BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo cut the ribbon Friday on its new 42,000 square foot incubator space for startup businesses in downtown Buffalo.

Sonya Tareke and two of her college classmates started a business last year, and they're taking advantage of the opportunity to use the incubator, located in the Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

"It started out as just a simple idea," Tarake said.

Their business, Real Talk, is an online platform for education technology that allows people to have open discussions about key issues like diversity and inclusion.

This is her first day working inside UB's new downtown incubator space for entrepreneurs like her.

"I think the space is key because if I'm in my bedroom I won't be as productive," she said. "There's so many distractions. Whereas if I'm here and I have other peers, it's almost competitive, right? You want to get a leg up."

And that's the goal behind this space. People can rent desks, offices, or even laboratories to work on their startup businesses.

They also have access to free services to help develop their plan through the UB's Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships. 

"If we help support businesses starting here and growing here, that adds jobs to our economy," said Christina Orsi, UB associate VP of Economic Development. "It helps support innovation in our economy and bring all kinds of new products and services from life-saving technology and vaccines to the market, to new software applications."

The incubator can house more than 100 startups, creating a place where people can take bold visions and make them reality.

"You're around other entrepreneurs given the size of the place," Tareke said. "And plus, we're ed-tech, so we're going to have a lot more opportunities to network with other peers who are working on other projects and building similar companies."