Schenectady

For Jason Nadaf, the founder and CEO of SureDone, the transition to opening a second office in Schenectady has been a walk in the park.

SureDone, an e-commerce software company, has its headquarters in New York City. But it recently opened a new office in Schenectady as it expands its sales force and customer service team.

To travel between the two offices, Nadaf only has a short walk to Penn Station from his Manhattan office to grab a train north.

And when he arrives at the Schenectady Amtrak station, he only has to walk across Erie Boulevard to his new office at the New York BizLab, a business incubator at 251 State St.

"It makes it really convenient," Nadaf says of the State Street location.

SureDone, which has raised $1.5 million in venture funding so far but does not release its revenues, helps people and businesses sell their products from a variety of e-commerce websites such as Amazon.com, Google and eBay.

It also helps manage their inventory and shipments through third-party companies like ShipWorks that have automated software that prints shipping labels and processes returns.

SureDone is the first tenant of the New York BizLab, which is owned by Antonio Civitella, CEO of Transfinder, a Schenectady company that specializes in transportation management software.

Although New York BizLab is part of the Cuomo administration's Start-Up NY tax-free program, SureDone's path to the Capital Region had more to do with Derek Demeo, the company's head of sales.

Demeo, who was hired two years ago, is a Schenectady resident who grew up in the city and convinced Nadaf to open an office in the Capital Region.

They started with a small location last year in Latham, and after meeting Civitella, they were sold on the State Street location, which is still under renovation.

Demeo has been tasked to hire sales professionals — the company calls them "sales engineers" for their need for technical expertise.

Nadaf says they must be adept enough at sales and customer service that they should be able to quickly walk new customers through using SureDone's software, which allows them to instantly list their products for sale on a variety of websites.

"We do it very well," Nadaf said. "You want to use eBay, you want to use Amazon, you come to us for that."

As part of Start-Up NY, Nadaf has promised to hire 26 people in the Schenectady office over five years. But he is planning to add at least 15 people by the end of 2015, saying he wants to grow the company fast to get ahead of its competitors.

The company currently has six people in New York City and five in Schenectady.

"I'm not expanding my New York City office," Nadaf said. "This is the office that we want to grow."

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison