Happy New Year!
Why do we get out of bed every morning?
Entrepreneurs.
We had a pretty great year, and we owe it all to Vermont’s kickass entrepreneurs. They are the ones who are making it happen everyday. Our friends often ask us, “What’s going on a VCET these days?”
So we thought we’d share a few of our favorite things that helped move the needle in 2018.
- Tipping the scales. Welcomed some of Vermont’s most noteworthy scaling companies to meet and mentor our members including Seventh Generation, Darn Tough, American Meadows, and King Arthur Flour, pluswe added two portfolio companies: Burlington Code Academy and UVM licensee Benchmark Space Systems.
- Hey there! Added more than 70 new members to our three communities in Burlington and Middlebury . We <3 our members so dang much.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
- Small companies. Big impact. A subset of overall impacts include what our 51 portfolio companies have cumulatively racked up. So far, these 51 companies have raised $215M in capital, supported $132M in payroll, and generated $153M in revenues. Check out our impacts!
- Need inspiration? Here it is. The Female Founders Speakers Series continues with Season 3. More than 750 people have attended and together we raised over $5,000 for VT Works for Women. This series is broadcasted across public access stations throughout Vermont.
Dave and Sam record Start Here with Skida’s Corinne Prevot in March.
- Pitch it. Over just 20 days, 44 amazing applications were received from across Vermont and six presented as finalists at the first Female Founders Start Here Challenge in partnership with Middlebury College. $25,000 in grant funding was awarded to Elmore Mountain Therapeutics($20k) and Overeasy ($5k).
- New bennies! Added to our membership perks with our partnerships with Digital Ocean, Google Cloud for Startups, Retroactdev, Three Chimney Farm, and local businesses. Startups across Vermont can now get up to $100,000 in cloud credits, a fresh vegetable CSA, and killer local deals.
The judges and winners of the Female Founders Start Here Challenge pitch event. Congrats to Elmore Mountain Therapeutics and Overeasy!
Burlington Code Academy’s Cohort 0 Demo Night was a packed house!
- Check your coat at the door! We were thrilled to support Meetup groupsfor Game Developers, Robotics, Data Science, Healthcare and another 45 Burlington Code events…not to mention our 60+ in-house events: including monthly First Friday Happy Hours, Morning Mojos, yoga organized by member Betsy Nesbitt (Flyway Wellness), CFA Society’s Annual Institute Research Challenge, and Lunch and Learns, where we learned about AWS, social media, marketing, algorithms, real estate investing, R&D tax credits, and much more!
- They grow up so fast! Proudly watched our startups #ScaleHere! Fluency,Widget Brain, EZ Probate, Staple Health, NextCapital, Faraday andOhMD all added members to their teams, Burlington Code Academylaunched their first cohorts, and Sundae Month expanded to Winooski (luckily, they kept a VCET membership so we didn’t have to say goodbye).
Rise and grind! Just a typical morning at VCET.
We made goals this year…and crushed them.
- Swimming with sharks. Sap! had their big moment in the spotlight with their appearance on Shark Tank. Oh, did you miss it? Watch here!
- #winning. Congratulated 4 member companies who participated in the 2018 LaunchVT Cohort: Steven Berlin (Varises), Benny Boas and Alex Horner (Burlington Code Academy), Jason Shafer (Northview Weather), and Byron Batres (EZ Probate) and 2 member companies for winning LaunchVT Collegiate, Andrew Smith (Beach It) and Michael Wolfe (Pure Investments). Also, members comprised 6 of 13 nominees across 3 categories for this year’s Vermont Tech Jam Awards. And members Burlington Code Academy and Maureen McElaney were awarded Jammies for the Startup and Ambassador categories.
- Better together. Member companies Ona and ThinkMD formed a partnership after meeting at VCET@BTV to improve health access and outcomes for children in Africa.
Women of VCET enjoy a beautiful summer afternoon.
Congressman Peter Welch pays a visit in October!
Georgia Grace Edwards and Bianca Gonzalez of VCET member company SheFly launch their “Outdoor pants designed by women, for women.”
Eva Shaw, co-founder of VCET member company Overeasy sports her debut product, the HoodE.
VCET
- Bienvenue! Benvenuto! Willkommen! We warmly welcomed manyinternational guests including Lord Mayor of Zittau, Germany, the Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Mulhall, Dartmouth YALI Fellows, and Latin America and the Caribbean Fellows with the Vermont Council on World Affairs.
- Content is queen! Thanks to VCET member and developer Eric Olsen of Perfect Day Media, we launched our new website packed with content that every entrepreneur needs.
- Nurturing the seedlings… Kicked off our 6th Year of Midd Entrepreneurs at Middlebury College. Student entrepreneurs included SheFly, BeachItand Overeasy.
- Oh, gosh… it’s nothing. Just kidding. Look what we won! Proudly receivedRETN’s Community Partner of the Year Award and the RURAL IMPACT Award in February 2018 by INBIA!
Winooski High School business students visit VCET@BTV in October.
- Breaking news. Shared stories of accidental and aspiring entrepreneurs on our TV stations! Local 22 and Local 24 and made headlines in Vermont Sports Magazine, Bostinno, Forbes, Vermont Quarterly, and Livability.
- Start Here started again. Released 11 new episodes of our podcast,Start Here, featuring Lisa Groeneveld, co-founder of Logic Supply, Corinne Prevot, founder of Skida, Alan Newman, co-founder ofGardener’s Supply, Seventh Generation, Magic Hat, and many others.
- Let’s team up! In partnership with the State of Vermont and the University of Vermont, co-hosted Vermont’s first NSF iCorps Short Course to aid commercialization of science and technologies from faculty, researchers and the private sector.
Burlington Young Professionals and VCET team up for a very festive Ugly Sweater Party!
Oh, and before you go…
It has been another great year of successes, none of which would be possible without our members, portfolio companies, mentors, and trusted board of directors and advisors. Our sincerest gratitude to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, the University of Vermont, Dr. John Evans and the Vermont Technology Council, Consolidated Communications, the State of Vermont, Middlebury College, and VEDA. Together, we have made VCET the innovation epicenter in Vermont where higher education, economic development and entrepreneurs intersect in order to start and scale new business ventures. Here’s to another great year! We love where we live.
With gratitude,
Dave, Sam, Phoebe, and Taylor
