First Of Its Kind Business To Help Entrepreneurs Opens In Jamestown

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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) – A first of its kind business to help entrepreneurs has set up operations in the City of Jamestown.

The Ally Co held a ribbon cutting at Crown Street Roasting Company, a local coffee shop in Downtown Jamestown on Monday.

Founded by Katie Castro, the new venture studio focuses on offering start-up businesses and organizations advice.

“Venture studios are all the rage all over the world right now, there’s a 625 percent growth rate over the last seven years in the industry, so we’re just super excited to be able to pioneer this model here in Western New York,” explained CEO Katie Castro.

“Venture studios, what they are basically, is a start-up that starts other start-ups or that helps existing companies and organizations with their innovation,” Castro said. “Ally Co. is a brand new venture studio, and it’s actually the only venture studio in all of Western New York.”

The operation strives to incorporate each team member’s individual experiences to create a collaborative and innovative approach.

“It’s a team approach, so we’re all about catalyzing collaboration so it is a team model and all of our team members have day jobs which means that they are in the trenches already here in Western New York, so they’re not experts that are coming in and positioning their advice externally our folks and our organizations, but rather they are people in the trenches, everyday, with day jobs here, who love this city, love the people, and have redemptive imaginations for what might come next for us as a people,” said Castro.

Castro and her team push to instill a simple four letter word into each start-up they assist.

“This is the vision of Ally Co., to add color to our community, to add hope, we’re at a business launch and I’m talking hope. That’s because Ally Co. deals in hope,” said Castro.