BostInno
How Burlington's Innovation Hub Is Swinging Into High Gear
By: Lucia Maffei
To understand the spirit of Burlington, VT—a lakeside community with nearly 43,000 residents—look no further than on the floor of The Farmhouse, a family-friendly gastropub on Church Street.
Distracted by the beer menus, customers may fail to notice the brown tiles covering the floor, a clue of what was here before 2012: an abandoned McDonald’s. Restaurateurs converted the place into a farm-to-table restaurant and seasonal beer garden that’s a Friday night hotspot, with the former drive-through window still overlooking the counter.
The scarcity of national brands, and perhaps the proud refusal of them, is one of the first thing that newcomers notice when walking around Burlington, the state’s largest city (Montpelier, the capital, is home to fewer than 8,000). Shops are local and streets essential, with painted rocks decorating plant vases on the curb.
The impression is that Burlington is a community that relies on its local identity: an outdoorsy place, flagship of The Green Mountain State, and a university city, home to The University of Vermont (UVM) and small private college Champlain College.
The city is not afraid to tackle huge challenges, powered by a close-knit, supportive and enthusiastic community. Ask the independent candidate who was first elected mayor in 1981 and is now Senator: Bernie Sanders.
That braveness powered by a strong sense of community is an essential ingredient of a blossoming local tech startup ecosystem, which is now growing independently (but intentionally connected) with Boston’s.
The Connections with Boston
“Economic development used to be here or there,” said David Bradbury, president and CEO of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET), an independent non-profit organization offering venture capital, co-working space, startup mentoring and networking resources. “Now it’s here and there,” he added, referring to Burlington (“here”) and Boston (“there”).
“ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT USED TO BE HERE OR THERE. NOW IT’S HERE AND THERE.”
The list of connections between Burlington-based VCET and Boston includes alumni, employers, innovation partners, venture investors and remote workers.
As for alumni, there are both Mass. university alumni living in Vermont and Vermont university alumni living in Boston. Bradbury himself holds an MBA from Babson College; VCET’s director of innovation Samantha “Sam” Roach-Gerber (“one of the rare people who are neither from Vermont nor studied in Vermont,” as she described herself) is a 2013 graduate of Northeastern University.
UVM alumni in the Boston tech ecosystem are, to name a few, Scott Bailey (now executive director at MassChallenge) and Jodi Goldstein (executive director at Harvard Innovation Labs). Also, the VCET ecosystem can count on a network of investors and co-investors that includes Launch Capital and Boston Seed.
The network is present. As a result, startups are starting to blossom.
The Future
“We see more companies forming and more investments than ever before,” Bradbury said. “Companies here at the top of their niche.”
Industry segments in the Burlington ecosystem are food and beverage startups, consumer products, healthcare, marketing tech and recreation companies. In many cases, entrepreneurs have a day job and work on their venture in their spare time, with the help and financial support of friends and community members, until their startup takes off.
“THE ACCESS TO PROFESSIONAL, SKILLED HELP AND MENTORS IS OUR ASSET. WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER.”
“The access to professional, skilled help and mentors is our asset,” Bradbury said. “We’re in this together.” But one of the biggest challenges is “creating density,” as Roach-Gerber pointed out.
Enter Hula: a project that aims to provide a positive environment for entrepreneurs and their families. Situated on a 12 acre parcel along Lake Champlain, the Hula campus — 150,000 square feet of office space and co-working areas — will offer on-site stand up paddle board and windsurfing rental and storage, direct access to the Burlington bike path and other amenities, all less than two miles from downtown Burlington.
The space is meant to be a one-stop location for work and play. Since one of the challenges of Vermont is retaining young people in the state, the Hula project hopes to give them reason to stay as well as attract families looking for healthy work-life balance from out of state.
The Hula campus will replace a manufacturing site of Blodgett Oven, a maker of commercial ovens that is now is located in Essex Junction, Vermont. More than 400 people used to work in this place, making Blodgett “the” old Vermont company.
As much as Blodgett took local credit as a business story, the title of most successful business story from Burlington belongs to another company: Dealer.com.
“Our Version of Google”
An advertising and marketing provider for the automotive industry, Dealer.com is what Bradbury defined Burlington’s version of Google.
With a 20-year long history, now part of Cox Automotive, the company started its business to help car dealers start building websites and advertise their services on the internet. Currently, it has relations with around 24 car manufactures and operates 10,000 franchise dealer websites.
The company employs around 1,000 people in Burlington and is said to have a good reputation among locals.
“Employees retention is important to us because of the small pool of talent we have access to,” said Alex Moore, a marketing team leader at Dealer.com. “The city is not that big.”
But Vermont has talent, resources and the network to thrive. How far is it from becoming another New England startup hub?
