In this episode, I have the good fortunate to speak to Kasey Almanzi of Bowers & Company. Kasey is a certified public accountant and a tax supervisor at Bowers & Company, which is a Central New York located accounting firm of approximately 90 accounting professionals.

Kasey and I had a great conversation talking about some of the basic taxes issues to think about when starting a business or operating a small startup. I learned a lot myself, and anyone who is just getting started in building a business really needs to listen up here.

Note that there some minor audio quality issues with this recording, as we did the podcast via zoom, and for reasons I never could figure out, I had to use my phone, rather than a computer mic to get it to work. Such is life I suppose.

Anyway, thanks to Kasey for coming on the podcast. I really enjoyed it, and I appreciate the time and effort involved in providing this great tax information.

In this episode, I spoke to Brandon Williams of CPLANE.ai.  CPLANE is an interesting company that focuses primarily on cloud integration with industrial infrastructure.  Brandon is a former nuclear submariner, and we were fortunate to take a deep dive with him (pun intended) on many of the issues facing a new startup, and just the state of the tech industry in general.

Our conversation was all over the place, which is usually a good sign of an interesting talk. Brandon really drove home the idea that there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.

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In this episode, I interviewed my friend Chris Dugan, President of Knowles Precision Devices,  located in Cazenovia, New York.  Knowles manufacturers precision capacitors, which are in use around the world, particularly in the medical device field. Chris is a fascinating guy. Over the last couple years, he's become a friend and a mentor in my own journey to get the Long Law Firm established.

Chris is a former Navy Seal, Wharton business school graduate, McKinsey alum, and all around bad ass. He is also one of the friendliest people you're ever going to meet. We talked about some of the winners and losers in the market due to COVID, and some of the principles that has led to his success in multiple industries over the last several decades. Expect to hear from him again, as I think we really just scratched the surface of Chris's knowledge and experience.

As I listened back to this episode, it struck me that Chris offered a wonderful theme for thinking about business in 2020. In his analogy, as you'll hear, he talks about the creative aspect, the outside of the box thinking that is required to be on a successful special operations team. Being nimble was central to their success, and here we are in a time and place where being nimble, as opposed to developing the large industrial cogs, is what makes businesses successful now.  So, I hope you enjoy this episode and when you're thinking about moving forward in this economy, try to be more like a Navy SEAL.

In this episode, I interviewed Jason Dean of Eget Liber. Jason is an inventory and entrepreneur as well as the founder of Eget Liber, an environmental technology company based in Syracuse, New York.  Eget Liber was a recent finalist to the GENIUS NY competition for its unmanned systems designed to detect and eradicate blue-green algae without the use of chemicals in the water.  This technology may prove to be the savior of many of the freshwater lakes in upstate NY and elsewhere that have been plagued by algae blooms in the summer. If you have any suggestions for future podcasts, shoot me an email at [email protected]. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a rating wherever you download your podcasts and subscribe to be notified of future episodes. We try to shoot for one a month.

In this episode, I interviewed Jamie Winders. Dr. Winders is the Director of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute at Syracuse University where her research focuses on the design, regulation, and social impacts of emerging technologies, especially autonomous systems and artificial intelligence. I found this episode really interesting, especially if, like me, you are thinking about how the development of drone and autonomous vehicle technology affects policy and culture. Dr. Winders is extremely assessable and has a real gift for breaking down complex subject matter into easy-to-understand concepts. If you have any suggestions for future podcasts, shoot me an email at [email protected]. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a rating wherever you download your podcasts.

Syracuse Startup is a podcast hosted by Jim Long, managing attorney at The Long Law Firm. The podcast is a showcase for Syracuse-based startups and entrepreneurs. Each episode, we talk to a guest from the Syracuse business community about the interesting work they are doing, and we try to distill some of their wisdom and experience into a useful perspective for our listeners. Jim is a practicing attorney and former startup founder himself. His firm, The Long Law Firm,  is a small business and startup boutique law firm in downtown Syracuse with a heavy focus on business law, data privacy, cybersecurity law and commercial litigation.  

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In this episode, I interviewed Susie Ippolito. Susie is a brand strategist and marketing expert here in Syracuse. She works with several small and mid-sized businesses to develop their brand and take them through the process of building a mature and lasting brand.  This was a great episode, and every time I talk to Susie I learn something new. We talked about branding, marketing, having patience in the process, understanding your strengths, and baseball. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.  If you have any suggestions for future podcasts, shoot me an email at [email protected]. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a rating wherever you download your podcasts.

In the second episode of Syracuse Startup, we talk to David Fox of SMARTA, a Syracuse Startup that is looking to streamline the student rental space by increasing communication between potential student renters and landlords.  This was a fun conversation where we talked a bit about David's business, as well as general issues related to startup life, leadership and cybersecurity.

This is the first episode of Syracuse Startup. It starts with a brief introduction of what the podcast is meant to be about and what I hope to accomplish with it. I talk a little about the work that I do, as a cybersecurity attorney, and we get into a really interesting conversation with my friend Eric. Stay tuned for more episodes, and watch this thing grow into something great.