When NewPath Learning applied for a $13,910 Finger Lakes Wired grant, it had only four employees, a business strategy and seed funding from its owners. It had no product and no revenues, says Kurt Gelke, President of NewPath.

Now the company has 11 employees, distributed its first catalog nearly a year ago, and at the end of 2007 was on track to meet its annual revenue goals, Gelke says.

“More importantly, we will show significant growth and a breakthrough into profitable operations in 2008,” Gelke says.

NewPath Learning publishes supplemental educational products for grades one through eight, Math, Language Arts, Social Studies and Science. The company’s product line consists of an array of proprietary games and workbooks – each supplemented with Web-based activities, assessments and content to provide an engaging means of educating students on key, curriculum-based topics.

The Wired funding went to the training of NewPath’s staff in the use of a newly purchased MAS90 operating system.

“This system allows us to operate in a highly efficient mode and has greatly enhanced our productivity,” Gelke says. “Bottom line – this training was absolutely essential to the development and growth of our company.”

RochesterWorks! was able to turn NewPath's application around quickly within three days, says Claudia Burcke, Business Services Manager at RochesterWorks!

"We had to get clarification on some of the training that NewPath was doing and how it was going to lead to retention, promotability and moving the trainees up the career ladder," Burcke says.

Gelke describes the application process for the Wired Scholarship as “painless.” He had looked at government programs in the past but passed on them as the application process or associated administrative requirements were too onerous to make the funding worth the investment in acquiring it. “That was not the case here,” he says.

This is the type of business that we really enjoy working with - small, locally-based, one who will invest in its workforce, Burcke says.