Mike Lane / Board Member Spotlight

In 1998, Mike Lane co-founded Dealer.com, a digital marketing company for the automotive industry. He served as the COO for 16 years before Dealer.com sold for $1.1B in 2014. Now, Mike is CEO/Co-Founder of Fluency, a tech automation platform which is nearing 100 employees. In this Q&A, Lane discusses his entrepreneurial spirit, his close ties to VCET, and his love for Vermont. 

Blaise: You are a lifelong Vermonter. Tell me about your upbringing in the Green Mountain State.

Mike: I was born in Burlington and grew up in Georgia, Vermont. We biked through the woods, built trails, and had no cell phones. That’s pretty much what kid-life was in Vermont. And then I started working when I was about 13 at local campgrounds down the street. I worked there for years. I learned how to be efficient, smart, and understand a business. I was always super curios. 

Blaise: After graduating from Essex High School, you attended Clarkson University in New York. What did you study there?

Mike: I studied Engineering Management. I really loved that and got two minors in marketing and technical communications. When I graduated, I ended up in Boston where there was a high demand for people that could understand the business application of software. I walked right into that and loved it. I worked for some pretty big groups down [in Boston] for a year and then ultimately came back to Vermont to start Dealer.com. 

Blaise: Many people know Dealer.com as one of the more successful entrepreneurial ventures in the state of Vermont. You co-founded the company in 1998 with four others. What were the early days like?

Mike: We were all young and naive. In SaaS, there’s a lot of trial and error. When we started the company, we wrote a 100 page business plan, because that’s what we thought people wanted. Today, if someone gave me that, I would just hand it back to them and say, ‘I’m never going to read that. Give me ten slides or less.’ When we started, it was a lot of… figuring out what was going to resonate with folks. 

Blaise: Was it hard to build and scale Dealer.com in Vermont?

Mike: I don’t know if there were many advantages, especially in the early days. It was difficult. I spent many days talking to state legislators about building a tech economy here. The biggest challenge was really finding a qualified workforce. Towards the end of my tenure… we were hiring classes of 20 people starting every three weeks. Trying to find that many people here was very difficult. We had to figure out new ways to find and connect with people. We also nearly went bankrupt in 2001. The economy was crashing, we were going to take on money, we weren’t profitable yet. We were dead in the water and didn’t have enough money to make payroll in the coming weeks. And luckily, we found some angel investors who were able to get us through. So that was a moment of luck in time, but they didn’t give us everything, they gave us enough to squeak by. And then we got profitable and that hard work and that lucky moment got us to the next spot. 

Blaise: What are you the most proud of from your time at Dealer.com?

Mike: I’m most proud of seeing [our employees] grow. I’ve hired people who have started their own companies by now. They’ve sold those companies. That’s probably the most personally rewarding thing I’ve seen. You know you were a part of their early days, of helping get their career moving in a direction that was ultimately going to make them happy and give them a fruitful life. 

Blaise: Why did you join the VCET board?

Mike: I was aware of VCET just because they were around. [As COO of Dealer.com], I was out there preaching that the state should be thinking about tech companies. They are clean, higher paying, and this ecosystem would attract more talent to the state. And lo and behold, I heard [David Bradbury] speaking somewhere, saying the same thing and helping make that happen. When Dave asked me if I wanted to join the board, I knew it was 100% the right thing to be focused on. 

Blaise: What makes VCET unique?

Mike: The door’s open to anyone that’s serious about taking action. I always tell people, it takes a year from the time you think you have an idea to when you’re ready to do something about it. It’s a year of planning, getting advice, and sharing ideas with people. VCET has been a great place where I’ve pushed people to sort their ideas. VCET’s one of those places you can connect and get some structure moving. There are other consultants, but VCET’s the stable presence that’s been there for a long time. 

Blaise: In 2017, three years after selling Dealer.com, you founded Fluency, a digital advertising platform provider. Would you describe yourself as a serial entrepreneur?

Mike: I would characterize it as I can’t sit still that long. There’s always something to do. And some friends were thinking about doing something, and through a bunch of conversations, we understood we had a great group of people that were very driven to start a new company. And you don’t have to convince me that’s the right thing to do. In November of 2017, Fluency was born.

Blaise: Last year, when we profiled you last, Fluency had just been named to the Inc. 5,000 list of fastest-growing private businesses in the country. What have been some recent successes?

Mike: Things continue to go well. We’re really focused on culture. We are [fully] remote but we’ll do daily stand-up meetings for the whole company. And we just flew everyone in for a week in Vermont. We have people in 22 states now and we’re nearing 100 in the organization. We continue to grow, we’re profitable, and we continue to invest that back into growth in the company. So it’s fun. Now, how do we go to the next step? How do we do better? 

Blaise: Locally, you angel invest and sit on boards of other Vermont startups like Widewail and OhMD. What makes the Vermont entrepreneurial community unique?

Mike: I think there’s a lot of talent here – and a lot of drive. There are so many startups around. When you walk into a place like Hula or VCET, there’s so many unique things happening, and that is a mere fraction of what’s out there. I sit on a few boards, I do invest, primarily in B2B and SaaS companies – it’s the space I know the best. I think there’s a huge opportunity and a wealth of knowledge around here, especially in the medical space, like what IDX did. It spawned off a lot of different companies. I think if we can keep that flywheel going, it builds something special. 

Blaise: What’s one highlight from your time on the VCET board?

Mike: Seeing companies go from zero to hero. Knowing that they came in with an idea and they got it off the ground. They built a business and they’re growing it. And they’ve been able to take on huge investment rounds. I love that. Just seeing someone find that success. That luck. That hard work all come together.

Blaise: What’s your ideal Vermont day?

Mike: My ideal summer day is out in the lake. Ideal winter day is powder day on the mountain. Anything outside is the answer. 

This article has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

You can find Mike Lane on LinkedIn here. For more on his company, Fluency, read our recent article here.