Terry Nawrot and Joe Tyler are Co-founders and Managing Partners for SpringStart, an early stage investor in Saratoga Springs, NY. Tyler and Nawrot also co-own Inbox Holdings, a holding company for technology firms with a total of 50+ employees. Tyler founded and was formerly CEO of, Informz, an email marketing company that they sold to HigherLogic in 2017. Joe has a BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University, a MS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland and is a former US Army officer. He lives in Greenfield Center, NY with his wife and 2 daughters.

Nawrot was formerly COO of Informz, and she led the growth of the sales, marketing, product management, customer service and operations teams from their infancy to a company with over 70 staff and 1500 clients. Prior to Informz, Nawrot worked in the publishing industry with Delmar Thompson Learning (currently Cengage) and for MapInfo (currently Pitney Bowes). Terry has a BS in Marketing from SUNY Oswego. She lives in Wilton, NY with her husband and 3 sons.  

Background:

Tyler founded Visionary Software Solutions in 1997 as a custom software company primarily servicing General Electric businesses. He pivoted the company to become an email marketing provider and renamed the company to Informz in 2004. The product quickly found traction with National and Statewide Associations.

In 2005, as a result of customer growth, Nawrot, who was an Informz user, was brought on as an eMarketing Advisor to provide customer support. She began working with clients and quickly became the manager of the team. In 2008, Nawrot was promoted to COO at Informz and ran the day to day operations. She focused on strategy, growing the company and led client support and services, sales and marketing, product management, and professional services.

Together, Tyler and Nawrot jointly grew Informz from a small startup to a 70-person organization with over 1500 clients. They focused on creating a great company culture through their communication initiatives, accountability, giving back to the community, providing an award-winning work environment and family-friendly employee benefits. As a result, Informz won Best Places to Work 3 years in a row, was on the Inc 5000 for 4 years, and received Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Culture award in 2017. Informz also received the 2017 Corporate Volunteer of the Year award for the Albany, NY area.

In early 2017, Tyler and Nawrot decided to sell Informz, and after a whirlwind of negotiations, the company was acquired later that year by Higher Logic.

Tyler and Nawrot left Informz, and relishing the thrill of creating and watching a company flourish, they launched SpringStart, a Venture Capital firm geared for early-stage startups.

Today, they are on the hunt for startups and business ideas that they can help cultivate to become great companies.