELLER //

Investors know all about New York City. Silicon Valley’s ROI potential is preceded by its sterling reputation. Anchored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge’s Kendall Square – a biotech hotbed boasting hundreds of startups and a massive venture-capital presence – has been called “the most innovative square mile on Earth.”

So, what about Long Island?

Nassau and Suffolk counties are blessed with topflight resources for scientists and entrepreneurs including national laboratories, world-class universities and startup support networks intent on commercializing breathtaking breakthroughs in medicine, clean energy and other 21st Century industries. The only thing Long Island lacks is an identity – a regional status that presents the Island as a single venture-rich mecca to outside investors.

Giving LI that standout cred is Accelerate Long Island’s primary mission – executed in fine form June 11 at the Long Island Marriott in Uniondale, where the nonprofit business booster gathered the Island’s best and brightest academicians, scientists and business leaders for the first-ever Long Island Tech & Innovation Summit.

Featuring top brass from Stony Brook University, Hofstra University, the New York Institute of Technology and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory – along with dozens of regional researchers and entrepreneurs and a who’s-who of well-known angel investors – the inaugural summit aimed to put an investor-friendly face with the “Long Island” name.

While specifically showcasing up-and-coming innovators like SWFT Labs (an East Setauket-based biotech with close ties to SBU) and Pupfish Sustainability Solutions (a Hauppauge-based e-recycling specialist), the summit shined a bright spotlight on “the many different segments within Long Island’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” according to Accelerate Long Island Vice Chairman David Calone.

“When you look at Long Island as a whole, we have a lot of great strengths that complement each other,” noted Calone, also CEO of East Setauket-based VC firm Jove Equity Partners. “Presenting them as one whole, as one exciting region investors should want to come to … it definitely helps give us strength in numbers and strength in the diversification that we have on Long Island.”

The strength and diversification were reflected in several university-based programs manning tables at the event, including New York Tech’s Entrepreneurship & Technology Innovation Center and Sunrise Technology, which leverages resources at SBU’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology to customize machine-learning solutions.

Several Hofstra-based programs were also in attendance, running up the Hempstead-based university’s flag and doing their part to promote Long Island as “a center of startup culture,” according to Hofstra University President Susan Poser.

“The best thing for Long Island right now is for us to all collaborate together,” Poser noted. “We have all the elements we need – we have business and education and agriculture and all kinds of opportunity for innovation.

“But there’s no way to do it without [collaboration],” she added. “It takes a lot of different elements, and what Accelerate Long Island is trying to do today is bring those elements together.”

Andrea Goldsmith, Poser’s counterpart at SBU, agreed that “igniting Long Island as a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship” is an important goal.

“[Long Island] has the students, the research and the state-of-the-art knowledge that leads to new technologies, new medicines, new science … and all of that is the foundation of new startups,” the SBU president said. “And we will continue to seed the ideas that will keep those companies at the forefront of innovation.

“I think that, collectively, we need to raise the visibility of Long Island as a place for investors to look at, and a place where their investments can reap tremendous benefits,” Goldsmith added. “I think investors don’t know much about Long Island, and that’s something we need to fix by telling our stories collectively.

“And the more we raise Long Island’s visibility … the more investors will look to Long Island as a compelling place to invest.”

New York Institute of Technology President Jerry Balentine – who joined Poser, Goldsmith and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory President and CEO Bruce Stillman in a panel discussion moderated by Accelerate Long Island Board Chairwoman Stacey Sikes – applauded the “common goal” shared by summit attendees.

“The goal is to make Long Island stronger, and especially the startup culture – the culture of new companies that today might look like nothing, but in 10 years will be leaders in their industries,” Balentine said. “Most people want to pick a place and say, ‘here are all the resources I need,’ and for that we need a unifying body.

“It’s crucial that we have that,” the New York Tech president added. “And that is what Accelerate Long Island does for us.”

The event also honored several special guests, including Steve Winick, managing partner of Mamaroneck-based VC fund Topspin Partners; Marilyn Simons, co-founder and chairwoman of the New York City-based, science-supporting Simons Foundation; and Kevin Law, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. Board of Directors.

The impressive honoree lineup reinforced the high-caliber support system backing the region’s ambitious startup and investment communities – further fanning a flame that, according to Calone, is strong enough to lure investors who might otherwise be drawn to the bright promise of a Silicon Valley or North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

“We’re excited about the turnout and the energy we have in the room today,” Calone told Innovate Long Island. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t do this every year to celebrate, to lift up and to maintain the support of great entrepreneurs, great scientists and the great innovation ecosystem here on Long Island.”