From a high school entertainment business to a creative technology startup—and then helping founders find their own path.
Enter the story ↓
Dante Richardson / Collaboration & InnovationDante began building businesses while he was still in high school. His first venture was an entertainment management agency, putting creative talent, relationships, promotion, and the business of making things happen into the same room.
That early work grew into event promotion and management. Deleon Alford, a longtime friend and business partner, helped keep In3D MGMT operating during Dante’s incarceration. Their partnership later found a new expression in Stooty Technologies.
Starting an entertainment management business as a student meant learning how to pitch an idea, connect people, manage projects, and create an audience. That practical education shaped the ventures that followed. Bubble’s founder profile ↗
With co-founder Deleon Alford, Dante developed Stooty Technologies as a marketplace for creative production. The concept connected artists, studios, services, and spaces, with tools for creators to organize and sell their work. Buffalo Business First covered the East Side founders in 2022; the company participated in Launch NY’s Founders Go Big program. Read the coverage ↗
As a Founder in Residence in Bubble Immerse, Dante developed the software creation side of Stooty’s vision. Visual programming and product design became part of his toolkit for building with founders and clients. Explore the Bubble journey ↗
Dante later served as Ecosystem Development Lead for Upstate New York at gener8tor. The work extended his focus from building one venture to connecting founders, mentors, programs, and regional opportunities. His public professional profile lists the role beginning in April 2024. View the role record ↗
Stooty’s premise was that creative people needed infrastructure for production: a place to find collaborators and spaces, develop work, and transact around the services behind finished media. Dante described a creator-to-creator and creator-to-business market.
That shift—from one project to the system around it—also explains his move into product strategy and entrepreneurship ecosystem work.
Read the Stooty thesis ↗
The next chapter put Dante on the other side of the table: supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, evaluating student ventures, and helping connect people across the Niagara region.
Dante received the Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Collaboration and Innovation Award for his work connecting technology, education, and regional community initiatives.
Watch the award film ↗
UB named Dante to the final judging panel for its 2023 Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition, part of its Blackstone LaunchPad entrepreneurship ecosystem. He also mentored founders through the program.
Read UB’s recap ↗Watch the program film ↗
Dante served as a business mentor in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus IC Success accelerator, which paired early-stage entrepreneurs with experienced advisers. He worked with Sneakvibing founder Schondra Aytch as she developed the venture’s multimedia direction.
Explore IC Success ↗
Dante joined the “Filling Your Sales Pipeline” conversation as Stooty’s co-founder, alongside other Western New York founders and business leaders. The panel is another snapshot of how his work moved from promoting creative projects to developing products, partnerships, and sales strategy.
The founder's work expanded into advising companies on emerging technology, then into an agency of his own.
Dante advised novelty.today on Web3 product strategy, including ways blockchain and token-based participation could shape an on-chain résumé and community experience. He developed a proposed business strategy around tokenized activity and a community DAO.
Explore novelty.today ↗At trAInify, Dante contributes to AI education and workforce strategy, connecting organizational adoption, business development, and practical learning. The company develops AI training and implementation programs for professionals, educators, students, and teams.
Visit trAInify ↗After receiving the Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce's Collaboration and Innovation Award, Dante launched LATO House. The Niagara Falls agency brought together content creation, brand activation, and digital management—the next expression of his work across creators, technology, and business growth.
Explore LATO House ↗A profile on Dante, Deleon, In3D MGMT, and the move toward a creative marketplace.
Read the story ↗Reporting and television from Western New York as the Stooty story reached a wider audience.
Buffalo News ↗Daytime Buffalo ↗Video conversations and clips from the entrepreneurship journey.
Watch film 01 ↗Watch film 02 ↗View Facebook post ↗Television, recognition, and a founder interview document the work from different angles.
A Daytime Buffalo segment on Stooty Technologies and technology in the community.
Watch on YouTube ↗Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce recognition and Dante’s innovation work.
Watch on YouTube ↗A founder conversation about building from limited resources.
Watch on YouTube ↗Bubble’s founder profile records the high school business and Stooty vision. Contemporary reporting covers Stooty and its collaborators. Dante’s professional profile records the gener8tor role. UB documents his Panasci judging role, while BNMC describes the accelerator where he mentored. The company pages and Dante’s role descriptions give context for his advisory and agency work.