Yesterday I visited StartFast up in Syracuse with my VC partner Jennifer and Ithaca-based digital media pro Ken Rother.  StartFast is a Tech Stars affiliated accelerator, and it is a testament to what human drive can accomplish.  Not to belabor the point, but Syracuse is not known being a hot bed of startups.  That is changing.  Nasir Ali, Martin Babinec and Chuck Stormon have launched (and now Nasir and Chuck are running) a great program.  This is the second full year of its operation.

We met with teams originally from Los Angeles, Florida, Toronto, Texas….and Syracuse.  All have viable business concepts and are pivoting and working away.  The space is just what you would expect at an accelerator – open, high ceilings, full of din (not food, but noise).

My favorite StartFast company so far is Calester, which simply pushes an events calendar to you based on your own calendar availability.  Visiting Ithaca?  Calester will tell you what is going on that fits your schedule.  All in one spot so you don’t have to look in more than one spot.  Simple and useful.  And it will populate your calendar too.

Thanks to Nasir, Chuck and Martin for StartFast!