Vermont

An Experiment In Jumpstarting Vermont Tech Startups

Published

1 year ago

December 8, 2023

An Experiment In Jumpstarting Vermont Tech Startups

A paltry percent of U.S. tech employment is in rural areas—5%, while 12% of the workforce lives in such locations, according to the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI). That’s why, in 2017, Matt Dunne founded the nonprofit, which focuses on job creation and economic development in rural areas by building tech economies in those regions.

Matt Dunne

CORI

It recently got preliminary financing approval from a U.S. Treasury program for the Green Mountain Accelerator Fund, a $3 million pre-seed investment fund aimed at financing and nurturing early-stage tech startups in five rural Vermont communities. And it received a $520,758 Capital Challenge grant via the U.S. Economic Development Administration. That money, half of which must come from matching contributions, will help create the Green Mountain Launchpad, a regional tech startup catalyst hub. “We’re addressing a funding gap for tech startups that especially exists in rural regions lacking a strong angel network,” says Dunne.

Supporting Rural Tech Startups

CORI works mostly with rural micropolitan communities—cities of 10,000 to 50,000 in population—with a college or university campus nearby. To that end, it provides technical assistance, including an assessment of their tech economy, creating a strategy to make the most of their unique local assets, and helping to get funding for three years for economic development. After that, they become part of a network of organizations, currently 37 communities in 25 states. That provides a way to share best practices with each other and to aggregate deal flow by giving investors an opportunity to invest in more than just one small community.

There’s also CORI Innovation Fund, a $4 million seed-stage investment fund launched in 2020 that acts as a first mover for tech startups. (Half of the carry goes back to CORI). It’s invested in nine tech startups in places ranging from Durango, Col., to Wilson, NC. CORI is now mid-way into raising a second fund, which Dunne expects to be larger than the first. In addition, Rural Innovation Strategies Inc., a taxable nonprofit, allows CORI to do fee-for service work.

Filling the Funding Gap in Vermont

Recently, according to Dunne, CORI was contacted by the State Small Business Credit Initiative, a federal program that provides capital from the U.S. Treasury to states to use in investment vehicles. A few weeks ago, it received preliminary approval of funding for the Green Mountain Accelerator Fund, which will invest in very early-stage, pre-revenue, recent graduates of four accelerators that CORI helped fund.

Vermont

getty

The EDA grant will help support the Green Mountain Launchpad, which will connect startups to pro-bono legal and financial accounting assistance, potential angel investors, and help developing pitches. By the end of the three-year award window, CORI aims to connect 30 local startups with opportunities to access capital.

“This will be an interesting experiment to see what happens when you can fill the funding gap in these areas,” says Dunne. “We’re trying to jumpstart tech companies so they don’t feel they have to leave the place they love to be successful.”

Both grant programs have matching requirements. The SSBCI funding requires that startups have 1:1 matching capital already secured before the investment can happen. The Capital Challenge grant also has a 1:1 match, but it’s either in funding or in-kind support. With that in mind, CORI is tapping the services of Vermont Law School, which has a pro bono program to help support early-stage companies in Vermont. It will be counted as part of the match.

Source link

Click to comment

Vermont

Vermont H.S. sports scores for Wednesday, Dec. 18: See how your favorite team fared

Published

6 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Vermont H.S. sports scores for Wednesday, Dec. 18: See how your favorite team fared

Nylah Mitchell’s 20 points carry Burlington girls basketball to win

Nylah Mitchell talks about her dominant 20-point outing where she attacked in the paint and the outlook for Burlington this season.

The 2024-2025 Vermont high school winter season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from basketball, hockey, gymnastics, wrestling, Nordic/Alpine skiing and other winter sports.

TO REPORT SCORES

Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.

►Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter:@aabrami5.

►Contact Judith Altneu at jaltneu@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.

WEDNESDAY’S H.S. GAMES

Girls basketball

Games at 7 p.m. unless noted

Blue Mountain at Sharon, 6 p.m.

Colchester at Mount Mansfield

Boys basketball

Games at 7 p.m. unless noted

Lamoille at Williamstown, 5:30 p.m.

Lake Region at Lyndon, 6:30 p.m.

Stowe at Richford

Peoples at Hazen

North Country at U-32

White River Valley at Randolph

St. Johnsbury at Colchester

Montpelier at Rice

Thetford at Oxbow

Boys hockey

Brattleboro at Rutland, 4 p.m.

Colchester at Rice, 5:20 p.m.

Harwood at Hartford, 5:45 p.m.

Missisquoi at North Country (Jay Peak), 6 p.m.

Burr and Burton at Woodstock, 6:55 p.m.

Champlain Valley at Spaulding, 7:15 p.m.

Milton at Stowe, 7:15 p.m.

Middlebury at South Burlington, 7:40 p.m.

Girls hockey

Hartford at Spaulding, 5:15 p.m.

Kingdom Blades at Essex, 6 p.m.

Middlebury at Brattleboro, 7:15 p.m.

Dr. Butsch Tournament at Central Vermont Memorial Civic Center

Stowe at U-32, 4 p.m.

Burr and Burton vs. Missisquoi, 6 p.m.

Burlington/Colchester Tournament at Leddy Arena

Beekmantown, NY vs Rice, 5:30 p.m.

Franklin Academy, NY at Burlington/Colchester 7:40 p.m.

THURSDAY’S H.S. GAMES

Girls basketball

Games at 7 p.m. unless noted

Randolph at Williamstown, 6 p.m.

Stowe at Woodstock, 6 p.m.

Milton at Richford, 7 p.m.

South Burlington at Spaulding

Lyndon at Hazen

Montpelier at Harwood

North Country at BFA-St. Albans

Thetford at Northfield

Oxbow at Rivendell

Boys basketball

Games at 7 p.m. unless noted

BFA-St. Albans at Milton

Danville at Twinfield/Cabot

Mount Mansfield at Essex, 7:30 p.m.

Girls hockey

Burlington/Colchester Tournament at Leddy Arena

Franklin Academy, NY vs. Rice, 5:30 p.m.

Beekmantown, NY at Burlington/Colchester, 7:40 p.m.

(Subject to change)

Source link

Vermont

Opinion — Geoffrey Battista: Raze the cathedral

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Opinion — Geoffrey Battista: Raze the cathedral

Dear Editor,

I am brimming with giggles after having read Sally Giddings Smith’s recent commentary on the imminent demolition of Burlington’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. To compare that lifeless monstrosity to Notre Dame de Paris — for half the piece, for God’s sake — is a level of absurd that I could not beat out of Samuel Beckett.

Burlington’s cathedral had decades to turn downtown into an architectural mecca. Indeed, one would have hoped that the demolition of dozens of historic homes for an urban renewal project like the cathedral would generate an indisputable benefit to the downtown: busloads of tourists, shoppers and devotees. Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not the sexiest structure, for example — concrete here, concrete there, on concrete grounds — but it rises to the challenge! Burlington? Not so much.

Let us not let a small cabal of historic preservation fundamentalists derail the demolition. Whatever takes the place of the cathedral, and I hope it is housing, will be worth far more to the city than whatever the status quo has provided.

by Opinion
December 16, 2024, 7:11 amDecember 13, 2024, 5:09 pm

And let us send the old apse ‘n nave to a farm up north where it can frolic with the architectural marvels of yesteryear: the original Penn Station, the Library of Alexandria and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Adieu, chère cathédrale! Bienvenue, nouveaux voisins!

Geoffrey Battista

Montpelier

Pieces contributed by readers and newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from a broad range of Vermonters.
More by Opinion

Source link

Vermont

Vermont Won A Historic National Championship In Fittingly Dramatic Fashion | Defector

Published

21 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

Vermont Won A Historic National Championship In Fittingly Dramatic Fashion | Defector

Even before kickoff, the final of the NCAA men’s soccer championship was special as a meeting between two underdogs. Marshall, which won its first title in the 2020 season as an unseeded team, was the 13th seed this year and reached the final by defeating No. 1 Ohio State. Meanwhile, unseeded Vermont beat two-seed Pitt and three-seed Denver on its way to the title game. The Thundering Herd and Catamounts put together a real thriller Monday night, as Vermont won its first championship in program history on a sudden-death goal in overtime.

That goal is at the 7:56 mark of the highlight reel below, though the entire second half of the match was very dramatic. Marshall took a 1-0 lead in the 57th minute after Vermont keeper Niklas Herceg mishandled a tough cross right into the path of Tarik Pannholzer. Herceg kept his team in it with a beautiful save minutes later, and in the 81st minute, Marcell Papp took advantage of a poor clearance from Marshall keeper Aleksa Janjic to start and finish a one-two with a shot from just inside the box. You’re here for the winner, though. In overtime, centerback Zach Barrett intercepted a pass in the Vermont half and smacked a speculative longball for Maximilian Kissel. The forward shrugged off his defender, then dribbled around Janjic and scored.

This is the University of Vermont’s first national championship in a sport outside of skiing; when the school reached the final, it became the first team from the America East conference to do so. The Catamounts are unlikely winners, although this title follows strong runs in recent seasons: They lost in the quarterfinals in 2022 and in the third round last year. Scoring late is also somewhat of a trademark for Vermont, as they recorded 22 goals in the 76th minute or later this season. The Catamounts also became, by my unscientific reckoning, the team with the coolest-named mascot to win an NCAA title this year—an equally prestigious honor, no doubt.

Source link