buffalo-startup
(2)
The $50 Banana That Outlived Its Own Punchline
It began as a joke on a Buffalo desk - a guy holding a banana to his ear so nobody would bug him. Six years and $1.6 million in sales later, the joke has a battery, a Bluetooth chip, and a cause.
FavorDrop
FavorDrop is a Buffalo, New York software company that turns customer appreciation into a measurable marketing channel. Businesses send time-bound digital gifts - loaded onto a FavorDrop Discover Network prepaid card that works anywhere Discover is accepted - to customers by text or email, then track when each gift is opened and redeemed. Founded by father-and-son team Tim and Jack Sardinia in 2021, the platform started as a way to remotely buy a friend a drink and grew into a customer-engagement and rewards tool used by car dealerships, insurers, home-services firms, restaurants and staffing agencies. A patented 'bounce back' feature returns any unredeemed gift to the sender at expiration, so unclaimed budget is reused rather than lost.