Steve Raines

Steve Raines is a Buffalo-based serial software entrepreneur, operator, and angel investor with more than two decades of experience building and leading technology companies. He earned a BA in English from the University at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo). In 1998 he co-founded and served as CEO of Algonquin (formerly Algonquin Studios), which he helped grow into one of Western New York's premier custom software development firms — a shop of roughly 60 employees across two New York offices that built B2B healthcare IT and enterprise software for clients in healthcare, finance, and hospitality for nearly 20 years. He describes his operating philosophy as "putting the right people in the right seats and giving them the tools to make amazing things, profitably."

Beyond Algonquin, Raines co-founded several ventures including SWRemote and VCAMP, and later co-founded and served as COO of two field-service software companies: Field Nimble (work-order/field service management software for small residential contractors) and Pointman, a SaaS field service management and coaching platform for home service businesses. Pointman acquired Field Nimble in August 2017, consolidating the two Buffalo teams. In 2020, Pointman was acquired by ServiceTitan, the Los Angeles-based unicorn serving HVAC, plumbing, and electrical contractors — a notable exit for the Buffalo startup ecosystem.

More recently, Raines has held senior engineering leadership roles: Director of Software Development at 19 Ideas (managing a global development team and serving as principal architect on a large government contract), Chief Technology Officer at CaseGlide (where he led the modernization of a legacy SaaS product to a contemporary stack while cutting infrastructure costs), and currently Head of Engineering at RouteGenie.

Alongside his operating career, Raines is active in the Buffalo/Upstate New York entrepreneurial community. He serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Launch NY — a nonprofit venture development organization that runs one of the most active seed funds in New York State — where he mentors early-stage founders. He is also a co-founder of Algonquin Sports for Kids, a nonprofit providing sports and literacy programming for young people. He invests personally as an angel and spends significant time mentoring emerging entrepreneurs.

• Invests at the seed / early stage, backing and mentoring emerging founders — "actively invests in and mentors emerging entrepreneurs."
• Sector affinity reflects his own operating background: B2B SaaS, professional services software, mobile solutions, and field service / home services technology.
• Strong regional focus on Buffalo and Upstate New York, working through Launch NY's mentorship network and seed pipeline (Launch NY's seed fund typically invests $25,000–$100,000 to help startups prove concept and scale).
• Values disciplined, profitable company-building — his stated philosophy centers on "putting the right people in the right seats and giving them the tools to make amazing things, profitably," suggesting a preference for capital-efficient, execution-focused teams over hype.
• Brings hands-on operating and engineering leadership, so he is likely to add value on product architecture, software team-building, and scaling SaaS operations.