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By Dan Miner – Reporter, Buffalo Business First
Jan 28, 2021, 12:00pm EST
As Connor Knapp’s career as a professional goaltender was winding down, he was frustrated by the lack of control he had over his own pathway.
Knapp is a Geneseo native who was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres and played in two games in the 2013-14 season. That was before he was stuck in a journeyman’s role that saw him bumped around to different leagues, teams and cities.
From this experience, the mindset of an entrepreneur was created. For better or worse, Knapp plans to make his own decisions.
“The biggest thing for me is that you control your own destiny,” Knapp said. “You make the ultimate decision on things, and if you are successful it’s great and you can take pride in it. If you screw up or things don’t go according to plan, you try and make up for it.”
Knapp spent the last couple summers of his hockey career working with childhood teammate-turned-successful businessman Pete Bruckel.
By late 2016, Knapp was mulling continuing his career in Europe or possibly entering the field of medical device sales. Bruckel suggested doing his own thing.
The two friends co-founded Sterling Heart Care in 2017, working with local cardiologists to build specialized cardiovascular treatment centers. The company – built in the model of a scalable startup business – was starting to grow last year. The early months of 2020 saw Sterling turn the corner on profitability, but the Covid-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on its progress.
For Knapp, the issue of personal protective equipment became paramount to in-person interactions with heart disease patients. He scoured the world for reputable makers of masks and shields, a frustrating process that mostly involved middlemen hocking shoddy products for outrageous prices.
“It was super frustrating, and it really framed in my mind how bad our PPE issue is here in the United States,” he said. “It was causing a real problem.”
An idea was born. Knapp and Bruckel are the co-founders of a new company, NYPPE Inc., which aims to make affordable N95 surgical masks for health-care customers in the U.S. The company recently received a $1 million grant from New York state to assist with startup costs, which it is matching with its own funding, adding up to a roughly $2 million project.
NYPPE soon plans to install newly acquired equipment at a 4,250-square-foot facility in Kenmore, where it will begin by hiring about 16 people to run its first production shift.
First it will build prototypes that are certified by agencies such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and then enter relationships with high-value customers who are desperate for reputable PPE distributors.
Knapp believes the demand is only going to accelerate. The company is in conversations with National Grid, the New York Power Authority, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and the Northland Workforce Training Center on various potential partnerships.
“We’re most likely going to be dealing with (the public health crisis) well into 2021,” he said. “We have a huge list of potential customers, and though we span the entire country, our ideal situation is that we’re selling most of our products locally in Western New York.”
In the meantime, Knapp’s enthusiasm for Sterling has not dampened. The business has eight full-time employees, two cardiologist-partners and a dedicated investor in Bruckel. He said the goal is to prove out the model on a first site, which will open up potential partnerships going forward.
It’s a lot to consider – kind of like a goalie trying to hold a lead while getting peppered in the third period. Knapp is undeterred.
“I have a lot of late nights, but I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else,” he said. “It’s extremely rewarding and everything I’m doing, I’m constantly learning and try to adapt.”
