ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Bishop Kearney High Scho ol has announced plans to develop a multi-use athletic and wellness complex aimed at expanding student opportunity, strengthening campus life, and supporting the school’s long-term growth. The proposed project will include a new on-campus ice rink, athletic facilities, and dedicated training and wellness space designed to serve a wide range of student needs, from physical education and team sports to strength training, fitness, and h

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — For decades, professional networking has centered around conference rooms, cocktail receptions and carefully exchanged business cards. But across Rochester, a growing number of professionals are building meaningful business relationships in far less conventional settings on tennis courts, walking trails and inside boutique fitness studios. The shift reflects a broader change in how professionals think about community. Rather than transactional introductions,

ROCHESTER, N.Y.  — Rochester’s startup and innovation ecosystem isn’t just being built in offices and coworking spaces. It’s being broadcast. Across Spotify feeds, FM airwaves, and independent platforms, a growing group of Rochester-based podcast hosts are shaping conversations about business, leadership, equity, food systems, crime, culture, and community. Some are hyper-local. Others are gaining national attention. All are contributing to how the region tells its story. Her

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Upstate Venture Connect (UVC) is taking Upstate founders on the road this spring, launching a series of immersive roadshows designed to connect Upstate New York entrepreneurs with investors, customers, and corporate partners in some of the country’s most active innovation hubs. The nonprofit will lead curated delegations to Detroit (May 18–20), Boston (May 27–28), and New York City (June 2–4), aligning each trip with major tech and startup weeks in those ci

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Iter Opus , a U.S.-based technology startup developing artificial intelligence-driven hiring and career tools, has selected downtown Rochester as the site of its new headquarters, positioning itself within the city’s growing innovation corridor. The company has moved into the historic Powers Building. Iter Opus is preparing to scale its flagship product, Levii.io , a private AI-powered platform designed to match job seekers with career pathways and align em

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — More than 20 Rochester-based startups will take the stage Feb. 19 at NextCorps for the local round of the Startup Grind Pitch Battle Royale , a global competition that gives early- and growth-stage founders a shot at international exposure and a trip to the Startup Grind Global Conference in April. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. EST at NextCorps, 260 E. Main St., and will also be available virtually. Founders will compete across three categories Idea, Develop

VICTOR, N.Y. — When Samantha Taylor launched Olive Speech Therapy , in 2022, she was not just starting a private practice. She was rethinking how families experience speech-language services and how clinicians are supported in delivering them. Today, Taylor leads a growing team of eight speech-language pathologists serving families across the Rochester region. In 2025, she expanded her impact further with the launch of the Empowered Parent Network, a community-driven platform

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Constellation Brands , one of the largest beverage alcohol companies in the United States and a cornerstone of Rochester’s corporate landscape, announced Thursday that Nicholas Fink will become its next President and Chief Executive Officer effective April 13, 2026. Fink will succeed Bill Newlands, who has served as President and CEO since 2019. Newlands will step down from the role on April 13 and remain as a strategic advisor for several months to support

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As the global race to commercialize nuclear fusion accelerates, Rochester’s innovation community is convening to examine where Western New York fits in a rapidly scaling, capital-intensive industry. On Friday, March 13, industry experts, technologists, and regional manufacturers will gather at NextCorps on the sixth floor of the Sibley Building for a full-day workshop titled Manufacturing for the Fusion Industry: Targets. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - With the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan–Cortina in full swing, a small group of athletes with roots in Western and Upstate New York will take the world stage wearing Team USA. While Olympic competition remains the central focus, the Games also represent a meaningful financial moment, one shaped by national sponsorships, licensing revenue, and a newly expanded compensation model for U.S. athletes. For competitors from Rochester and the broader region, includin

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Business owners, procurement leaders, and public-sector buyers gathered Wednesday at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center for the 2026 Upstate New York Supplier Engagement Summit, a full-day event focused on expanding access, visibility, and opportunity for diverse suppliers across the region. Hosted in downtown Rochester, the summit brought together minority-owned, women-owned, and service-disabled veteran–owned businesses with representatives from loc

Buffalo, N.Y. — Brown and White Ventures has announced an investment in Finta , an AI-powered workflow platform designed to modernize how private companies raise capital and manage relationship-driven deals. The investment will support Finta’s efforts to scale its end-to-end dealflow infrastructure, which automates many of the most time-consuming aspects of private capital formation, including prospect research, investor outreach, warm introductions, and pipeline managemen

As organizations plan for 2026, the technology conversation is expanding well beyond artificial intelligence. While AI continues to dominate headlines, business leaders are increasingly focused on the underlying systems that determine whether innovation can actually scale: security, infrastructure, governance, and operational discipline. Across industries, executives are shifting from tool adoption to systems thinking, asking not just what technology to deploy, but how their

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — When Stephanie Williams launched Family Concierge  in 2022, she wasn’t setting out to build just another nanny service. She was responding to a gap she had experienced firsthand . One that left both families and caregivers navigating a fragmented, often frustrating system with little guidance or long-term support. Based in Rochester, Family Concierge operates in the nannies and household staffing sector, providing families across Western New York with highl

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As government and defense agencies continue to prioritize resilient domestic supply chains and diverse vendor participation, the Monroe County Upstate NY APEX Accelerator is playing an increasingly central role in helping regional businesses access public-sector contracting opportunities. The APEX Accelerator, formerly known as the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), is a federally supported program designed to help companies compete for federal

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Reju , a textile-to-textile regeneration company backed by global engineering firm Technip Energies , has selected Rochester, New York, as the site of its first U.S.-based industrial-scale facility, marking a significant step in the company’s global expansion and the region’s growing role in sustainable manufacturing. The future facility, known as a Regeneration Hub, will be located on 18.9 acres at Eastman Business Park. Once operational, the site is expect

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — By the time Connor Peters graduated college at 19, he had already launched a business, managed IT systems, and identified a problem he couldn’t ignore. Today, as CEO of Locke , a Rochester-based cybersecurity company founded in 2022, Peters is building software designed to solve one of the most persistent and overlooked challenges in modern IT, identity. Peters grew up in Geneseo, New York, and earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems f

ROCHESTER, N.Y.  — Long before artificial intelligence, semiconductors, or advanced manufacturing became buzzwords, Rochester was already shaping the way the world sees, measures, and understands light. That work continues today through optics and photonics, industries that remain foundational to Rochester’s economy, workforce, and long-term relevance, even if they rarely make headlines. What Optics and Photonics Actually Mean At its core, optics is the science and engineerin

Rochester, N.Y. - Raising capital is often framed as a milestone, an announcement-worthy achievement marked by press releases, congratulatory posts, and celebratory headlines. But for most founders, the reality is far less polished. Capital raising is not a single moment; it is a prolonged, operationally demanding process that tests clarity of vision, depth of preparation, and personal resilience. For early-stage founders, particularly those outside major venture hubs, unders

BROCKPORT, N.Y. — After spending more than a decade teaching English to students around the world, found herself ready for a new challenge. Today, she is the founder of VerbaVista , an early-stage EdTech company launched in 2025 that aims to help English-language educators plan lessons more effectively using technology built by teachers, for teachers. LaScala-Lodato’s path to entrepreneurship was anything but conventional. A native of Port Jefferson, New York, she earned a ba