Unleashed Founders Retreat 2025
We can't wait to have you join us at this year's Unleashed Founders Retreat from Sept 11-12, 2025 in Saratoga Springs at The Gideon Putnam.
There are two registration options -
1) Local Attendee (if you're in the area and don't need overnight accommodation)
2) Standard Attendee (including overnight stay for out of town guests)
Agenda:
Thursday, September 11
1:00 pm: Welcome & Saratoga Walking Tour led by David Deutsch, Founder & President of DNDCo
We'll start at the Saratoga Casino and end at the Racetrack. Please plan to arrive at the Casino, or if you prefer to take the shuttle from the Gideon Putnam, let us know.
Please wear comfortable walking shoes
3:00 pm: Sip and Swing (weather permitting)
Learn about Entrepreneurs Across Borders from Chris Cochran, Executive Director, and meet some entrepreneurs from Jamaica. Following the walking tour, we'll enjoy some light refreshments and putting in Peter Dean's (CEO and Cofounder of RenderTribe) yard.
4:00 pm: Room Check-in & Break
Enjoy the property amenities and freshen up before dinner
5:00 pm: Cocktail Hour
Meet other guests ahead of our awards dinner
6:00 pm: Dinner & Awards Banquet
Community Catalyst Awards
Deal of the Year Award, presented by EY
Fireside chat with Stephen Gilfus, serial entrepreneur (Blackboard), investor, and board director
9:00 pm: Drinks and Networking
Enjoy a nightcap with fellow attendees
Friday, September 12
7:30 am: Morning Hike led by Jeff Olson, Cofounder of re:Charge-e
9:00 am: Breakfast (option 1), Family Office Insights, led by Cale Van Buren, Rockefeller Capital Management
9:00 am: Breakfast (option 2) Term Sheets & Trends: What Founders Need to Know for Fundraising in 2025 with Jeff Laretto, Emerging Companies Partner at Cooley LLP
10:00 am: Check out
10:15 am: Building Leadership Teams with Mary Malone McCarthy Founder and CEO of M3 Placement and Partnership
10:30 am: Level Up: The Future of Gaming in the Capital Region
Guha Bala, Co-founder, Velan Studios
Brian Corrigan, Founder, Rocket Science
Cody Germain, CEO of Bear Club Games
moderated by Nasir Ali, CEO of UpVentures
11:00 - 11:30 am: Break
11:30 am: What's Next for AI in Automotive
Mike Quigley, Co-founder, Impel
Andy Guelcher, President of Mohawk Chevrolet
Michael Sebast, CTO, Fleetworthy
moderated by Chuck Stormon, General Partner at StartFast Ventures
12:00 pm: Lunch
Pledge 1% Q&A
2:00 pm: Optional Tours and Museums
Option 1: Private tour of Global Foundries
Option 2: Visit to the Saratoga Automobile Museum
Option 3: Visit to National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
Awardees:
Community Catalyst Awards:
Kara Jones, Director of Programs and Engagement, CenterState CEO's INSPYRE Innovation Hub & Director of GENIUS NY
Kara Jones is the Director of Programs and Engagement at CenterState CEO’s INSPYRE Innovation Hub, where she has played a key role in transforming The Tech Garden into New York State’s newest and largest hub for innovation. She also leads GENIUS NY, the world’s largest accelerator for uncrewed aerial systems, where she manages multimillion-dollar initiatives and works closely with founders to refine business models, craft go-to-market strategies, and secure investment. Over her career with CenterState CEO, Kara has helped hundreds of startups grow, scale, and connect to resources across the region. She currently serves as President of the AUVSI Empire State Chapter and was named to the 40 Under 40 list for her leadership in advancing New York’s innovation ecosystem. Kara also helped shape entrepreneurship education at her alma mater, SUNY Oswego, contributing to the development of its entrepreneurship minor, and for the past five years has served as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurial marketing and sales at the university. In addition, she has mentored and coached startups at high-profile events such as SXSW, NIST’s Pulse Accelerator, and the NYS Business Plan Competition. Deeply committed to building a stronger startup community, Kara is passionate about driving innovation across Upstate New York and beyond. Outside of her professional work, she is a proud mom of two energetic kids, married to a hockey-loving husband, and enjoys the challenge of races such as 10Ks, Spartan Races, and the Syracuse Mountain Goat.
Jack McGowan, Director, Buffalo Angels & Director of the Western New York Venture Association
Jack McGowan is the director of the Buffalo Angels, an angel investor network and fund that invests in early-stage companies located in the Buffalo & Upstate New York region. The Buffalo Angels have invested approximately $9 million in 54 companies since 2008. He is also the director of the Western New York Venture Association, which is the original forum for startups in the Western New York region to present their companies to potential investors and to network with others in the business community. Under Jack’s direction, the WNYVA has been operating continuously since 1994.
Jack is an active coach and mentor for numerous business plan contests and startup events in upstate New York including the 43 North Business Competition, the University at Buffalo Panasci Technology Business Competition, the New York State Student Business Plan Competition, the Founder Institute, Buffalo Startup Weekends and whatever other programs are happening in the region. He frequently makes presentations about the startup funding process and investor pitches to university entrepreneurship classes. Jack also provides funding strategy and pitch deck coaching to startup founders and leverages his contacts in the upstate NY business and funding communities to connect entrepreneurs and startups with resources such as potential funders, assistance programs, collaborators and customers.
Jack has extensive experience with the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) R&D funding program and guides small businesses through the proposal development process. Jack conducts these activities as an employee of Insyte Consulting, a not-for-profit consulting firm that helps manufacturing and startup companies in Western New York to innovate, grow and profit. Insyte Consulting is the New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership center for the Western NY region. Jack holds an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a BS in Business Management from Cornell University. Prior to working at Insyte, Jack was a commercial lender at banks in the WNY region.
Kelly Reardon, Program Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programs at University at Albany & NSF I-Corps Instructor and Mentor
Kelly Reardon is a leader in entrepreneurship and economic development, specializing in building programs that support early-stage startups and foster innovation ecosystems. As the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program Director at the University at Albany, she streamlines critical processes and cultivates strategic relationships to drive growth for the university’s incubator and its member companies.
Throughout her career, Kelly has played a key role in initiatives that connect founders with resources, mentorship, and funding opportunities. She co-founded Startup Tech Valley, a monthly meetup that gives new founders both a stage and a support system to ask for a hand up as they launch and grow their ventures. More recently, after a strategic partnership between Launch NY and the Center for Economic Growth was established, Kelly developed and implemented the infrastructure necessary to connect technology founders in eastern New York with pre-seed and seed-stage funding.
With over 17 years of experience coaching entrepreneurs, Kelly has a proven track record of helping teams move from concept to commercialization. Her expertise lies in educational program design and evaluation, startup ecosystem building, and coaching founders in effective communication and pitch delivery. Kelly serves on the Board of the Business Incubator Association of New York State and is a member of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers. She is a trained instructor in the National NSF I-Corps program and was recognized as a 2017 Albany Business Review 40 Under 40 honoree. Outside of her professional work, she is a dedicated volunteer and foster dog mom at the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.
Deal of the Year:
Fleetworthy
This award recognizes a company whose growth has significantly contributed to strengthening the regional economy. Fleetworthy’s impressive journey - reaching $200M in ARR within five years, growing to 500 employees (with over 20% based in Upstate NY), and executing 4 major acquisitions this year - speaks volumes about the impact they're making across the Upstate NY ecosystem and beyond. The award will be presented by EY.
Tom Fogarty, Chief Executive Officer
Tom Fogarty joined Fleetworthy in 2020 with over two decades of executive experience in the software, technology, and data industries. He specializes in managing and growing technology firms, building great teams and scalable operations. He comes to us after 11 years with RDC (Regulatory DataCorp, Inc.) as President and Chief Operating Officer as the high growth Software/Data-as-a-Service company became a leader in fighting financial crime, helping protect approximately 1,000 banks and financial institutions and 35,000 compliance professionals globally before it became part of Moody’s Analytics. He has undergraduate and MBA degrees from the Wharton Business School, and in his spare time, Tom has a passion for traveling the world with his wife and three kids learning about cultures and history (and food!)
Speaker Bios:
Stephen Gilfus launched a distinguished career as a founder, principal designer and business architect of one of the world’s leading e-learning platforms (Blackboard Inc.) His work in eLearning and Education and Workforce has helped shape the development of online learning capacity for tens of thousands of organizations across the globe. He is recognized by many organizations as a key driver behind the growth of the eLearning industry and has presented at hundreds of academic institutions, eLearning organizations and industry conferences.
Guha Bala is the President of innovation investment firm, Velan Ventures, and the Cofounder of independent gaming studio, Velan Studios, in Troy, NY. Prior to these ventures, Guha started gaming studio Vicarious Visions in 1991 with his brother Karthik Gala. Vicarious Visions grew to more than 150 employees, and worked on more than 100 games, including big console releases like Guitar Hero, Skylanders Swap Force, and Skylanders Superchargers. The company’s games sold as many as 40-50 million units, and generated billions in sales. The Bala brothers started the company when they were teenagers in high school out of their parents’ basement. Vicarious Visions was sold to Activision Publishing in 2005. Guha graduated from Harvard University with an AB in Chemistry. He received an MBA from the MIT School of Management.
Brian Corrigan is the Founder of Rocket Science, specializing in the type of planet-scale problems publishers and studios face deploying games into an increasingly complex global marketplace. Most recently, Brian was the Head of Americas at PUBG Corporation where he leads regional publishing efforts. Prior to PUBG, he was the CEO of MadGlory (acquired by PUBG in 2018) where we worked with companies like Riot Games, SuperEvil Megacorp, Bethesda, Psyonix, Bosskey, Epic Games, Warner Brothers, Kabam and more. He has over 10 years of niche expertise in the video game space launching feature-rich, planet-scale services to hundreds of millions of players. Brian is also an active mentor and advisor for PowerSpike, Velan Studios, and Electronic Gaming Federation and he’s an investor in the Konvoy Venturs and Angel Round Capital Fund. He’s passionate about turning the Capital Region and into a worldwide video gaming hub.
Cody Germain is a dynamic games and product leader with over 15 years in gaming and strategy at some of the most iconic studios in the industry. With a relentless competitive spirit and obsession with operating competitive games, having had the privilege to have been able to work on and lead some of the winners in their genre, has been a dream. From League of Legends to Rocket League and now to his own studio, he’s ready to bring on the next leader in competitive play. In his free time, he literally enjoys walks on the beach, building blanket forts with his family, and dabbling in a soccer game or two when his knees can hold up!
Nasir Ali is the Co-founder of Upstate Venture Connect and the CEO of UpVentures. He has been actively building the high growth entrepreneurial ecosystem across Upstate New York since 2004. Ali launched The Syracuse Technology Garden incubator in 2004, which subsequently became the epicenter of startup community activity in Central NY. Through Upstate Venture Connect, Ali has built an online communications platform that reaches more than 15,000 startup community members; created the UNY50 Entrepreneur Leaders group; and established the Upstate Unleashed Conference and Venture Ecosystem Awards. Ali is an active angel investor and fund manager. He was the founder and Executive Director of UNY’s first angel fund in 2007 and helped start similar angel funds in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and the Hudson Valley. In 2011, he launched StartFast Venture Accelerator, a private capital-backed startup accelerator program invested in 48 pre-seed startups from 2012-2020. StartFast Fund II is a Seed/A stage venture capital fund targeting B2B SaaS companies outside the traditional coastal VC hubs. He is also a board member and advisor to numerous entities including the NYS Innovation Venture Capital Fund, Next Gen Venture Partners, Fitzgate Ventures and multiple StartFast portfolio companies. Ali received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Princeton University. He also holds an MBA from Yale University.
Mike Quigley is a Managing Partner of StartFast Ventures Fund II, where he focuses on fund raising, investment selection, and portfolio company development. Prior to joining the fund as a partner, Michael was an active mentor in the StartFast Accelerator, which was also an investor in his company Impel. Michael is also the co-founder of Impel, a SaaS company whose automotive merchandising platform is used by nearly every carmaker and thousands of dealerships across 34 countries. At SpinCar, Michael serves as President and Chief Strategy Officer, and has led product, finance, customer success, and M&A. He is a member of Impel’s Board of Directors, and SpinCar’s audit and compensation committees. Michael is an active angel investor in the B2B SaaS sector, and mentor at Cornell Tech. He holds a B.A. in Economics from New York University, and resides in Lower Manhattan and Syracuse, NY.
Andy Guelcher is president of Mohawk Chevrolet, where he has been fortunate to turn his lifelong passion for competition and leadership into an exciting career in the auto industry. His journey began on the baseball diamond, where he played college baseball with aspirations of making it to the Major Leagues. He reached out to Major League teams to join the tryout circuit while balancing a demanding training schedule with a job in automotive sales. Although he eventually chose to step away from his baseball ambitions, he discovered a new passion and talent in the automotive industry. Driven by his competitive spirit, Andy set his sights on a new goal: making a mark in the automotive world. He identified an opportunity in New York's Capital Region and moved his family from Pennsylvania to Upstate New York. Starting as a sales director at an established dealership, Andy quickly proved his leadership and business acumen. Within a few years, he proposed a partnership to the dealership owner, leading to the acquisition of a Chevrolet dealership in a growing market. Today, Andy has built Mohawk Chevrolet into a record-setting business, renowned for its consistent rise in regional and national sales and customer service rankings. His leadership philosophy is rooted in setting clear goals, rewarding achievement, and fostering a culture that attracts and retains top talent. This approach has not only driven the dealership's success but also earned it a stellar reputation among customers and competitors alike. Andy is deeply committed to giving back to the community. He is a major supporter for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeast New York and serves on the Board of the Special Olympics. Additionally, Andy mentors’ small business entrepreneurs in the region, further extending his impact on the community.
Michael Sebast is Chief Technology Officer at Fleetworthy, formerly Bestpass. He has more than 20 years of experience in technology leadership and software development, with the past seven focused on the fleet, tolling, compliance, and payments sectors. He joined Bestpass as CTO, working with Susquehanna Growth Equity to establish the company’s technology foundation.
Under his leadership, the company expanded its capabilities through multiple acquisitions including Fleetworthy Solutions, Drivewyze, Empire, Haul, and CommerceLogic and rebranded as Fleetworthy. He has overseen the development of predictive analytics and AI capabilities to identify and capture fleet costs in real time, as well as the acceleration of product development and market growth following Insight Partners’ investment in 2022.
He holds a Computer Science degree from Siena College and completed executive management studies at Harvard.
Chuck Stormon is a 7X serial entrepreneur and prominent figure in the fields of artificial intelligence and venture capital. Stormon left his PhD studies to found Coherent Research which commercialized chip architecture for neural networks, which was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor. Stormon then co-founded Coherent Networks which combined neural networks and expert (rule-based) systems with human-in-the-loop processing at scale in one of the first commercially successful hybrid AI solutions, SmartMaps, which transformed the electric utility industry. Coherent Networks was acquired by Osmose Corp. Stormon’s next venture was Steleus, which was acquired by Tekelec (NASDAQ: TKLC), and was subsequently acquired by Oracle. After these successes, Stormon pivoted into Venture Capital, while continuing to be an entrepreneur/operator in a series of businesses. Stormon earned his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.
Mary Malone McCarthy is the founder and CEO of M3 Placement & Partnership, a full-service talent acquisition firm including executive search, outsourced recruitment, and strategic HR. With a holistic and client centered approach, she and her team partner with companies nationwide, to lead executive searches, talent recruitment efforts, employee retention programs, and strategic HR projects. Over the past 10 years, Mary Malone has led M3 to significant growth by becoming a dedicated partner and one stop solution for companies committed to transforming how they recruit and retain top talent.