Nasir Ali is a serial entrepreneur, venture investor and community builder.
Ali launched The Syracuse Technology Garden incubator in 2004, which subsequently became the epicenter of startup community activity in Central NY. He partnered with Martin Babinec to launch the nonprofit Upstate Venture Connect in 2010. Today, UVC’s team supports more than 750 startups across Upstate NY and its communications reach more than 15,000 startup community members. Under Ali’s leadership, UVC also created the UNY50 Entrepreneur Leaders group, and the annual Upstate Unleashed Founders Retreat and Venture Ecosystem Awards.
Ali is an active angel investor and venture fund manager. He was the founder and Executive Director of Upstate NY’s first angel fund in 2007 and supported the formation of similar angel funds in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and the Hudson Valley. In 2011, he launched StartFast Venture Accelerator, a private capital-backed startup accelerator program that invested in 48 pre-seed startups from 2012-2020. He is also the Managing Partner at StartFast Fund II, a Seed/A stage venture capital fund targeting B2B SaaS companies outside the coastal VC hubs. He is also a board member and advisor to numerous entities including NY Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Fitzgate Ventures and multiple portfolio companies.
Ali received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Princeton University. He also holds an MBA from Yale University.