Launch NY sees more raw, early-stage founders than any seed investor in the state, and by design it can't back the earliest ones. First Light is the vehicle built to catch them: first money and hands-on advisory for companies a year before they're ready for an institutional check.
Launch NY is the most active seed investor in New York State. It's built to fund proof-of-concept companies, which means the truly raw ones — idea stage, pre-product, first-time founders — sit just below the bar. Those companies don't stop existing. They go looking for a first believer, and in Western NY they usually don't find one close to home.
The market moved the bar up. Since 2023, institutional pre-seed stopped funding pure ideas and started expecting a product or early traction first. So the pre-product founder gets told to go find angels or join an accelerator and come back later. That "come back later" is the gap.
In this region the first rung is thin. Launch NY, 43North, the UB Cultivator, Buffalo Angels — every one of them starts at or above a bar an idea-stage founder can't clear yet. First Light owns the rung below all of them: the first check, and the operating help to earn the next one.
Each vehicle here does good work, and each one enters at a stage the day-zero founder hasn't reached. Line them up by how much readiness they require and the empty rung is obvious.
New York's own Pre-Seed and Seed Matching Fund puts $40M into this exact gap, with a 1:1 private match. Public money is chasing it, which is third-party proof the whitespace is real.
Launch NY's portfolio has raised more than $1.5B in follow-on capital. The ecosystem pays off when someone backs founders early. First Light backs them one step earlier.
Launch NY covers the 27 westernmost counties of New York. That's the top of the funnel First Light plugs into for warm, pre-screened deal flow.
Launch NY has worked with more than 1,900 companies and funds a small share of them on purpose. A meaningful slice of the rest aren't weak companies — they're early ones. That's a warm, pre-screened pipeline of exactly the founders First Light exists to back.
The relationship runs both ways. First Light backs these founders raw, gets them to a product and early traction, and hands the winners back up the ladder to Launch NY, 43North, and institutional pre-seed. The overflow becomes tomorrow's proof-of-concept deals. Everybody's pipeline gets stronger.
First Light is an independent company, not a Launch NY program. Any formal referral arrangement, and the shape of Scott's participation, would be defined with Launch NY up front to keep roles and conflicts clean.
Capital alone is too slow for day-zero companies, and advice alone doesn't pay the bills. First Light does both: a small first check paired with the hands-on operating help that turns an idea into something the next fund can underwrite.
Deal flow arrives pre-screened from the region's most active seed pipeline, plus the partners' own networks across sports, security, and finance. Less cold inbound, more qualified founders.
A small first check paired with real operating work: the model, the story, the first hires, the first customers. The stuff a raw founder can't buy and a passive fund won't give.
Push each company to the traction bar and hand the winners up to Launch NY, 43North, and institutional pre-seed. First Light's job is to make founders fundable by the next rung.
Carry and advisory fees for the fund, and a visible track record of companies moved from idea to institutional-ready. The scoreboard that brings the next cohort of deals in.
The credibility gap in most first-check funds is sourcing: how do you see the good early deals before everyone else? This team is built around that answer, with a partner sitting inside the region's busiest seed pipeline.
Founder of Coulton Ventures, a plug-and-play partner for business development, partnerships, and deal sourcing across sports, real estate, and early-stage ventures. Steve spends his days doing exactly what a first-check fund needs: finding the right founders, building the relationship, and getting to yes. Buffalo-rooted and active across the region's founder networks.
Buffalo-based CEO of GlobalSecurityIQ and a civic leader with deep ties across the region's business, security, and startup communities. Holly brings operating discipline and a trusted local reputation, the credibility that makes founders and LPs confident the money is handled seriously and close to home.
Head of Finance at Launch NY and a CPA, Scott sits at the exact seam this fund is built around: he sees both the fund mechanics and the deals that come in too early to clear the bar. Before Launch NY he was EVP and CFO of ValueCentric (acquired by IQVIA) and a CFO at Perry's Ice Cream, with an MBA from the University at Buffalo. He brings the financial rigor and the front-row view of the overflow.
Partner roles and titles are working drafts for this proposal. Scott's participation would be structured with Launch NY to keep his role there and any First Light referral relationship clean and conflict-free.
We think there's a real company in the rung below Launch NY. We'd like 30 minutes to walk through how First Light would source, back, and graduate those founders, and to hear where you'd push back. If the shape holds, this is the founding team.