Sometimes the best thing you can do for your Vermont roots is leave them. Not permanently, not apologetically, but intentionally. In other words, go out, plug into something bigger, and come back with more than you left with.
It’s easy to assume that leaving means chasing something else. That you’re abandoning Vermont for a bigger city, a faster lane. But the real risk isn’t leaving, it’s staying invisible. If we don’t go, no one knows about Novamera and their surgical mining technology that’s changing an entire industry. Or a team of nuclear engineers at VCET designing modular reactors for many of the nation’s largest projects. The work is extraordinary. But extraordinary work still needs a room.
Last week, Dave and I went to a16z’s Boston Tech Week. Hundreds of events, old friends, new connections. But one moment stood out. It was an early morning filled with eager founders, investors and Boston Tech Week enthusiasts at the MTLC Innovation unConference. An ecosystem-O.G. called out VCET within the first minute of the opening remarks. Not because we lobbied for it. Because the work speaks. The advising, the community building, our investing, and the founders we’ve walked alongside. It’s registering beyond our borders.
And then there was Colin Riggs and Diane Abruzzini-Riggs from Rigorous Technology. They didn’t just attend every robotics event, they were sought out. People wanted to know what they were building and why Amazon Robotics ex-COO just joined their Board. They offered expertise, fielded questions, and held their own in a room that had no idea they came from Vermont. They went as founders. They showed up as experts.
That’s what leaving looks like when you do it right. They came back with a stronger network and deeper trust with experts across the industry. Relationships matter!
There’s a version of building a company in Vermont that stays entirely inside Vermont. The community here is real and it matters. But there’s a bigger network out there that wants to hear from you, learn from you, and fund you. You just have to show up.
VCET exists to help you do both. To build something grounded here and yet connected everywhere. So Vermont founders (or anyone building in a rural area), this one’s for you. Don’t feel bad about going to Boston, New York, or Austin to expand your network and your thinking. People want to hear what you’re building just as much as you want to hear from them. When you walk into those rooms, people notice. I promise you, they will be impressed…and maybe a little jealous too.
-Nicole
