Entrepreneur
Paychex
Investments in Other Companies
Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship
Buffalo Sabres
Paychex
2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of Paychex by Tom Golisano. Paychex began with an industry-shaking insight. Tom was working for a company that provided payroll services to large regional and national businesses. He knew that about 90 percent of U.S. businesses had only a few employees — a statistic that remains true today. He recognized that payroll providers ignored the needs of millions of small businesses even though they shared many of the same challenges as larger companies. Paychex celebrates this important milestone by upholding the principles on which our company was built — listening to clients, anticipating their needs, and supporting them with innovative technology and dedicated, personalized service.
Paychex, Inc. is a recognized leader in the payroll, human resource, and benefits outsourcing industry, with a steadfast commitment to success and a record of achievement that continues a tradition of delivering excellence.
The company was founded in 1971 by B. Thomas Golisano with just $3,000 and a good idea – to make payroll outsourcing easy and affordable for small businesses. From those early days with just one employee, Paychex now has more than 12,000 employees serving more than half a million small- to medium-sized businesses nationwide.
Paychex serves approximately 605,000 payroll clients as of May 31, 2017 across more than 100 locations and pays one out of every 12 American private sector employees. The company offers an ever-growing variety of payroll and human resource products and services that help clients do what they do best — run their business. With a wide range of services – including payroll processing, retirement services, insurance, and a fully outsourced human resource solution – Paychex customizes its offering to the client’s business, whether it is small or large, simple or complex.
Paychex joined the NASDAQ-100 Index®, comprised of 100 of the largest non-financial stocks listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market.
Paychex founder B. Thomas Golisano retired from his position as president and CEO in 2004 and continued to serve as Chairman of the Board until December 1, 2021, when Martin Mucci succeeded him and assumed that role.
Investments in Other Companies
Tom Golisano’s investments have helped drive the success of numerous businesses and start-ups including the following:
3AM Innovations shapes technology to protect those who protect us. Its LORIAN software platform provides first responders with an adaptive 3D toolset, designed to empower tactics and connect decision makers. Leveraging the interoperability of IoT, 3AM continues to integrate FLORIAN with partners who can help save lives. With decades of incident command experience and the power of artificial intelligence, 3AM is converting the organized chaos of an emergency into actionable intelligence.
Adventive alows clients to create, manage, serve and analyze rich media ads, in one platform. Its team works with some of the most innovative, hip, energetic publishers, agencies, and brands spanning the globe.
Botkeeper is a more accurate, more affordable, and highly scalable bot powered bookkeeper that’s excellent at automating data entry accurately, 24/7. Through it accounting partners, it provides automated bookkeeping support to businesses of all sizes using a powerful combination of talented people, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Circinus Medical Technology provides a unique platform for surgical navigation that allows surgeons to perform surgery with a greater degree of safety and confidence, thereby improving patient outcomes.
Based in Victor, NY, Cognivue was designed to measure a patient’s early clinical risk score objectively, quantitatively and reliably. It allows you to preserve a patients’ cognitive health by establishing a baseline cognitive risk score that can be monitored over time. It is the first cognitive test cleared by the FDA for patients over the age of 55.
Dinamic OR standardizes operating room organization with an ergonomic and intuitive Workflow Management System – improving the efficiency and reproducibility of surgical processes which will enable perioperative staff to focus on providing thoughtful patient care.
Based in Rochester, NY, Greenlight builds its own fiber connections for clients, providing an extremely fast and affordable Internet service for a wide range of customers.
Kickfurther is a developer of an inventory crowdfunding platform that facilitates users to participate in a crowdfunding campaign to purchase the inventory that the campaigner needs, thereby enabling businesses to raise cash to support and propel their growth.
Kodak is a global technology company focused on print and advanced materials & chemicals. It provides industry-leading hardware, software, consumables and services primarily to customers in commercial print, packaging, publishing, manufacturing and entertainment. It is committed to environmental stewardship and ongoing leadership in developing sustainable solutions. Kodak’s broad portfolio of superior products, responsive support and world-class R&D make Kodak solutions a smart investment for customers looking to improve their profitability and drive growth.
Line 5 partners with automotive dealers to finance vehicle protection plans for Automobiles, SUVs, Trucks and more, sold through the dealers.
PostProcess Technologies is the only provider of automated and intelligent post-printing solutions for 3D printed parts. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Buffalo, NY, USA, with international operations in Sophia-Antipolis, France, PostProcess removes the bottleneck in the third step of 3D printing – post-printing – through patent-pending software, hardware, and chemistry technologies.
Viridi Parente delivers solutions to tomorrow’s problems, today. Our proprietary Whispertech™ and Whisperdrive™ solutions are powering the future of mobile and in- place energy usage. We deliver customer-focused solutions, blending environmentally-conscious products with a bottom line mentality.
With locations throughout Florida and New York, Zoom Tan provides clients with the highest level of tanning at affordable prices.
Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship
Tom Golisano created the Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship to offer an accelerated, non-traditional, affordable business education.
Classes run weekdays with an 11-week on and two-week off cycle, allowing students time to hold employment while earning their certificate. Wednesdays feature seminars delivered by prominent local, regional, and national business leaders recruited by Tom Golisano for their unique insight and value to the program.
Creating connections and building relationships with executives and community leaders is a critical part of the Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship learning experience, setting up students for success through real-world guidance and mentorships.
Buffalo Sabres
During the four seasons Golisano owned the Sabres, fans flocked back to HSBC Arena in record numbers as the Sabres became one of the most exciting teams in the NHL. Buffalo came within one win of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006, and followed that up with a Presidents’ Trophy in 2006-07, and a return trip to the Conference Finals.
Ticket sales climbed, the Sabres became financially stable. Golisano eventually sold the Sabres in 2011 to Terry Pegula.
Six months before I agreed to buy them, I swore I’d never own a sports team. But no one stepped up to the plate for this community. That was my motivation.
Video: In his own words, interview with Golisano and Vic Carrucci (Buffalo News)