You want to coordinate Buffalo's ex-pats and turn scattered success into concentrated reinvestment. That takes a fund and a team to run it every day. Steve Coulton and Holly Hubert are proposing to be that team.
A hundred thousand people graduate from Erie County high schools every decade. Many have gone on to real success elsewhere. The talent and the capital already exist. What's missing is a way to find each other and point it home.
The comparison you drew is the right one: think about it the way a university thinks about its alumni. Great schools don't wait for donations to show up. They build an office, a database, a calendar, and a team whose whole job is to keep graduates engaged and giving. Buffalo has the alumni. It has never had the alumni office.
That office is what we're proposing to build and staff, structured as a fund so the reinvestment is disciplined, tracked, and returns something to the people who put money in.
A diaspora fund works when there's real momentum to invest behind. The last decade built the proof points. Capital is the constraint now, not opportunity.
Buffalo median list price hit $249,900 in 2025, up 16.2% on the year. Demand is outrunning supply.
Below the national line, with new tech and biomedical investment diversifying a once one-note economy.
Decades of decline have flattened. The story is stabilization and reinvestment, not managed decline.
The fund's whole job is this narrowing: take a wide, unorganized diaspora and convert it into a small, committed group that writes real checks and stays engaged. That's a sourcing-and-relationships problem, which is exactly what a dedicated team is for.
You said you're looking for 50 to 100 people in a similar position, willing to engage together. That's not a marketing problem you solve with a website. It's a full-time relationship business: identifying the right people, earning their trust, and giving them somewhere real to put money. That's the work we're volunteering for.
You bring the vision, the credibility, and the first commitment. Coulton and Hubert build and operate the vehicle underneath it, so it becomes a real institution instead of a good intention.
A purpose-built vehicle for Buffalo reinvestment: mixed-use and downtown residential, local ventures, catalytic projects like the Golisano Institute. Governed, tracked, and reported like the institution it should be.
The database, the outreach engine, the events. We find the ex-pats, tell the Buffalo story, and convert interest into the 50–100 founding partners you're after.
Disciplined diligence on projects that move the needle on vibrancy and jobs, with a bias toward the downtown-residential and mixed-use gaps you've pointed to.
Financial returns to partners, and a public scoreboard of what the fund built in Buffalo. The proof that keeps the next cohort of the diaspora coming home.
The credibility gap in most "give back to your hometown" pitches is that nobody's actually accountable for the day-to-day. This one has named principals with Buffalo skin in the game.
Founder of Coulton Ventures, a plug-and-play partner for business development, partnerships, and deal sourcing across sports, real estate, and early-stage ventures. Steve spends his days doing exactly what this fund needs: finding the right people, building the relationship, and getting to yes. Buffalo-rooted and active across the region's founder and investor networks.
A Buffalo-based executive and civic leader with deep ties across the region's business, security, and startup communities. Holly brings operating discipline and a trusted local reputation, the credibility that makes ex-pats confident their money is being handled seriously and close to home.
Principal bios are working drafts for this proposal. Steve and Holly will finalize titles, track record, and roles before anything goes to prospective partners.
You've described the goal in public. We'd like 30 minutes to walk you through how a Coulton–Hubert-run fund would execute it, and to hear where you'd push back. If the shape is right, you'd be the anchor and the first name in the founding class.