Lani Burkman came seeking $1 million for her fledgling fertility testing business in Buffalo.
Martin Sadkin was looking for $500,000 to help fund a venture to build collapsible shipping containers he helped invent.
The two local entrepreneurs were among more than 50 companiesfrom the Buffalo and Rochester areas that came to the BrightBuffalo Niagara investment conference at the Albright-Knox ArtGallery on Thursday, seeking investors with the money to help taketheir business to the next level.
"Everything is in place today," Burkman told the more than 100 investors and business officials who attended her 10-minute sales pitch before the group. "We are scalable. We're looking for someone to jump in."
The idea behind the third annual conference is to bring together potential investors with the cash-starved entrepreneurs scrambling to turn their ideas into the next big thing.
It's a particularly pressing issue in Western New York, whichlacks a big base of home-grown venture and investment capital for fledgling firms. The result is that many of those firms that turn out to be successful are forced to turn elsewhere for funding, and often, the jobs they create are outside the Buffalo Niagara region.
That's not to say there isn't any money available. The Buffalo Angels, a group of Buffalo Niagara region investors affiliated with the Western New York Venture Association group, openly courts potential investments at regular meetings where companies can make a pitch for funding. The group, which has 20 to 30 active members, also is building ties with similar angel investor groups in Rochester and Syracuse to broaden the pool of potential investors that entrepreneurs can reach out to for funding.
"The push is to grow our 21st century economy as quickly as possible," said Marnie LaVigne, director of business development at the University at Buffalo's Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology. "It's important for all of us to work together to support this entrepreneurial ecosystem."
Investing in early-stage companies is a risky proposition, since many end up failing. But the reward also can be great for investors who back start-ups that get the funding they need and are able to build a business that grows and prospers.
"We are seeing equity investments in high-tech firms in the region," she said. "But there are many more deals to do. There are good deals in the region."
Those successes also can be a boon for the local economy. "It's private-sector jobs that matter," said Erie County Executive Chris Collins. "What really matters is [creating] one job at a time, two jobs here, two jobs there."
Burkman thinks her business is on the verge of taking off. Aformer University at Buffalo research scientist, she is looking tospan out across the globe with her proprietary technology to testmen for fertility problems.
While her business has treated 2,000 walk-in patients in Buffalo over the last 15 years, Burkman is planning to develop a network of physicians across the world that can use LifeCell's system to do $400 fertility tests on men and then use the Internet to transmit the test data to its Buffalo laboratory for analysis.
Burkman said people are willing to spend money to solve fertilityproblems, and she views other countries as big potential markets, with lots of well-off patients seeking answers to why they can't have children.
"We are leaping to the next level," Burkman said. "I stoppedtaking insurance six years ago, and these patients will pay. Theypay today."
Sadkin's C Cubed I business isn't as far along as LifeCell. The company last year received patents for its design for a collapsible ocean container that could vastly reduce shipping expenses.
Because about half of all shipping containers that go from theFar East to the United States are sent back empty, Sadkin saidusing collapsible containers -- C Cubed's can collapse to a quarterof their original height -- could save more than $1,000 per trip byallowing four times more containers to be stacked on a vessel during the return trip.
Sadkin said C Cubed's design can be easily collapsed or erectedin about three minutes, just by using a forklift. "It's very easyto use," Sadkin said.
But first, Sadkin and his partners, who have put up $135,000 inthe venture, need another $500,000 to build and test threeprototype containers.
"We're not the first to market a collapsible container. Just the first to make it practical," he said.
e-mail: drobinson@buffnews.com
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