BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo's multi-million dollar business competition returns to this week, and you're invited to watch as they select the winners live.
"We took a break in 2020 for obvious reasons," said Maura Devlin, 43North vice president of marketing and public relations.
"Now we're back, and we've had an extensive search that started with hundreds of companies, and we've now narrowed it down to 19 finalists."
The winners will be chosen in a live in-person event Thursday night at Shea's Performing Arts Center.
"We invest $5 million annually," Devlin explained. "One company receives $1 million. Seven other companies receive $500,000, and then as part of that they come and they move their business to Buffalo."
This year, some of the finalists wouldn't have to do much moving at all. Five of them are based in Buffalo already, including Rebecca Brady's cracker company, Top Seedz. She launched in farmers markets and then specialty grocery stores, shortly after her family moved here from New Zealand in 2015.
"Now we're in four regions of Whole Foods, we're in nearly all the Wegmans," Brady reflected. "We're in Florida, we're in Chicago, California, and we ship anywhere throughout the U.S."
If she wins any the prize money, Brady says she will use it to automate manufacturing, with the goal of taking Top Seedz global.
"You know my mother lives in New Zealand, and I think if I could get them to New Zealand one day that would be a dream come true," Brady shared. "International. Why not?"
Shaun Masavage is another Buffalo-based finalist. His company, Zealot Interactive, makes video music lessons.
"We have lessons for guitar, bass, and ukulele, and very interestingly, we have an accessory that you can buy that actually installs on your guitar and shows you colorized LED finger locations for where to put your fingers," Masavage said.
A novice player himself, Masavage hopes to inspire the 5 million people in the U.S. with unused guitars sitting in their closets to pick them up again and start strumming again.
"Think of the player who either wanted to play guitar, tried, the person who's busy, and doesn't necessarily have time to do a formal weekly lesson session, and just wants to be able to sit down real quick learn what they want," he said.
The 19 finalists will be narrowed down to 10 during the semifinals on Wednesday at Seneca One. The finals start at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Shea's, and are free for the community to attend. You can get your tickets by clicking here.