Archive for February, 2012

Tech Essentials: What Business Owners Really Need to Succeed

Main Speaker: Jane Applegate, Writer/Speaker/Producer, The Applegate Group

Jane Applegate is one of America’s most respected small business experts.  She’s the author of four books, including the best-selling ’201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business,’ published in all formats by Bloomberg/Wiley.

She’s the producer and host of ‘Tech Essentials,” a new online talk show sponsored by Microsoft and available 24/7 at: www.myfirstserver.com.

The Applegate Group provides video production, original web content and strategic marketing services for big companies serving the small business market. Clients include: Microsoft, Pitney Bowes, Cox Communications, American Express and Bloomberg TV.

Her presentation will provide a timely overview of new tools and technologies used by savvy business owners and investors.  Jane will cover which products and online services are best, tech trends and whether or not social media is appropriate for your business.

Peak Pitch is a mashup of a day of spring skiing with the elevator pitch / traditional venture business plan competition. It works like this – investors, wearing green ski bibs, pair off in the lift line for a ride to the top of the hill with an entrepreneur, wearing a blue bib. The entrepreneur then has the length of the chairlift to make her pitch before skiing to the bottom, finding another green bib, and doing it again. It is a consistently unique and entertaining networking event, and every year a number of funding connections are made.

Hosted by FreshTracks Capital, the Vermont Peak
Pitch 2012 event will take place at Sugarbush Resort on Thursday, March 8.

The 2012 Peak Pitch Schedule
Gatehouse Lodge – Sugarbush Resort Lincoln Peak
8:30 Check-in & breakfast
9:15 Sample Pitch & Rules
9:30 Pitching & Skiing!
12:30 Buffet Lunch
1:00 Keynote Speaker: TBA
1:30 Pitch-Off & Prizes awarded
1:45 Schedule Concludes

Click here to register!

The Vermont Peak Pitch is made possible with the support of our sponsors: Champlain College BYOBiz, Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, Entrepreneurship Initiative @ Tuck, Fieldstone Capital Partners, Fleischer Jacobs Group, Gallagher, Flynn & Company, Harbor Light Capital Partners, Linckia Development, Merritt, Merritt & Moulton, University of Vermont Ventures and Technology Commercialization, VSJF Flexible Capital Fund, VT Community Loan Fund, VT Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development, and the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies.

Click here to read a great article about Claire’s Restaurant in Hardwick, VT from Vermont Business People magazine.

VT EPSCoR is pleased to offer three different funding opportunities for the private sector: Please see below to learn more about all three opportunities:

1. SBIR Phase (0)
2. Innovation Fund Awards (IF)
3. Private Sector Use of Facilities

Deadlines for each electronic submission are: 
 
Innovation Fund due April 5, 2012. Awards up to $12,000 each.
SBIR Phase (0) due May 1, 2012. Awards up to $15,000 each.
Use of Facilities for Private Sector due May 8, 2012. Awards up to $5,000 each.

 Please check each individual RFP for full requirements and more detailed information.
Electronic Submission forms will be available on the web at the above links on December 15, 2011.
Questions? Contact Lillian Gamache at epscor@uvm.edu

A blurb on The Lodge from Bob Bloch, Director of the BYOBiz Program at Champlain College:

The Lodge is a student owned and operated convenience store/coffee spot at Champlain College located in the IDX Center.  The co-founders, George Taylor Bentz (’14)  and Paxton Hall (’14) have assembled a remarkable team of student managers and staff, from all academic divisions.  Currently, fourteen students are actively involved.  They have transformed their small space into a very attractive retail environment featuring a spectacular mural by Sascha Darovskikh (’15) and his team of artists, and a creative repurposing of the existing fixtures.  

While you are in the store, be sure to check the handmade copper “pour-over coffee” stand, which was designed and built by Paxton and Taylor, and saved the young company about $500.

 The students conceived this venture as a social enterprise.  They have incorporated as a benefit corporation, a relatively new form of corporate structure in which the company’s social mission (benefit) is put on an equal footing  with the normal mission of maximizing shareholder value.  In the case of The Lodge, the stated benefit is to support student entrepreneurship on campus primarily through the Champlain Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), a student run entrepreneurship club sponsored by BYOBiz, and affiliated with CEO, a national organization underwritten by the Coleman Foundation.

The Lodge features products and services from BYOBiz companies.  Already, two brands of hats and an apparel company are participating, with more student ventures on the way.    Also available are a wide selection of cold beverages, locally roasted gourmet coffees, food items from the Skinny Pancake and Myer’s Bagels, candy, snacks and various sundry items.  More locally produced products will be added as time goes by.

 Please come by for a visit, and check out their website:  http://www.thelodgevt.com/

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Chmplain College and the BYOBiz program will have the final round of the Elevator Pitch competition. The event will take place at 8pm in Alumni Auditorium.

They’ll have 90
seconds to pitch
celebrity judges on…
• Their business idea
• Themselves (for a future job or internship)
• Their non-profit or social cause

The finalists include:

Finalists – Entrepreneurs:
Will Mercer, Marketing 2015
Tyler Holt, International Business 2012
Nick Foley, Marketing 2014
Kelsey Hall, Marketing 2013
Russell Whitehead, Psychology 2013
Drew Vaeth, Business/Entrepreneurship 2015
Nate Getzow, Game Production 2012

Note: There are seven in this category because two contestants earned tie scores.
 
Finalists – Job/Internship Seekers:
Jennifer Martin, Accounting 2013
Lawuo Dolo, Accounting 2014
Brittany Leaning, Marketing 2012
Tito James, Game Art 2015
Ariel Grover, Psychology 2013
Will McCue, Psychology 2012
 
Finalists – Non-profit/Social Advocates:
Griffen Fargo, Electronic Game Design 2013
Christen Ilacqua, Social Work 2012
Alyssa Neville, Graphic Design 2012
Eric Pollock, Graphic Design 2012
Michael Snook, Marketing 2014
Emily Swan, Psychology 2012

Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) will be hoping Tech Drivers III on March 5, 2012 from 8am-4pm at Vermont Technical College. Click here to register. Read on for more information:

VtSBDC will be hosting this one-day conference at Vermont Technical College in Judd Hall. Innovators take notice. Excellent help right here in your own backyard:

Mr. Jim Greenwood will be our keynote speaker as well as moderator throughout the day. Jim’s twenty-nine year pedigree helping businesses with their SBIR submissions, conducting training workshops, critiquing draft proposals prior to submissions, and is a commercialization reviewer for the SBIR and STTR programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Mr. Jesse Erlich will be discussing Intellectual property rights under SBIR/STTR. Mr. Erlich has been providing advice on patents and other forms of intellectual property, licensing and government related matters such as government contracts, SBIRs, STTRs, intellectual property, licensing and technology transfer for many years. He has contributed to numerous publications in the fields of intellectual property and technology transfer.

Mr. John Williams, Office of Naval Research, Director of Navy SBIR Programs has a keen interest in improving the commercialization of technologies through SBIR. He has deep knowledge of the gamut of strategies and techniques for bringing new products to the services.

Agenda
Kick-off
Dr. Philip Conroy, President, VT Technical College
Phil Scott, Vermont Lt. Governor (invited)
Reauthorization Overview – Speaker, Jim Greenwood

Panel Discussion – Moderator, Jim Greenwood
Obtaining an SBIR/STTR – Proposal strategy/application process, how four Vermont businesses see the reauthorization changing what they have done in the past

BioMosaics – Mark Allegretta
Celdara Medical – Jake Reder
Concepts NREC – Abe Chaves
Versatilis – George Powch
Commercialization Planning by Agency for Phase I & II – Jim Greenwood – Speaker

IP Rights under SBIR and Beyond – Jesse Erlich, Speaker

Panel Discussion – Moderator, Mr. John Williams
Alternative approaches to reach Phase III Commercialization through SBIR/STTR (case studies)

MBF Bioscience – Jack R. Glaser
Seldon Technologies – Alan Cummings
Sound Innovations – Chris Pearson

Contact Scott Holson
sholson2@vtsbdc.org
802-281-5236

Ken Merritt spoke about Benefit Corporations in an Equal Time Radio interview hosted by Carl Etnier. Also in the program was Benjy Adler, from Skinny Pancake, talking about sourcing local food year-round and Dan Barlow, from VBSR,  speaking about a surprising set of business priorities. Click here to listen to the show!