Congratulations to our 2023 NYC Boss Up Winners

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Company: Brothers Building Blocks
Years in Business: Four years

Brothers Building Blocks empowers youth to consider STEM careers and provides a roadmap to get there. They fulfill this mission by providing a cohesive, cohort-based educational enrichment program with four components: 1) STEM curriculum-based courses; 2) paid internships; 3) skills-based workshops and training; and 4) a holistic wellness plan. Brothers Building Blocks partners with opportunity programs, non-profits, corporations, state and federal agencies, middle & high schools, and colleges & universities to serve youth and adults.

The company is a Certified Small Business Enterprise, Certified Minority-Owned Business Enterprise, and Certified Veteran-Owned Small Business, serving over 500 students a semester. Over 90% of participants in the program identify as Black (Caribbean, African, and African American) or Latino. The company recently implemented an ambitious five-year strategic plan to expand its services at scale.

Bio
Serghio Adams was born in Suriname, raised in Guyana, then emigrated to Brooklyn, New York. He joined the Army and completed his training at Fort Jackson, SC. He was then assigned to Seoul, South Korea and served with dedication as a Human Resources Specialist.

Since his service, he obtained a bachelors degree as well as a Masters Degree in International Relations and an Advanced Certificate in United Nation Studies from Long Island University. In 2019, he founded the company Brothers Building Blocks.

Sergio also serves on the Board of Directors for Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn, CDC Inc. as Board President.

Company: indeHealth
Years in business: One year

indeHealth serves as a vital intermediary between students and universities, providing a comprehensive healthcare management platform that puts students at the center of their healthcare journey. Guided by a vision for change, indeHealth introduced UniHealth, their flagship service that bridges the gap between students and universities. With its patient-facing platform, universities can empower their students with quick and easy access to essential information about insurance coverage, healthcare resources, and even potential diagnoses based on their symptoms. By equipping students with this crucial knowledge and guiding them to seek professional medical help when necessary, indeHealth helps to alleviate the burden on university health centers, ultimately fostering a healthier campus community.

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Tsikata Apenyo pursued his medical degree at Brown University and is currently in the final year of an MBA program at Yale University. Previously, he served as a Fulbright Fellow in the Republic of China and as a Medical Corps officer in the US Army. Notably, he was on the founding team of HC9 Ventures, an early-stage healthcare venture capital firm, where he led deal sourcing and the overall investment process while helping the firm raise $83 million for its first fund. Tsikata is also a Tillman Scholar.

Tsikata founded indeHealth based on personal experiences and a profound appreciation of the challenges students encounter in accessing care. He recognized the fragmented nature of campus healthcare, where access to quality care is often considered a privilege rather than a fundamental human right.

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Company: Vanso Visual Imaging
Years in business: Two years

Vanso Visual Imaging helps clients express their unique personality and beauty through photography. Vance’s specialty is creative editorial and journalistic style portrait photography, which includes headshots, family portraits, and personal branding. He also provides various additional services such as retouching and editing, and works with clients to create a custom experience that meets their individual needs.

The portrait photography industry is challenging, but Vance’s distinctive style and approach sets him apart.

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Vance Gorman Jr. grew up in East New York, Brooklyn and faced many hardships as a victim of violence and poverty in an underserved community. Though his environment presented him with challenges, he never became a “product of his environment”. Instead, when he became of age he decided to join the brotherhood in the United States Marine Corps.

During his enlistment, Vance was imbued with the core values and pride of being a United States Marine. With a new station in life and more resources at his disposal, Vance was able to explore different mediums and opportunities. After working with combat cameramen on lengthy field operations, Vance discovered a passion for photography. He learned valuable skills and discipline for capturing authentic stories that connect with people. After the Marines, Vance self-funded his own photography business and continued to expand his skillset. He now aims to become a master photographer and teach photography to kids in his neighborhood, hoping to provide a positive outlet he didn’t have himself as a child.

Company: Woofbowl
Years in business: Four years

Woofbowl was built to create joy in pet food. They started as a food truck for dogs, serving the healthiest and freshest pet treats– with one catch. Each treat is inspired by and is a replica of food humans eat, including burgers, fries, beer, ice cream, and more. Woofbowl also builds community through their "pup-ups" in various NYC neighborhoods in partnership with other dog-friendly small businesses. Additional partnerships include organizations such as The Marine Corp Museum, Wounded Warriors, Brooklyn Museum, MLB, and the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Woofbowl is the Whole Foods and Shake Shack for the pet industry, which has little to no Black or Veteran-led companies. They seek to change that, and have the the right founders, story, and company to eventually become a household name.

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Ron Holloway is an American disabled-Veteran and co-founder of Woofbowl, a pet brand focused on hiring Veterans. He joined the military after 9/11 and served in the US Navy from 2001 to 2010. After witnessing a friend lose his life at sea, Ron became a High-Risk Water Survival Instructor - ultimately training 10,000 personnel. After military service, he earned a BS in Political Science from Old Dominion University and an MBA from College Park, Maryland. He has spoken on Veteran issues for President Barack Obama, Senator Jim Webb, and Navy League President John A. Panneton. He believes adversity is the achiever and hope is a call to action.

Company: TreeARMY Inc.
Years in business: Five years

TreeARMY is a veteran owned and operated Bronx-based business serving all of NYC with tree removal, tree pruning, planting and emergency response. They aim to better the community and environment while giving transitioning veterans and dependents a safe place to decompress and acclimate back into civilian life. By bridging the gap between the community and our veterans, TreeARMY aims to combat homelessness and veteran suicide.

TreeARMY employs veterans and military dependents, donates all hard wood to veterans to heat their homes, mulch to local NYC community gardens, and volunteers its services and vehicles at natural disaster zones around the country. Today, TreeARMY continues to employ and mentor veterans in need, serving the community where their roots have grown so strong, New York City.

In 2023, TreeARMY was awarded the Betty Campbell Adams Most Valuable Merchant Award and the Bronx Chamber of Commerce Veteran-Owned Business Award.

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SFC Nicholas Lynch Sr was born and raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. He left for the United States Army the day he graduated from high school, and quickly rose up the ranks in the US Army to become a well-respected Senior Non Commissioned Officer. After completing a tour in Kuwait from 1999 - 2000. After serving 23 honorable years, Nick retired from the military and became an Arborist, and founded TreeARMY alongside his wife Joelle.

SGT Joelle Lynch is a United States Army veteran, serving from 2004 to 2016. Sgt Lynch served with the 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion out of Yonkers and Orangeburg NY, as a 25L Cable Systems Installer Maintainer and cross trained in many other areas. In 2016, she played an integral part in establishing the Veterans Initiatives Office at the Prudential Insurance Company, to influence corporate and policy change for veterans.

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Company: Straylight Systems
Years in business: One year

Straylight Systems is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that believes AI should be explainable, trustworthy, and outcome-driven. Founded by a team of former federal regulators, national security experts, and fintech entrepreneurs, Straylight supports commercial and government customers operationalize their data by ingesting thousands of disparate and unstructured PDFs, text files, CSVs, audio, and video files to unify and normalize in seconds to accelerate and improve C-suite decisionmaking in the public and private sectors.

Utilizing Straylight’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI), customers can automate and accelerate critical steps to:

• Unlock structured and unstructured data in PDFs, CSV and text files

• Automate tagging and labeling of data, saving thousands of hours

Bio
Sergio Rodriguera Jr. served as a Naval Intelligence Officer on both active duty and as a reservist, where his last assignment was to lead a team of technologists advising the Director of Intelligence on emerging technology at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J-2). Through his six years of service, he earned the Joint Service Commendation Medal. He was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to the Trade Finance Advisory Council and by the Federal Reserve to the Fraud Working Group. He is a graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara and Naval War College.

In addition to co-founding Straylight Systems, Sergio is a Limited Partner at Mendoza Ventures, a Boston based early-stage venture capital fund. He also serves on the Advisory Board of emerging technology companies, including General Radar, Praxi Data and Metallicus. Most recently, he was Senior Consultant for AI/ML at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. There he advised the Strategy and Innovation team on how AI can be utilized to combat fraud, develop real-time payments, prove identity, and enable digital currencies.

Company: AJM Business Service, Inc.
Years in business: Over seven years

By trade, Dan Rossi is a sheet metal worker but has professionally transitioned to becoming a full time food vendor. He is a disabled veteran who enjoys serving food to people from all over the world.

Over the years, Dan helped to build the City’s food vending inspection program with the health department, including the application booklet for the licenses and permits required for food carts. No other non-city employee was ever asked to do that. When it comes to vending laws, Dan’s knowledge is unmatched.

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Dan Rossi joined the Marine Corps even before graduating high school. He served two tours in Vietnam in a helicopter squadron, HML-167. He had volunteered for a third tour but was honorably discharged with the rank of SGT with service connected disabilities.

After returning home to the Bronx, Dan entered a four-year sheet metal apprenticeship program and completed it in two and a half years. By the seventh year, he opened his own sheet metal shop to build food carts, and within ten years owned the largest food vending company in the City’s history. A local law reduced his ownership of 499 permits for the carts to just one permit, and so Dan reinvented himself by becoming a food vendor. He is now known internationally as “The New York Hot Dog King,” as noted by The New York Times.

Company: Mariachi’s Mexican Cantina
Years in business: Less than a year

Marlin Yinet Santos is a minority Veteran small business owner of Mariachis Mexican Cantina on Staten Island, which serves California-style Mexican food. Mariachis is a family style, pet-friendly restaurant where you come to have a wonderful time with friends and family. They pride themselves in serving the community and making sure that everyone feels welcome.

Mariachis is available for dine-in as well as take-out, and delivers throughout Staten Island. They employ eight local employees and hope to hire more in the near future.

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Marlin Yinet Santos served for three years on active duty in the Army. Her MOS was a 92A, an Automated logistical specialist and she was stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She also served overseas in Operation Iraqi Freedom for one year. Marlin separated from the Army at an E4 Corporal, and took hold of an opportunity to become an entrepreneur.

She has enjoyed the adventure and challenges that come with owning a small business, and has levered the skills taught in the Army to take her business to the next level.

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Company: Women of Color Rise
Years in business: Two years

Founded in 2021 by Analiza Wolf, the mission of Women of Color Rise is to elevate diverse leaders, especially women of color, to positions of power. The theory of change is that diverse leaders will be a force for more equitable systems – in non-profit, corporate, government, and the military. Currently, Women of Color Rise includes coaching, facilitation, and DEI and talent consulting.

Statistics show that leadership continues to be white and male dominated. Unfortunately, diverse leaders, especially women of color, do not have the knowledge and community they need to be able to rise in their careers. This initiative serves to support women of color in understanding that while there are systemic challenges, there are also actions they can take and a community to support them as they navigate their careers and make it to the C-Suite.

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Analiza Quiroz Wolf is a seasoned, certified executive coach and CEO of Women of Color Rise, an equity-based coaching firm focused on women and people of color. She coaches social entrepreneurs, C-suite leaders, Superintendents, and CEOs to build their businesses and non-profits and expand their impact. In her 20+ year career, Analiza has developed hundreds of executive leaders to move forward with clarity, confidence, and concrete tools for transformational change that centers equity. She has also consulted with organizations on diversity, equity, and inclusion projects.

Analiza has served as the CEO of a NYC charter school network, Brand Manager of a Fortune 200 company, and a Captain in the US Air Force. She graduated with her BA and BS from Stanford University, MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, and Master of Educational Leadership from the Broad Center (now at Yale). She was also a Fulbright Scholar, Pahara Fellow, and member of the Aspen Global Leaders Network.

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