Start Up New York's Executive Vice President Leslie Whatley is on a public relations campaign they're calling the Opportunity Tour that recently brought her to Rochester.
The city seems like a good place to boast the potential of the program. The first business created is right downtown, on Franklin Street. Datto, the cloud computing company, currently employs over 40 full-time staff.
Leaders of Start Up NY report over a hundred businesses have come out of the program since it started last year, 12 of them in the Finger Lakes region.
Critics, like New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, have raised questions about the initiative's effectiveness. It's used millions of dollars to advertise itself, and the latest report shows it's only created 76 jobs.
Whatley says that number is misleading. Employees need six months and a day under their belt to be counted, and a lot of the companies forming are still very young. She also says the advertising costs are an investment.
"If I had a product I was selling, I would be marketing it to tell the world, 'I have a new product! Start Up NY!"
Whatley is confident this program will show results -- eventually. In the meantime, she and other officials continue touring the state, responding to critics, and asking the tax payers to trust them.
