 Good evening, my name is Austin Davis. I'm the government affairs manager with the Lake Champlain Chamber and your host of this evening's live at 525 the Lake Champlain Chamber is a regional chamber of commerce that serves the greater Burlington area including most all of Chittenden County and up into the islands Franklin County some of them oil But we also have programming that covers the entire state and one of those programs that serves the entire state Is launch VT and to talk about launch VT this evening. I have with me my Colleague Lauren pass. Oh, hi. Thanks for having me tonight. Thanks for joining excited to be here So what is launch VT? Tell me a little bit more about it What is launch VT? So we provide business acceleration services to entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of starting really phenomenal startups and what I mean to say by that is these are these are early stage businesses that are ripe to scale They have a high degree of viability And we think that they're going to create an important impact for the Vermont economy So growing jobs tax revenues creating great incentives for folks to stay here after college or be attracted to the state And come and work in businesses that are growing quickly and creating a lot of value So there's a lot of businesses out there What what makes it so what's your minimum bar? What brings one to your attention and we'll pull one into your program because it's Competitive. Yeah, we are we are in a competitive program This year we actually had double the amount of applicants than ever before Our success rate for folks actually getting into the program is less than 10% So we are definitely competitive program Trying to find it find the best of the best businesses and we have three Pillars that we're actually using to ascertain when we're going through all those applications Who do we think really has the legs to to build our economy? And so that will be just what I mentioned viability Looking at who the founders are What are their expertise? What is their product or service that they're trying to grow and sell? Scalability like I said, these are the ones that need to to really really become big businesses or have the legs to become big Businesses so rather than like, you know a small mom and pop shop or maybe a gift store somewhere These are businesses that can eventually employ 50 100 maybe even you know bigger than that types of businesses Could almost be an anchor business that provides, you know the the support and stability for the mom and pop shops around it Absolutely, but it's that and it's also businesses that are Representative of really the new economy. So as we all know Vermont, we've got maple syrup skiing hospitality retail We've got that in spades What we're really trying to do is create businesses that are Going to create like that big lasting values So we have some amazing businesses here that have just come up in the past decade look at beta for example I mean they're totally crushing it That's a great example of business that Grows grew tremendously quickly Attracted a lot of investment from our investment community here and it's now, you know Creating a lot of value for our entire nation and becoming a household name to be clear They're not one of your alumni. However, you have some pretty notable alumni. You want to brag? Yeah, I do I do well we We've done some really cool things. So actually can I just show you a couple of pictures from our most recent demo nights? This is really what we do and then I can explain sort of how this feeds into our awesome alumni So this is a picture from demo night just happened two weeks ago to the day as a matter of fact This is at hula, which is an amazing co-working space right here on the shore of Lake Champlain It is a phenomenal building. It is carbon neutral and it is attracting the coolest businesses out there And a lot of our alumni as a matter of fact actually have offices in hula So we we hosted or excuse me hula hosted demo night for us this past year You can see the gentleman. He's actually sort of looking at at the screens He's actually one of our founders from this year's cohort. He was presenting his pitch to the audience What happens in our accelerator is that Folks go through a two-month program drinking from the water holes Water hose learning all the tools and tricks of the trade in order to get their business ready for major investment And then at the same time too Learning about how you pitch your business in a way that's going to help you Actually capitalize your business so at demo night Folks are presenting to an audience of 200 plus many of which are in the investment community Banks alternative lenders and so forth And they find ways to put money into these businesses and they grow So a couple of our notable ones recently as a matter of fact and I can show their names in a moment We've had two major Acquisitions of our past alumni. So I'll give you a little bit of a breakdown Over the past 10 cohorts. We just had our 10th one that wrapped up in june We have accelerated 71 businesses. So again, those are businesses that applied got in went through a very tough two-month You know experience learning those tricks that they're going to use to raise money and then going through demo night So of that 71 50 to this day remain open with the lights on in operating And then of those 59 have had major strategic acquisitions Which really creates value for our economy and the most recent were This year packetized energy was acquired by energy hub And easy probate was just acquired by trust and will that's fantastic So I mean there are a lot of accelerators out there that do this kind of work. What makes laundry tea unique? Well, we're unique because First of all, we sit in shittin in county which obviously we have we do touch other counties certainly And we attract entrepreneurs to come into our program statewide But a part of what really makes us special is that Right here we have a high saturation of businesses and infrastructure that are capable of supporting An entrepreneurship ecosystem, which is really what launch vt is trying to To harness and put a lot of attention on So our start of community is where Business are being created and made and funded And they're typically innovators So we're getting a lot of technology and businesses that are pushing us You know into the future and creating jobs that are much longer lasting and typically higher paid So being where we are geographically we attract a lot of folks from across the state And we can also integrate with a lot of the business services that are really necessary In order to get started so One of the things that's supportive to an entrepreneurship ecosystem Are things like lawyers and accountants and media experts and consultants that if you have them close to you If you're saturated And what we like to say in entrepreneurship if you have serendipitous collisions with other folks who are feeding into your ecosystem You're going to have sort of that lucky moment You're going to be at the right place the right time to meet the right person In order to find some type of value creator for your business And it can even be as simple as just waiting in line to get a cup of coffee And it just so happens that the person standing ahead of you is oh that ip lawyer You've been looking for and and you can you know create value right then there Well fantastic. So run us through a little bit more about What happened this year the cohort? Yeah I will I will gladly do that and i'm gonna actually this is when I shamelessly show people what we've been up to Um Here is a gentleman kidder spader. He's one of our alumni from this year Slogan is his latest venture. Um kidder is actually a serial serial entrepreneur. He founded a pet Brand called curgo which he actually exited from that brand. So built it into a successful national brand sold it He's now started slogan Slogan is it's very cool modular Set up for your your car where you it's sort of like a tully But a more modular component much more you can retrofit it basically For whatever it is that you're trying to to bring with you on your adventures Um next up is chandler march. He's an amazing founder taco Is really exciting has some very cool internet intellectual property behind it. Um He also has relationships already with pop socket, which if you're uncool like me You find out is actually everybody's favorite iphone case along with otter box And so he's integrated his technology with these two big names that actually you can bring, um, alexa with you on the go Wherever you go, you don't need to unlock your phone. You can basically have this, you know constant Um accessible ai with you on the go. It's extremely cool and he's also um Has a great relationship with amazon as well. So I I expect a lot from chandler Bivo these are uh love these bottles cyclists out there get your bivou bottle These are amazing. They're green carbon neutral. They've been verified by some really fabulous third party Folks here who have you know can tell us that these are Environmentally very safe. They're aluminum Bicycle bottles that actually deliver water faster than at the rate of a plastic bottle Even though you can't squeeze them. It's very very cool Literally an invention. So I feel like we're creating a shopping list for me with these slides. It'll send them to me after and I'll Oh, yeah, I buy everything from everybody Yeah, but it's it's so worth it because these are these are the cutting-edge products of the future So right here in vermont, um, this is claudia zafer. She founded a company called evermind with two co-founders They have actually created a an ai driven Therapy for depression on the go. So yeah, really cool using technology. That's been backed by nasa so it was originally an a platform that was going to be used for Uh mental health therapies for folks who are on the international space station. Wow She's managed to integrate it. So folks on earth can use it extremely cool That is incredible really bringing it down to earth and what a time to the pandemic Oh, yeah, so many people looking for mental health assistance 100 percent. Um, she has done the math and right here in vermont as a matter of fact It was determined that we lose somewhere in the order of uh, half a billion dollars a year our businesses do actually Because folks are you know, really feeling the heat from covet feeling depressed. It's you know, workplaces have changed all of those sort of Humps that can that happen in the workplace really affect employers with absenteeism or folks not being as productive as usual So, um claudia's product is actually being sold to employers They can provide this service to their employees so that they can have The support services that they need on the go. Um, and hopefully save not just vermont, but The greater american economy um from the losses that are accrued from absenteeism and and lack of productivity Well, that's really related to mental health. Yeah, that was incredible. She's very cool Uh, john brawley from we know him as vermont shrimp guy. Um, his business is also sweet sound aquaculture Right in charlotte. Um at will wraps farm. Um, earth keep farm common, which is a very cool place. Um He has figured out how to grow shrimp right here in the state of vermont Ergo vermont shrimp and they're delicious and this is coming from someone who grew up in town called manchester by the sea I'm very snooty about my shellfish and I have to say this is good shellfish and you can find him in stores already Really city market He's selling product to hotel vermont And a lot of the really great caterers here as well. We served his shrimp cakes at demo night Oh, that's awesome. And I was so unfortunately not able to be there, but that's incredible and you know We always love being able to Shove this towards people who who say don't eat seafood in a landlocked state Yeah, no, you should do that here But in fact what was really cool about you know being a director of launch vt and working with all these companies Like I I come and I try and share what I know about entrepreneurship, but you know information is a two-way street And I have learned so much from the actual founders of these businesses and and one thing that I learned from john, which I don't know if I'll be ordering Taking food out of the the ice department of the grocery store or whatever anymore because I found out that the vast majority Of our shrimp is actually coming in from thailand and the u.s. Government only manages to test about one to two percent of it Oh, wow, and of course that's a really big carbon footprint by the time it gets here So the awesome thing about from on shrimp is that it's super fresh. It tastes incredible Um, and it's safer. I'm all for it. Yeah, that's awesome. So what else do you have? Is that it? Oh, no? Oh my gosh. Oh, but wait There's more we added a we had a cohort of seven So we're we're almost done. Am I taking too long? No, I can just keep Each one's better than the last and it's kind of surprising You know, what's funny is that we gave our judges this year and this is a big like two hour event We gave the judges 25 minutes to deliberate this year and they still went over because they were all such phenomenal businesses that have so much future here um It was hard to it was hard to like narrow down who was going to be the winner but Little potaka is an incredible company Um, and she actually did win a prize. She she won one of our one of our two cash prizes So akshita nyak and little potaka walked away with $5,000 at night. She got the audience choice award um, little potaka is Adorable so children's books that really promote Anything and everything to everyone. So uh, traditionally apparently again, you learn a lot when you do these things The vast majority of kids in children's stories and media are typically You know the majority or you know, they're white kids or they're animals So they're anything but kids who look slightly different or typically underrepresented. So she's created this whole world of people and children and faces and clothes and traditions that You don't always get in children's media Um, and it's adorable. I've bought her books for my niece Really really cute. That's awesome representation matters. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely And it actually one of the things that akshita said that like When they were practicing their pitch decks because we had you have to practice they have seven minutes to get out there and Make a compelling pitch to an audience. This is vermont shark tank effectively And uh, when akshita actually practiced her pitch in front of me the first time I actually teared up Because she talks about being a woman who looks like her with a name that sounds like her in a place like Her in a place like vermont is so unusual and so special and it It was really cool. She's awesome If you have kids out there, I highly recommend little pataka. You can get them on We should have been doing this closer to the holiday season. So we could you know, just pretty shopping lists for folks But I should have brought I should have brought their prototypes in Oh, I've had a whole thing going on. Fantastic. We you know, we could change the name It's like qvc, but you get it qvt qvt Live at 525 we could take calls live We'll see what we can do closer to the holiday season. Okay But we have more but wait, there's more there is more last but not least wasted. This was actually he Okay, so thor and brophy. They were the gentlemen who were in the the cohort. Of course, you can see it's actually a group of four Um, but these guys are awesome. They were our grand prize winner this year So they walked away with 15,000 in cash. They were the folks that the judges ultimately gave the award to um Really cool idea. I don't know how much I can say this on live television But it they they've made the world's best-looking porta potty. Okay. Um, and when you use it It separates everything. Oh, okay. So fun fact apparently humans are the only animal again I learned this from the founders. I never knew this beforehand. Um We are the only animal that will pee and poo in the same location Yeah, which makes sense when I think about my dogs. They never Yeah, I was just thinking that's like beauty what I went to is my my dog doesn't do that. So Hey, man, they know where it's at. So Anyway, so we're broken animals and we do it in the same place and apparently in like porta potty is when you leave that Festering it's actually quite bad for the environment and then also emptying those things are quite bad for the environment Because they put a lot of additives in there. Okay Um, but by keeping your way separate They actually make it to really high quality fertilizer for farmers. So, okay. All right whole different level of you are what you eat Yeah, but it's really cool and and they won so That's incredible. Yeah pretty pretty neat group of people this year. So everyone's a winner though Really? Everyone's a winner. Yes You too can be a winner just apply to launch vt and um the beauty of it is that As an accelerator like I said, we're going to push people through we're going to teach them what they need They're going to go to demo night. They'll get to showcase their businesses even if they don't win cash They're still up front and center in front of the investment community Um, and there are plenty people who walk up to these founders after the show Even if they didn't win and they say I'm interested in your business. I might write you a check That's all great. Um, but at the end of the day Everyone leaves with something not just the potential to raise money But also a lot of the services that come as in kind prizes. Yeah So we have an amazing relationship with a lot of stakeholders here in the area and um We actually give gifts of business services from our stakeholders. So Gallagher Flynn is one that comes to mind immediately A lot of our some of our our lawyers here as well Merit and merit. It's been a great supporter. They actually will gift their services And we give them as prizes. So the nice part about my job is When we had graduation about a week after demo night, I also got to Divide these gifts out across the cohort and that's pretty unique for an accelerator, right? I mean instead of just saying we're going to give you money and you don't know where that money necessarily goes You're saying what what you need is this assistance. You need intellectual property lawyer You need an accountant. You need someone in marketing and you're able to connect them with that 100% You know if you if let's say you have an innovation and you're looking to support your excuse me protect your innovation with a patent It is not cheap IP lawyers are not cheap So, you know if someone were to give their time sometimes $5,000 worth of their time If you're a cashstrap startup and if you didn't win 15 grand that's going to go really far So it's it's terrific that part of that's a huge win for that that local established firm because that could be a long-term client or that could Propel them to a spotlight when that person has success as well. Correct. Yeah 100% So Many of our stakeholders have told us like ah, we love launch vt They our prices often turn into to long-term client relationships. So it's a little bit of scratching the back of everybody That's fantastic. So tell me a little bit more about just the overall plan of these startups coming through It's a kind of more of a plan to exit model Yeah, so it's a little bit different for everybody. It depends on really the size of their business where they are and their go to market strategy And really where they're at in terms of taking cash. So some businesses are better suited for For example bank financing from a loan sometimes alternative funding for example revenue Revenue backed financing. So if you already are expecting a lot of money to come in from sales Some lenders will actually give you money based on the fact that you have accounts receivable And then there is selling equity So we've you know for those of us who think about the bay area and you know Angel investors and venture capital Those are folks who actually buy shares in a business and it's it's that money that's used to capitalize There's never one specific Type of thing every business is like a snowflake. They're all a little bit different and have different types of cap tables So different types of ways that they're capitalizing their business So what is going on in the vermont ecosystem right now? What's broadly outside of laundry tea even? Well, so we are what some would call a nascent startup ecosystem um We are effectively and and this is it's This is here's the truth of the matter. We are basically a rounding error in the world of venture capital So right now vermont stands at 40th and not just the nation but across all U.S. Territories we're at about 40th right now in terms of venture capital deal flow So we're very very small. We I think we move somewhere like 0.06 of the venture capital deals in the united states but There's a lot of interesting things that are going on in our startup economy right now, which is I think really invigorating What we do in vermont, I think better than most places Is sustainability trying to create businesses that can be leveraged as forces for good And we have more and more businesses like those coming online a lot of our launch vt alumni Spin off some type of positive externality to just being in business. So Beyond just making a profit for themselves or making the world a slightly better place for certain people certain environmental Needs it's it's something very special to vermont. We have more b-corps here per capita than any other state Which is something very unique very unique to the ecosystem something that could probably attract more capital in years to come That's right. We have a thematic component to our ecosystem and that's actually really important So what can folks do if they want to support that ecosystem? Well launch vt. It's a 501 c3 and if you want to invest into your Economy launch vt is one way to do it. So Folks out there something to remember Tax deductible donation Another thing that you can do to try and support launch vt. It's just to go out and actually support the businesses that that graduate from us a lot of our Our alumni are out there and be like I said becoming household names I personally use a lot of the products you can go on to our website and see who our alumni is Literally main page you scroll down to the bottom and you can see all these really cool businesses that have come out of the accelerator That is certainly a great way to support them And and come out and check out what we have in our you know our ecosystem like hula for example Again, it's a really cool business. Check it out. See what entrepreneurship looks like in vermont I can't think of a better way to do that And and be aware of what's coming down the pipeline Awesome and get involved with your chamber Thank you as always. Yes And so if you want to find more information on the lake champaign chamber and launch vt You can find that just uh, we have that in the banner there lcc vermont.org You know really the chamber is about Establing connect connections between local businesses nonprofits you know Working with these businesses with meeting their needs that each unique and and really You know doing a lot to tell the story of vermont entrepreneurship and everything this place has to offer. Yeah Yeah, the lake champaign chamber is pretty special. So So So what else though, do you think is on the horizon in terms of needs wants wishes for our local entrepreneurial ecosystem? Sure. Um, we cannot have enough people Absolutely one of the things that we need is like I said earlier saturation The more folks are coming here with plans to start a business the better it all feeds off of each other And investment as well. So one of the things that I think is important about where we're at is from the standpoint that If you imagine a portfolio and manager manager in new york who's trying to Get some really interesting alternative investors for their client particularly In the green space or in a way that they are doing some more impact with their portfolio I hope they're looking here to burlington right like look to vermont And that can go in a lot of different directions the same with entrepreneurs if someone Way across the united states has a great idea Possibly in the green energy space and they think to themselves I got to pick up and move to vermont because that's where my People are going to be and the funders are going to be and they're all going to understand what i'm trying to do with my business Um, if we can keep working on that thematic component that I just mentioned And getting people to come for that that's going to spur pair that with the high quality of life And just everything else the place has to yeah to offer You got a really winning package there. Exactly. Exactly. Um entrepreneurs want Good restaurants good coffee shops first chair An opportunity to go sailing On top of working hard, so yeah, we just need more homes Well, uh at this point we'll see if we have any viewer questions coming in Don't look like it I answered everyone's questions in advance. Yeah, just way ahead of time Any other any other closing thoughts? Ah, yes, well, um, I'm looking forward to actually expanding launch VT now into the future. So Um, absolutely. We are known for our accelerator, but going into the next few years I'll be scoping some interesting ways that we can actually work with our existing businesses here in the state So sort of beyond burlington startup economy and looking out to some of the farther fun Flung areas that have great businesses But could probably use some training To to stay current and up with the times and make sure that their businesses are every bit as resilient as those that we have here in Burlington and if any businesses are watching When does your application for the launch VT next cohort? Great question. So applications will open in Early 2023 so usually end of january early february Um applications take about a month to a month and a half for us to review and the accelerator will restart Um in april Fantastic. So time to plan if you want any more information on that or the lake shampoos chamber Like I said, the website is lccvermont.org Um, thank you for joining us. Thank you lauren for joining me today telling us more about launch VT And all the work you're doing to create this really exciting ecosystem and push these These startups, you know to the forefront. Yeah, well, we are the future So come and stop by and see us sometime deminites next year Well, thank you. That's all for today as as I said before my name is austin davis and with me was lauren bass and We'll sign off there