Vermont Business Magazine-September 2008

Following is an excerpt from this piece. To read the complete original article, please click here: Cairn G. Cross

Vermont is an entrepreneur-rich environment. Our state may be small and far from the urban capital markets, but our imaginative business people have created whole new industries up here - think of super-fatted ice cream, jog bras and snowboarding. They have developed new ways of selling recognizable products - think of computers and teddy bears. They have helped push along the "green" economy - think of household products, solar energy and wind technology.

But Cairn (pronounced "Karn") G Cross, cofounder and managing director of FreshTracks Capital, LP produces the one thing a business economy simply cannot do without: the entrepreneurs themselves.

FreshTracks is Vermont's only venture capital fund. Venture capitalists are the good guys who swoop in with suitcases of money and say, "Here, start a business." They're also the bad guys who get blamed for cashing out of the same businesses because they're uninterested in job creation and livelihood.

But if you must have venture capital - and most new businesses depend on it - it helps to have someone like Cross on your team. Competitive skier, banker, auditor, businessman and entrepreneur, with a little adventurer on the side, Cross, 49, brings a unique set of skills to the creation of business - and jobs - in Vermont.