Myneco Ramirez started the Tech Startup Expo in Rochester, NY to support local tech startups. The first expo had over 150 people and 70 companies. Ramirez earned a degree from RIT and worked for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, learning how to organize events. She is now focused on expanding Rochester's expo scene to help tech startups connect and strengthen the community.

1. Reprinted with permission of the Rochester Business Journal.
faststart
04.15.16
VOLUME 32, NUMBER 2 WWW.RBJDAILY.COM APRIL 15, 2016
Myneco Ramirez
wants to give tech folks
best expo experience
BY KERRY FELTNER
W
hen one of Rochester’s own sin-
glehandedly set out to help the
tech startup ecosystem in Monroe
County, the community responded.
Myneco Ramirez owns MBR Concepts
LLC. Her company runs the Tech Startup
Expo, an event she started last October to
support the local startup scene.
The initial expo drew more than 150
people and featured over 70 companies.
“When I finally allowed myself to see
that I’m adding value to someone’s or-
ganization, someone’s business and then
their life, that’s when I (know) I can’t
stop,” she says. “A lot of people that
doubted that I would be able to put on
the event—now that I did one it’s made
it a little bit easier.”
The annual event helps technology start-
ups across the region find one another
and make connections. Ramirez’s goal:
to strengthen the community’s promising
businesses.
Ramirez is also applying the expo model
to day care services; the Daycare Expo is
slated to start this August.
The Chicago native earned a B.S. degree
in information technology from Rochester
Institute of Technology in 2009.
“I had never heard of Rochester and nev-
er heard of RIT,” she says. “They had the
information technology program, which a
lot of schools didn’t have in 2004.”
During one of her co-ops she worked
for the Mitt Romney presidential cam-
paign—an experience she never antici-
pated. Ramirez helped set up networks at
locations during the primary season, trav-
eling to Florida, Vermont, New Hampshire
Expanding Rochester’s expo scene
Photo by Kimberly McKinzie

2. Reprinted with permission of the Rochester Business Journal.
and Michigan in the process.
“It was such a fun job,” Ramirez says.
“Some days I would go in at 7 a.m. and not
leave until 7 at night, but we traveled all
over the place. For the different primaries
I would set up the networks in all of these
different areas.”
The experience taught her not only to
be agile on the technical side of things but
also to run events.
“On the technical side I learned a lot
about the networks and just building net-
works because I kind of had to do it my-
self,” Ramirez says. “But probably the
most interesting thing that I can finally
look back now and say that I learned is
how to organize events.”
A six-week study abroad trip to Marburg,
Germany, helped her see the strengths of
her own country.
“I wanted to learn how to speak Ger-
man,” Ramirez says. “When I was at RIT
something clicked where it was like I want
to learn German and I want to go to Ger-
many. It was really interesting: It wasn’t
until I went over there that I started to feel
proud to be an American.”
After college and her travels abroad,
Ramirez received two job offers in Roch-
ester that brought her back to the area. She
began working for Sutherland Global Ser-
vices in 2009.
“I got job offers here in Rochester (but) I
didn’t want to come back because I thought
Henrietta was Rochester,” Ramirez says.
“The whole time at RIT you’re kind of in
a bubble, but I just came back and I started
working.”
She left after a few months to become
the network technician and, soon after,
help desk manager with the Spencerport
Central School District. The opportunity
expanded her skills, she said.
“I did some amazing things,” Ramirez
says. “We created a help desk. We want-
ed to centralize the support so when the
teachers had problems, (or) the adminis-
trators, they could call into one number
to get help.”
While working for the district she co-
founded Little Miss Babycakes LLC, a
business that specialized in creating a
“cake” made out of diapers for baby show-
ers or other special events. She ran the
business from 2011 to 2014.
“The idea was I always wanted to make
something that was nice but also practi-
cal,” Ramirez says.
During that time she attended an expo in
California that helped her see the poten-
tial for expanding Rochester’s expo scene.
In 2012 Ramirez became a help desk
technician for Iv4 Inc. before transition-
ing to the University of Rochester Medical
Center where she was a technology admin-
istrator in 2013. She left to run her own
company full time in 2015. Today she is
focused on creating the best expo experi-
ence possible.
“From every single experience—get-
ting exposed to the expos, knowing how
to put events together from the Mitt Rom-
ney days—that’s when I was like, maybe I
can create an event where it will help these
tech people coming in and learn how to do
the business part.
“The concept is so simple but it is a lot
of work. It’s really expanding very quick-
ly,” she adds.
Though Ramirez and her husband have
considered leaving Rochester in the past,
today they are glad they never did. Roch-
ester is the right city to launch her busi-
ness, she says.
“I know that a format like this would
work for other areas, but I am only inter-
ested in doing it in Rochester and expand-
ing it here because of the fact that our in-
frastructure is so easy to get in anyplace,”
Ramirez says. “I think it’s a phenomenal
place to build a tech company because not
only do you have accessibility in driving
but you also have this access to people who
can do things for you.
“We’re trying to encourage people to
stay in Rochester. And I really want people
to consider Rochester as a great place to
start a company,” she adds.
Ramirez stays focused on what role she
can play in the community.
“One of the things that I always try to
think about in my head is: The results of
success are always better than the idea of
failure,” she says. “For me I had to finally
allow myself to see that this is my passion,
what I’m doing helping these people, and
this is my purpose in life.”
kfeltner@rbj.net / 585-546-8303