 Hello to my viewers. My name is Melinda Moulton and this is Moments with Melinda and I am honored today to have as my guest Russ Scully. Russ, thanks for being with me today. Thank you for having me Melinda. I am so excited I've been watching your career. The last 20 years, 22 years that you've been here in Burlington. And let me tell my viewers a little bit about you. You have been called a visionary, developer, windsurfer, snowboarder, documentarian, and the list goes on and on and on. But I would call you a serial entrepreneur. Would that be accurate? I think that is accurate. I think that's, yes, I think it's a great description. And yeah, it's, I think it's hard to sort of figure out how to describe that activity but yeah, I think that's a really, that sums it up really well. Well, you've been describing, you've described yourself in the great Joyce Marcel article that she wrote for Vermont Business Magazine, fabulous article. And you described yourself as an onion. Yeah, Joyce did a great job. I was really impressed with the way that she essentially dissected that entire story. And yeah, I think she, I think she described it as an onion. I think, you know, the idea is there's a lot to unpack there. It's been a long journey. I can't say enough about how much fun Roxanne and I have had in the process of sort of evolving as Burlingtonians in our time here. And I just feel like everything we've done sort of sets the stage for what's to come. And everything we've done is really sort of, it's really followed nicely on the things we've done in the past. And the thing about both you and Roxanne is is that you have a very high level of humility and humbleness and so I'm going to try to rattle that a little bit and get you to to celebrate a little bit who Russ Scully is. Tell us a little bit about your childhood Russ. I grew up in New Jersey. I was one of four kids. I have a twin brother fraternal twin brother who lives out in Bozeman, Montana now. I have a brother the year and a half younger than my sister, who's five years younger and she lives in Charlotte so she and her husband Matt strobeck live in Vermont as well. Childhood was really pretty nice my dad grew up in Manhattan. He's a New York City guy through and through. He was a scholarship student through elementary school, high school and college. He's really a self made man. I mean I think that a lot of the success that I've been able to benefit from really came from all the hard work that he did initially and which taught us a lot you know we grew up in a family that had a nice life but it's nothing in comparison to the way some of us live today and all in all it was a wonderful childhood ultimately late into high school I got into surfing and that really sort of set a new direction for everything I did since then. But you also were at a young age you were a golf caddy. And so your childhood was typical it was a happy childhood and your parents are still alive and they must be so proud of everything that you've done. Yes, they are. Yeah, absolutely. They definitely are. They're living down in Florida now so we don't get to see them all that often but they have come up. They got a chance to visit Hula not too long ago. Anytime they're in town they love making a reservation to spawn a doc so they're a big fan of the restaurant and yeah they're big fans of everything we've done so far. And having your sister here must be really cool too. It's great it's really special. So tell my viewers who had the greatest influence on you in your life to be where you are today. Oh that's a great question I mean there's really some people that it's co it comes down to co workers you know I think one of the things that we're really missing out on with all this work from home stuff is just the influence you get from people you work with. And that's where some of the most amazing inspiration for me came from colleagues and people throughout my, you know and I and I all kinds of jobs it doesn't matter what it was you know my first job when we moved to California was delivering pizza and I can tell you, there were some people that I met at Domino's who still left back on today as really innovative people and then I got really into the graphic design world and I met some incredible designers who inspired me immensely to this in terms of creativity, in terms of graphic design and everything I did in those days. And then you know there was just some really bright people that people inspire me the most of the people who just show up to work every day that are just so positive, so intelligent, and just so boundless in terms of creative capability that you know they you just realize that they have a superpower that just gives them the opportunity to do amazing things every day, no matter, no matter what obstacles they may face. Was there anybody in particular in your childhood though who had an influence on you a special teacher or relative or someone who kind of gave you this internal spark to have the courage and and the strength to go out and, you know, do the things that you do. I would love to say yes but I mean you know my, my dad was certainly a great inspiration. He, he did some, he did some great things he he's really the guy who got me interested in, in investing, and particularly in small startup companies so a lot of my enthusiasm in the investment world that we live in it through hula today really comes from him. And he was, he was a guy that really wanted to focus on studying companies and helping them grow and, and he really got fascinated with stories of the early entrepreneurs, and even some of the growth, the growth stories and so I think a lot of that energy came from him initially. Is he involved at all in the work that you're doing now as he does he do use him as a mentor in the in, in all of the projects that you're working on. Certainly, certainly a little bit but he's really focused on public companies now, and he's focused on some sectors that are a little less interesting to me. I really like kind of early stage stuff they're really innovative stuff I think that the things that are really innovative also in the sense of really kind of cleaning up some of the problems will be the experience in the past and really like those kind of categories are a little bit more. They're a little bit more in tune with kind of my values and my mission and things I'm interested in also often they're younger people. Right. Absolutely and there's also you know the interesting thing about the startup world it's just it's it's higher risk very early stage stuff. It's not for everybody you know there's a large segment of investors out there who are really interested in more of like growth stories of things where hey we've got a great management team we've got a great technology we're just we're set for growth we just need additional capital to grow. Those investment strategies are a lot different than the early stage stuff of hey here's a young woman or man with this great idea in this interesting sector that could do really well in their base in Vermont. Tell me more. I mean that those are the stories I'm really focused on now. So what are some of the startup companies in Burlington that you there in Vermont that you've been impressed with over the last five to 10 years. I mean nobody can say more about beta than than I can at this point but I mean that story is just absolutely fascinating so well grounded in Vermont with a Vermont founder who's who's unwavering in terms of his interest in in staying in the world and growing this company in Vermont so I love what Kyle and Katie Clark are doing that whole story is fascinating. Ryan McDevitt PhD out of UVM doing rocket propulsion technology. He's growing his company over at Hula right now in this really exciting sector the small satellite industry is growing at an exponential rate right now. These guys are literally a bolt on two small satellites and they've created essentially the best propulsion system in the world right now and they're and they're right they're right here in Vermont that's super exciting. And Bill about is a guy who grew up in Richmond Vermont double PhD and machine learning over in Cambridge England. He's got a fascinating story as well. All about things that he's doing with machine learning and, and drug discovery so there's, there's a lot of great stuff. Our tour D who's who's running bio cognitive. He was one of the original engineers at Twitter. He wrote the Firefox browser, early, early at beta doing their aviation software and now he's doing incredible AI work around with with with blood samples trying to detect health issues related to your blood. It's good. I mean the one thing I was worried about was like, you know, when I talked to Rob layers really my, you know, right arm guy who really kind of helped to make the whole investment arm happen. You know, one of the things that we always worried about was hey, are we ever going to run out of opportunities, you know, because we're in such a small market and so far it's been. And we used to say that, you know, things are only getting things are only getting better. There's, I think that a lot of the work and a lot of the companies that have already created a lot of the noise and the news around Burlington are just creating more activity. And so it was really kind of feeding itself. So ultimately, you know the dream would be that we create an ecosystem that really kind of supports itself sustains itself and we'll see endless opportunities emerge from all the stuff that's already going on. And Vermont has been sort of a petri dish for the last 3040 years of people who have come to Vermont certainly in my generation who, who fled to Vermont to be homesteaders who started incredible businesses have really changed the world. I mean Vermont. So there's something about Vermont, and maybe it's the water that creates these extraordinary human beings and who are really setting the stage and you're one of them. One of my favorite startups would be mom of a woman. I just, I just thought that was such a brilliant idea. So you have had so many accomplishments. What is your greatest pride and joy of all of your accomplishments, right. I think raising two kids honestly is probably my greatest pride and joy I mean we're still working on it. And I feel guilty sometimes a little bit that they had to kind of grow up in this small town with their parents kind of in the news once in a while. That can make it a little bit challenging so it was good for Roxanne and I check in with them to make sure that they're grounded and feeling good about everything. Yeah, that's huge. I mean, that was great and obviously Burlington one of the reasons Burlington is so attractive is because it is such a great place for these kids to grow up and I know our two kids had a blast and they're still really close with all their friends in high school friends, even though you know they're kind of on their college paths now they still love coming back home and reconnecting with other friends here. So talk to me a little bit about Roxanne. I want to recognize her as your wife and your business partners been by your side through all of your incredible success to share a little bit about your relationship and and Roxanne and your life with her. Yeah, I would love to. Also next week we're coming up on our 25th wedding anniversary. We've known each other for 33 years now. We both graduated from St. Lawrence University over New York in 1991. And yeah, she's been my life partner we compliment each other really well we've been on this journey together for a long time she she's done she's doing amazing work right now in sort of consciousness mind body and spirit she's going through her teacher accreditation program become a meditation coach. He's starting to do a lot of that over at Fula right now so she's building her little her client list of people that are in practice meditation with her she's also doing some just some really nice general counseling with people who just really love having a chat and just trying to figure out where they're going in their life and just discussing like any any sort of she's got an open door amazing policy at this little office that she has a cooler with just two chairs it's perfectly set up for her it's two chairs. The doors open people can come in and talk about whatever they want to do, and she's been an incredible coach and inspiration to a lot of people who are who can come in and either feel a little bit misguided or just need need some help in terms of direction on wherever wherever they're going wherever they want to go whatever they want to talk about. And obviously, you know, I, I, from time to time I'm certainly one of those people that gets a lot of that kind of direction and advice so I'm, I definitely see myself more as sort of in the forefront in our relationship she's a little bit more background but again the two of us compliment each other really well there's no way I could have. There's no other way there's no way we could have done any of this stuff but we didn't do it together. And just, you know, having her support to provide the necessary like confidence to do a lot of things we've done has been really immeasurable. That's fantastic. Beautiful story beautiful story. Listen, tell us a little bit about a hula, this new project and I know it's been written up a lot but talk a little bit of with my viewers about the inspiration for the building, purchasing this extraordinary piece of property. The blodget oven property and what went through your mind when that came on the market, and then the visioning for what is an extraordinary project that you created down there on the waterfront. Yeah, there's a lot to tell there but I'll unpack it pretty quickly here I mean, you know, for a long time. I was, I started spelling interactive in 2000 building websites and I still build websites today it's one of the, it's one of my passions on it honestly is trying to stay involved in coding and programming and for lots of various reasons but you know one of the things that was happening in that era was there was a big dot com boom that was going on on the West Coast in particular. And there was a lot of really interesting companies that were attracting a lot of attention. And one of the things that they were doing to help attract staff and retain staff is really creating these ecosystems, these, these campuses of where people would come to work and they would have this amazing experience at work of everything they did, work lifestyle, play lifestyle, social lifestyle, and everything, everything else. And the idea of, so at some point, you know, living in Burlington I was like wow, there's a little bit of FOMO going on in terms of like hey my are we are those of us in the technology space in Burlington missing out on a bigger picture that might be happening in Silicon Valley. So it's like what we really need in Burlington is something of a comparable type campus to really sort of compete with the attractive lifestyle stuff that they were building out there so I always thought that if we had the right location, which essentially the project oven space has, if we had the right location we could really build. We could build a community there we could build an environment there that would really help us to retrain and to retain and attract employees for technology companies it really served. So I think it's a great deal for setting up a technology campus and then building out the lifestyle that we felt would be incredibly helpful in attracting lifestyle explain that lifestyle. Yeah, good question. Yeah, so I mean, what's great about that property there's obviously it's right on the water. Right, it's also sandwiched between the water and the bike path, it's just south of downtown so here's this great opportunity where you're not only just showing up to work and going home every day, you're showing up to work, you're getting outside, you're getting onto the water, your, your active your mobile, the idea of this nine to five work schedule obviously is is is something that's like well in our rear view mirror at this point so people want to work when they're feeling inspired and motivated and then they need to take a break and when they take a break, they want to recharge. So the best way to do that is get outside, you know, go connect with whatever it is you want to do for an hour or two but let's make it accessible to you let's make it easy for you to do. You can walk out of hula, walk down to the surf club, jump into a changing room, put throw on a pair of shorts and go out for a paddle go out for a windsurf, come back in shower do the whole thing and reverse and get back to your desk within an hour and hour and so we've made it really, really easy and accessible for people to bounce out of work and just, you know, get some kind of recharge going whenever they need to. Well, you'll Russ it's a beautiful building and it's environmental Brenda Alvarez was involved you had incredible team. I went down there for a couple of events and I want to talk a little bit so many of my viewers. I have visited your restaurant the spot. And there are three of them now there's one on the waterfront Shelburne Road and my favorite is the one at hula, which I had just learned about a couple of weeks ago and it's actually my favorite because I love it down there. But share with us a little bit about your new venture the Burlington Bank which yesterday was just announced that you're open for business share a little bit about how you got involved in that project. Yeah, and I, and I, I'm certainly involved in that project but not as involved as many of the other people were involved so I think that, but I'm a huge fan of it, you know, I've known Jeff has like for a long long time. I know a lot of the other founders of the Burlington Bank, through starting hula and really broadening my network through all kinds of people that I've met as a result of building out the hula space. There's a lot of people on that list of founders that are all passionate about Burlington the world, everyone on that list is somebody that you I can honestly say absolutely love Burlington and really wants to support Jeff has like in what he's doing. And so, I'm just really excited to have, you know, I'm not an expert on the banking world, but I will say that having for a for a startup, or for a company, looking for capital. It's a lot easier to walk in and talk to your neighbor about your own local ecosystem, then it is to a larger bank and, and I think that's really what Burlington Bank is is trying to recreate is is just the familiarity of our market the familiarity of the industries in our market and just being focused specifically on commercial lending. And that's what I'm most excited about. All right, well that's I know that you have your fingerprints all over that project and and it's very exciting because we don't have because because that's something that was really important to so many of us in the past was the feeling of a local bank that you could go to and get, get a business loan to do some of the startups that you wanted to do so I'm just I'm just excited that you're involved in whatever, and whatever level you are but thank you for that. So hey Russ, what's next for you. Come on, what's what's your next big thing. Share it with me. We've done we've done a lot so far it's a very valid question but I feel like there's definitely this this sort of thought process of like, Okay, they've done this big project so what are they going to do next well, we might just sit back and enjoy and just focus on the things we've created because we got to make sure we're not chasing shiny objects and forgetting all about all the amazing stuff we've already created the stuff we've created still needs our full attention. And so that's one of the things that I'm very careful about taking on new stuff, even though it's a bit of a disease for me honestly I think that it's really difficult for me not to constantly want to do something new. At the same time, I'm trying to be very conscious of what we already have, how amazing the things we have already are, and how necessary it is to really maintain some focus and energy and presence on what we've already started and so that's what I'm really what I'm going to do now is just check in with all the amazing people. I mean one of the things that the reason I feel like we've been as successful as we have is because we've got incredible people running all the different businesses that we've started, and they're doing it with, they're doing with the attitude of ownership, and it feels great they act like owners, they act like owners, it's invaluable for Roxanne and I to have some people who can run the day to day operations and do it in a way that the same way we would if we were there. So for me it's really important that I take the time to check in with everybody that's working for all these different companies, and just making sure that they get our attention and they get some of our time, and that they have what they need to continue to be successful. But if you're going to ask me what's new. Go ahead. The other, the other project we're trying to figure out is, you know, we're really involved in this idea of trying to create some residential opportunities in the zoning of Burlington in the south end. Particularly, we've got a parking lot property that we purchased from Bobby Miller, a few years ago, and we bought it because we needed essentially to be essentially needed to. We were desperate for parking when we created Hula, we absolutely needed. We had large densities in terms of numbers of people in the building, particularly because all this planning occurred pre coded. So we were expecting to see something like 500 to 600 people in the building every day. And we just didn't have the capacity on site to park those cars. So that put us in a position to really, you know, need to control additional parking which led us to the purchase of the Bobby Miller parking on Lakeside Avenue. Since then, everything's changed and covid's really had some silver lining that we all understand. And one of them is that the fact that people don't come to work as often means that now all this parking lot space becomes more opportunistic for other uses. So we really see the opportunity and, and we all recognize I think what's great about what's happening right now in Burlington is, I think everyone can agree that we've got a shortage on housing. So we're really trying to figure out, well, where does it make sense to build housing. And, fortunately, there's not a lot of people who are adamantly defending parking lots, parking lot parking lots and the right target location for building additional housing, particularly with fewer fewer people driving to work. So what we're really focused on now is the six acre parcel on Lakeside Avenue, they were hoping to build up to 500 to 600 residential units. Wow, that's so exciting Ross. Now listen, have you ever considered running for public office I'm sure people have asked you, has that ever crossed your mind. No, wow, no, no one had asked me but I will say this huge Phantom arose, I get that guy a lot of credit. I think it's harder and harder these days to even consider running for public office because essentially, you give up, obviously a lot of privacy but you're, you know, you've got to have really thick skin. People have gotten, I think more and more cruel as as it's a cruel, it's a cruel hard landscape. And I think that it takes a really it takes a particular person to really put themselves out there now it's not an easy job. It's a very difficult job and it's there's not a lot of gratitude for doing the job and ultimately, there's going to be people that are there, you're not going to have friends, you're not going to, well, not everyone's going to like you and that's okay. That's absolutely okay. But the problem is the people who don't like you they make it very public that they don't like you, and it's and it can be really it's destructive. So, I mean, in short, I think it's, I think it's going to be harder to recruit people who want to run for public office. I think that I think it's a really difficult job and certainly one that I wouldn't be interested in. I really see myself as more of like a, I still see myself as an entrepreneur I still see myself being able to make change through, you know, creating business opportunities. I think that's sort of my best use of my skill set. And, you know, I think other people are better suited to run for office and and and serve serve the public. Well, you're kind of a sensitive guy and I'm the same way people have asked me and I'm like, I couldn't handle it my I just yeah, if somebody was mad at me I would, it would be it would be a tough go so I think you're a little bit like me that way. So let's talk about very quickly we only five minutes left in our show. You love the outdoors and you especially love the ocean. So what is your prognosis for humanity with the impending climate crisis. That's a great question. I mean so one of the things that would be interesting to bring up obviously it's you know. So, to answer that question I'm going to tell you a little bit about this conference that we started about a year and a half called sea change and see changes really all about creating a space, creating a platform to talk about some of the world's biggest issues. We do that at hula through this conference called see change we run it every six months. So happens in March and September every year. We bring in some of the some, you know, incredible thoughtful speakers to talk about a list of topics that we basically select ahead of time. And, but they're, but they're large topics and the first sea change event that we did was really focused on climate change. And so what we're trying to do is just highlight a lot of the innovation that's occurring in the world right now to help reverse, not just reverse climate change, but also sort of displace some of the technologies that are contributing to global warming and other issues with the planet. You know, with it was sort of the startup DNA of the hula ecosystem. We feel like we have a really nice opportunity to highlight some innovative thinking that's really going into helping to deal with climate issues and other, you know, large global issues. And that's an extraordinary conference and I'm sorry I haven't been able to participate but now that I'm repurposed I'm going to take the time to do that and, and you certainly are doing your, you know, your best to help fight the climate issue. And hula is a sustainable lead building and thank you for that. So, what do you think about the state of our country and the future our democracy and tie to that. What advice do you give to your boys about living a good life and being a responsible human. You know, so I am somewhat apolitical right as I said before but one thing that I think a lot, you know, one of the things I'm certainly recognizing that I think it's definitely a problem is this increased polarization that's occurring in the country right. We've got to get, we've got to stop this kind of behavior of us versus them. I mean, I know there's a lot of smart people working on this who know who are well more versed in it than I am. But I think if all of us kind of just take a moment to just look at what's occurring and see how it's trending. I think we'll all recognize that everyone's getting more and more polarized and what's really missing is sort of this purple area, right we've got the reds and the blues or just constantly really just thinking about supporting the party and party preservation, in my opinion, what's really missing is sort of this purple space of, hey, there's there's this middle ground area where we can have some conversations and really trying to figure out some compromise and I just feel like we're, we're working, we're going the opposite direction where we're just going towards more polarization and that really concerns me so I mean for our kids and you know it comes up in conversation our family once in a while it's really kind of interesting to hear the, you know, this younger generations perspective on a lot of the things that my generation sees as a problem and I think some of this stuff we're going to hopefully and I'm an optimistic thinker but I, my feeling is some of this stuff is going to be corrected through, through the future generations coming in and taking control and after witnessing how all of us in our current generation handle things, and I think they're going to do a much better job, I really do. And, and I think it's important for people to really kind of focus on the fact that, listen, you've got to be careful about digital media and all the, you know, online platforms everyone's on. Just please understand that those platforms are, they're engineered to create, you know, to create additional polarization so I think it's important that people understand that there's two sides to every story, please take some time to sort of understand a problem as best you can from each side, and then form your own opinion. And I said, very diplomatic, and, and I so appreciate your, your view about all of this. So, I, I were coming to the end of my show, and I just want to thank you. You're one of these great young minds. I'm 72. I believe you're in your fifties now your early fifties. I'm 53. You look great Melinda. Thank you. I am. Thank you that means a lot coming from you. And I know that when I talk to young people I always apologize for my generation and I say that I'm really sorry that we didn't, that we started our generation started Earth Day women's rights disability rights civil rights, but at the end of the day, you know, we didn't do your generation is really the leaders now. And I admire you for all that you have done and all that you have brought to the world of of all of us in Vermont you have changed the way that we see things, the way that we, the way that we taste things, the way that we see things in the way that we think and you're not just transforming our economy and our state you're also transforming minds, and you're one of those, those young entrepreneurs who has a way in you're so humble and so, so human rust and you're, you're close to the earth and for that I thank you. And I really appreciate you being on my show man I've wanted to get to know you a little bit more over the years and this is great opportunity for my viewers to know who Russ Scully is so I want to thank you for your time. Wow Melinda I mean that means a lot and honestly I'm kind of flattered I'm blushing a little bit but it's really nice of you to say that's a lot to live up to and you know I hope that I, I hope I meet the expectations that you have for me maybe other people have for me but I, I, you know, I, I'm very flattered I really am I mean I feel like, you know, I honestly feel like I'm just a regular guy right just trying to wake up every day and do the do what's right and kind of try to help make things a little bit better and we're doing that in the in the most obvious way we can, you know, through doing the things we're capable of doing and I feel like we've had a lot of capability lately and capacity lately to do some really transformative projects. And I'm so proud and happy that we're able to do those right here in our hometown where we get to see the benefit of some of the stuff that's happened. And you get to participate I mean we get to actually live the day to day of you know the restaurant of Windingway the pool of sea change of everything that's going on and build primary in Puerto Rico and it's, it's a great lifestyle I feel very, very blessed. I really do I feel very, very fortunate and I, and I try to, you know, make sure I, I sit and visit with that daily to just recognize like not everyone has kind of the opportunity that we've been given it and so trying to make the most of it and trying to do the right thing and trying to live the best life possible. Will you share that goodness with all of us and for that I thank you, Russ. So, to my viewers this has been a great half hour with Russ Scully and Russ I'm going to actually stay on after I stop the recording but for my viewers. Thank you for joining us today, and I will see you shortly. Have a great day.