FreshTracks’ Peak Pitch event is scheduled for March 8th at Sugarbush Resort.

Hosted by FreshTracks Capital, the Vermont Peak Pitch 2012 event will take place at the Sugarbush Ski Resort in Warren, Vermont on Thursday, March 8.  Now in its eighth year, Peak Pitch provides a relaxed, yet productive atmosphere for entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas to investors. 

Peak Pitch brings together entrepreneurs and investors for a fun day of skiing, networking and fundraising. Entrepreneurs get the opportunity to deliver their “elevator pitch” to investors while riding the chairlift throughout the morning, after which everyone will meet for a networking luncheon and a “pitch off” in the afternoon. Thanks to our sponsors, this event is free to entrepreneurs who want to network and free to investors and advisors who are interested in hearing pitches from local businesses and willing to provide helpful feedback and counsel.

To register to attend the event, please click here: Peak Pitch 2012.  If you have questions about the event, or want to learn more, please email Holly Killary: holly@freshtrackscap.com

Peak Pitch 2012 Sponsors:

Champlain College BYOBiz,  Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network,  Dartmouth Regional Technology Center,  Entrepreneurship Initiative at 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,   Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies,  Vermont Community Loan Fund,  VT Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development,  and  VSJF Flexible Capital Fund,

The basic premise was to take 75 diverse people from all different backgrounds, divide them into six teams and present them with a challenge.  The teams were supposed to ideate an application or business concept that would further the specific localvore strategic initiatives promoted by VSJF’s Farm to Plate Study.  These strategic initiatives include measurably increasing Vermonters  consumption of Vermont produced food,  developing profitable farms and food processing facilities, create jobs in the food and farm economy and improve access to local healthy foods.

The day started with two great speakers, Richard Ting SVP for R/GA’s mobile and social platforms group and native Burlingtonian Liz Gerber, who is now the founder and director of Design For America.  Richard presented several short video clips to illustrate various social media marketing projects his company had undertaken for Nike as well as non profits.  Liz focused on the design process but she threw in some specific Vermont cultural references to ground her thoughts.

Then it was show time.  We were assigned to groups of 10-15 people.  Luckily I was assigned to the Arugula group which was led by Liz Gerber.  Liz is a master facilitator and she quickly broke the ice with a series of physical exercises designed to get all of us acquainted with each other but without getting bogged down in mundane details such as who our employers are or the typical things that drive these sorts of ice breaking sessions.  We quickly paired off and I was paired with Chris Lei a recent college grad who grew up in Chittenden County.  Chris has a fiancé, is a self professed “geek” and works for Union Street Media.  Our objective was to listen to the other person’s point of view regarding eating local food and try to find a problem to solve or “customer pain point.”  For Chris his problem was that he was interested in eating more local food but he had trouble with the “accessibility”.  Chris and his fiancé have the same problem most couples and American families do, they have limited time to plan what to eat.  Chris described the almost daily forage where they would go out to shop for what they were going to cook for dinner with only a limited idea of what they were looking for.  Sometimes the supermarket had local foods available but many times it did not.  Sure they might patronize a farmers market on occasion on the weekends but even then they might be stymied by what to do with the produce available.  Chris and his fiancé liked to cook but they are young and they are building their skills and did not necessarily consider themselves experts.

So now it was my turn to take what I had learned from Chris and turn it into a business model.  Luckily for me I have been thinking about this exact problem for quite a while.  I have seen various business models over the years that try to address some portion(s) of this same issue; and even though I am probably 30 years older than Chris I have felt the same “pain” Chris has felt.  I don’t have any more time than he has to figure out how to buy local and plan my meals out for the week.  Liz Gerber gave each of us some materials to aid our brainstorming: Legos, modeling clay, paper plates, markers, and my favorite: several cards from the iconic 1970s TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard” (yes that explains everything, doesn’t it?!).

I set to work.  My idea was that there would have to be several things to solve the pain Chris has.  First he is a geek so he wanted some digital application, preferably mobile.  Second, he was overwhelmed by choices in terms of what to cook so the solution would have to simplify his choices.  Finally, he and his fiancé are busy so they can’t run all over the place to find their local ingredients.  My solution was basically My Web Grocer’s shopping meets a simplified meal planner with recipes meets the old fashioned “milk man.” Chris would be presented with some choices for each daily meal, perhaps two or three via a digital application.  He’d select one.  The mobile CSA truck (the modern version of the milkman would deliver the ingredients necessary to make the meal to his place of work or his residence within a fairly tightly defined window of time.  I took the clay and the Legos and fashioned a truck with a carrot on the side (luckily the clay was orange!).  I set the truck on the paper plate then drew in some streets on the top of the plate.  I drew a picture of a cell phone with a primitive order entry system on it and a stick figure of Chris waiting for the truck after entering his order.

Now it was time to present our ideas. Each person in our group had a similar construction using the materials at hand.  Sadly I could not think up how to use the Dukes of Hazzard cards but others did.  We each presented our idea and then the group voted.  My idea got the top vote but the votes were very close and the second place idea was Rebecca Roose’s.  She had a similar idea (although without the delivery truck).  Her front end application was better thought out though.  That made sense because she works for My Web Grocer.  Our group was pragmatic and suggested that we mash both ideas together.  We broke for lunch and then after lunch we got back together with the entire group and began hashing out more details of the idea.  A winning name, “BeetRoute” emerged.  The front end got more elegant and complicated.  The group imagined a sliding scale where on one end there was a recipe so basic the ingredients would be delivered off the truck chopped, washed and in the right quantities so that all that was required was assembly and a bit of cooking.  On the other end of the sliding scale would be a complicated recipe requiring the cook to do a tremendous amount of preparation.  If the consumer was in a hurry on a weeknight they might opt for “assembly” and if they had time to spare (perhaps on a weekend) they might opt for “epicurean” and try out a more complicated option.

The back end got more complicated too.  I imagined a way to construct a series of recipes based on what would be in season locally and then based on a front end consumer subscription model where subscribers would sign up for a minimum number of nights per week of food, BeetRoute could  forecast demand from growers and contract with them as necessary to ensure that they could “focus on growing” rather than on marketing and selling.  Of course we’d have to have contingent plans for seasonal weather shifts and crop failures which would add complexity.  We’d need a warehousing and processing facility of and rolling stock and a pretty complicated logistics system with real time communication to keep track of who was ordering and where they wanted to pick things up. Geo-locational devices would be needed to keep track of where the truck was.

Before long the afternoon had slipped away and it was time to present our idea to the entire 75 person Social Hack group.   Miraculously every group had a unique idea.  Beetroute squeaked out the largest number of votes as the best idea of the day.  Our model would create jobs, improve the accessibility and access to local foods and would help farmers grow their businesses profitably. So what did I learn out of all of this?  First, assembling a smart group of people to focus on a problem for a concentrated period of time can indeed produce a number of possible elegant solutions.  Second, experienced facilitators can keep things moving towards an end goal with a minimum amount of disruption.  Third, it’s important to keep in mind the business model when you are brainstorming ideas.

*Thank you to Stephen Mease of Champlain College for all of the images used in this blog post. * 

To read the complete newsletter, please click here: The FreshTracks Flurry December 2011

To read the complete newsletter, please click here: the_fresh_tracks_flurry_november_2011

• Peter Dodds – set the table for the conference, helping the attendees frame up the definition of complex systems as evaluation macroscopic behavior that has no central control.  Peter noted that with the computational power that we have built as a society, we can now (1) store massive amounts of data, and (2) simulate and model an impressive series of scenarios to derive patterns and takeaways from that data.  Peter then offered up the image of a hotdog as an analogy to Collateralized Debt Obligations (“CDOs”), noting that the individualized parts of each of these entities you probably wouldn’t want separately, but assemble them together in a package and then you all of a sudden have an appetite for about 2 million of these beasts.
• Chris Danforth – has developed a model to turn off the effects of the Industrial Revolution, which shows that the 1 degree Celsius temperature increase we’ve seen from 1900 – 2000 disappears from our environment when you remove that human influence from the virtual equation
• Austin Troy – has noticed that we are drowning in imagery & remote sensing data from sources like Google Earth.   Meanwhile, humans are great at recognizing patterns, his example was flashing up a picture of the Big Lebowski next to Eddie Vedder, allowing everyone to recognize how quickly humans are able to tell these two people apart, but how difficult it might be for a computer to do so.  Therefore, Austin has been developing huge rule sets for interpretation of data to train computers how to understand images and think spatially instead of pixel by pixel, so that computers can, say, recognize the difference between a rooftop and a road when surveying Google maps images. 
• Mike Schmidt – is working on automated knowledge discovery, also known as a “robotic scientist”.  He has developed a model named EUREQA that you can download here to detect “equations and hidden mathematical relationships in your data” and distill the mathematical fundamentals of that data.  Mike’s model then helps humans ask the right questions around huge unruly data sets.
• Gary Johnson – is focused on Ecosystem Services, which, for example, places a value on the non-material elements of a forest.  Not the maple syrup or lumber products that come out of that forest, but the oxygen, the recreational value and the nutrients retained in the soil that help prevent erosion and keeps sediment out of the streams and rivers, etc.  Using an Ecosystems Services value database Gary is working to better understand who receives ecosystem services from where, and can that information help us with land management decisions, allow us to evaluate various development scenarios, and interpret the highest and best uses of the land around us.
• Hugh Garavan – is investigating addiction and willpower in the brain during adolescence, looking at the ages at which teenagers take their first alcoholic drink and what that tells us about their future behavior.  Hugh asks the question, “How do millions of neurons work to produce coherent behavior, and what does that tell us about impulse control?”
• Josh Bongard – recently received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from Barack Obama.   Josh has been working to regrow the Tree of Life on UVM’s supercomputer, then simulating other potential Trees that might evolve on distant planets.  
• Rob Axtell - His most recent research designs a macro-economy from millions of interacting agents, with a view towards using modeling to help inform policy decisions that might help us recover from future recessions faster
• Marta Gonzalez– is using mobile phones as data sensors to map humans’ most frequent travel patterns, aggregating data points that could assist with traffic flow and urban planning.  
• Isabel Kloumann – believes that the evaluation of the happiness of the human race has been overshadowed by more easily measured metrics like GDP growth and Income Inequality. She is looking at the data from 50MM Twitter users, and scored 10,000 words to evaluate happiness over time through social media.
• Neil Johnson – believes that humans “do” the big events like the stock market crash, that is, humans are the force behind the black swans.  He has been modeling the Foreign Exchange (FX) market which breaks apart and reforms correlations and relationships to other currencies on a constant basis.  Using Agent simulation, Neil believes that he has developed a model that incorporates the statistical properties of currency prices which can predict price crashes in the future.

I came away from the TEDx event thinking that UVM is at the forefront of some pretty powerful and innovative complex systems research.  The work going on at the Gund Institute and in the Computer Science department, including the work with UVM’s supercomputing capacity and the Spatial Analysis Lab is a key asset to Vermont.  Hopefully that’s indicative of the great things that will continue to emerge from our state’s only research university. 

Draker's Utility Suite™ Will Monitor and Control 40MW of Projects including Largest PV plant in the Northeast

The following is an exerpt from this piece.  To read the complete original article, please click here: Draker Labs Selected by Con Edison Development For Utility-Scale Solar Monitoring and Control

Draker Labs, the industry's leading provider of turnkey monitoring solutions for commercial and utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, was recently selected by Con Edison Development (CED) to monitor and control more than 40 MWs of grid-interconnected solar projects in the Northeast, including the 20MW Pilesgrove solar power plant. The Pilesgrove facility is the largest PV plant in the northeastern U.S. The Pilesgrove project was put in service in Q3 and is expected to generate enough clean energy to power over 5,000 homes while reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 1,900 tons per year, the equivalent of removing 3,400 cars from the road annually.

Mark Noyes, Vice President of Con Ed Development, commented, "We selected Draker based on the scalability and reliability of their data acquisition system, as well as their ability to deliver an integrated monitoring and control solution to manage the utility interconnection. Draker's team of dedicated project managers and field engineers were instrumental in commissioning the plant and interconnecting to the utility grid. We look forward to completing additional utility-scale projects with Draker in New Jersey, and beyond."

To read the complete newsletter, please click here: the_fresh_tracks_flurry_oct_2011

Deborah Schwarz, CEO of eCorp English will be a guest speaker at the upcoming Vermont Venture Network (VVN) meeting to be held on September 22, 2011.  The event, which starts at 8:00 a.m., will be held at the Burlington Hilton Hotel.

Vermont Venture Network (VVN) is a forum created to enhance the interaction and exchange of ideas among Vermont’s entrepreneurs and  has been at the heart of the Vermont entrepreneurial community for more than 20 years. VVN has worked successfully with other economic development advocates to bring the right people together to grow Vermont’s economy, while providing education and inspiration to our participants.

VVN is a not-for-profit organization that meets monthly featuring speakers from Vermont’s business community or financing source.

Meetings are open to the public. Attendees include entrepreneurs, management-for-hire and employment candidates, investors, and those who assist start-ups or established entrepreneurial businesses, such as, government agencies or service providers.

eCorp English specializes in English language training for global companies like Google, IBM and UPS. eCorp teaches non-native English speakers to translate their skills in order to function in an English speaking business environment.  The company was launched in 2007 by Deborah Schwarz, an entrepreneur, foreign language expert, and past attendee of the Middlebury College Language School.

Tech @ Brattleboro Entrepreneur’s Networking Event- September 15^th 

Thinking about starting a technology firm? Got a growing business? Looking for interns? Or, do you just want to connect with other entrepreneurs and investors?  If so, then please meet up at Tech @ Brattleboro event on Thursday, September 15th at The Marina Restaurant in Brattleboro, VT from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. 

In partnership with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and Marlboro College, several private and non-profit investment and economic development organizations from around Vermont are visiting the Brattleboro area to engage, share and learn from local entrepreneurs, business owners and investors.

Tech @ Brattleboro is a “no speeches” style of networking event modeled after the very effective Emerging Growth Company networking events recently started in Burlington and Newport. “We are excited to continue this series around the state to help technology entrepreneurs and business owners connect with resources, collaborate, and ultimately spur job growth in Vermont.” said Andrew Stickney, Vice President of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET), “Southern Vermont faces tremendous challenge and change, and we want to be a part of the team that together, can solve economic problems.”

Organizers for this second Tech @ series include the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, Fresh Tracks Capital, LP, Marlboro College, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, North Country Angels, and the Vermont Technology Council, among others.  Following the Brattleboro event, the next Tech @ series event is being planned for White River Junction in November.

“Tech @ Brattleboro is the perfect chance to look toward the future and seize opportunities that are in front of us for innovation and entrepreneurship, in spite of the difficult events of the past few weeks in this area,” said Jeffery Lewis, Executive Director, Brattleboro Credit Development Corporation.  “This will be a great event for entrepreneurs, inventors, executives, and investors to continue moving their plans forward in an informal setting."

For more information, visit the event on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=253323498029541

Or, please contact Andrew Stickney at Andrew@vermonttechnologies.com or Jeffrey Lewis at jlewis@brattleborodevelopment.com

About the Event Organizers

The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) is a private, non-profit organization that serves as a catalyst for industrial and commercial growth throughout Southeastern Vermont.  www.brattleborodevelopment.com

FreshTracks Capital, LP manages $25 million in venture capital that is invested with a core focus on Vermont.  FreshTracks pursues investing opportunities in high-growth, private companies. www.freshtrackscap.com

Marlboro College is a student centric private liberal arts college located in Southern Vermont.  The college offers 34 B.A. and B.S. degrees including a full time MBA in Managing for Sustainability, delivering on its mission “to teach students to think clearly and to learn independently”.  http://www.marlboro.edu

The Vermont Technology Council advances science and technology based economic development among Vermont's Universities and Colleges, business sectors, workforce and state government. www.vttechcouncil.org

North Country Angels brings together over 40 successful and experienced entrepreneurs who are active in making early-stage and seed investments in firms located in the northeastern United States. http://www.northcountryangels.com

The Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET) is a non-profit technology firm incubation program and early stage venture capital provider serving all of Vermont. Visit www.VermontTechnologies.com

Directions To Event

The Marina Restaurant

28 Spring Tree Road

Brattleboro, VT 05301 - 9166

(802) 257-7563

Google Map:  http://www.vermontmarina.com/contact-us--directions.html

*Quirky Raises $16 Million for Social Development Platform

*Draker Labs Piece Featured in Solar Industry Magazine

*Solais Lighting Wins Best of Best Award, Featured in tED Magazine

*PajamaJeans, a VT Teddy Bear Product, Projecting 2 Million Units Sold by Year End

*VT Hackathon:  You +  Caffeine + 24 Hours = $10,000

*TechDrivers III - SAVE THE DATE

To read the complete newsletter, click here: the freshtracks flurry september 2011

The following is an excerpt from the press release.  To read the complete original article, please click here: Hospitals Implement GetWellNetwork at Record Pace

GetWellNetwork, Inc., provider of the industry's leading interactive patient care (IPC) solution, today announced an increase of 25 percent growth in beds in the first half of 2011, compared to the same period last year, outpacing forecasts. As hospitals become more focused on patient engagement, education, and improving the patient experience, the need for advanced IPC solutions like those from GetWellNetwork is increasing. Additionally, the need to achieve Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements is also attributed to the strong growth.

“Patient engagement has emerged as a core strategy for performance improvement, as hospitals move aggressively to meet Meaningful Use criteria and value-based purchasing under health reform,” said Michael O’Neil, founder and CEO of GetWellNetwork. “Along with our hospital partners, we are finding powerful evidence that engaging patients and families at the point of care results in a healthcare system that will operate more efficiently and deliver higher quality, patient-centered care.”

The following is an excerpt from the piece in The New York Times.  To read the complete original article, click here: Quirky Judges Good Ideas

While many people have passing ideas for new household products, few make the effort to realize them. But Quirky, a self-described “social product development” company, is changing that. Founded by Ben Kaufman, a 24-year-old inventor and entrepreneur, the company solicits ideas for new products on its Web site, bringing the most popular suggestions to life with the help of in-house product designers and an online community, and then sharing the profits.

Beginning Tuesday at 10 p.m., the Sundance Channel will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the company with “Quirky,” a six-episode series. The first one shows how the company developed the ideas of two amateur inventors: Jake Zien, who dreamed up a power strip with repositionable outlets, and Andrea Zabinski, who wanted a serving bowl that doubled as a colander to cut down on dirty dishes.
Mr. Kaufman recently answered questions about how Quirky works.

Why work with independent inventors?

It’s casting a wider net. Unfortunately, for centuries, it’s been really, really hard for people who have great ideas to execute their ideas. They need access to capital, they need to know the right people, etc. The people who are inherently designers usually find a way to get things made, but the people who are just great problem solvers are usually left by the wayside, and their ideas never see the light of day.

Do most of these ideas come from the struggles of daily life?

Yes. The best products in the world are the result of problems that people are experiencing. The products in the first episode, Jake’s pivotable power strip and Andrea’s strainer bowl, are two problem-solving products. They’re not frivolous things. Andrea didn’t want to wash all the bowls in her sink, and Jake was annoyed that he couldn’t fit all the power bricks into his power strip. They’re simple problems that resulted in brilliant solutions.

Who is the ideal Quirky inventor?

The following is an excerpt from this piece.  To read the complete original article, click here:  GetWell is Leading IPC Provider to Meet MU Standards.

GetWellNetwork, Inc., provider of the industry's leading interactive patient care (IPC) solution, today announced a new white paper that outlines the requirements and monetary impact of the Meaningful Use (MU) program and provides an overview of how IPC solutions can help satisfy MU requirements in the Patient and Family Engagement Category.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal government designated $27 billion under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH Act) to be used as reimbursement incentives for hospitals and health care professionals that adopt and meaningfully use Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology in providing patient care. The HITECH Act introduced the MU program with standards that health care providers must comply with in order to receive these incentives and avoid payment penalties through Medicare.

Quirky will be featured on the Sundance Channel in a new realitry TV series premiering on August 30.  To learn more click here: Sundance Channel To see the trailer, click here:  Quirky on Sundance Channel

*Vermont Investors Forum Call for Applications

*FreshTracks Managing Partner, Timothy Davis, Joins Fletcher Allen Board

*PajamaJeans, a Vermont Teddy Bear Product, in NY Times

*NEHP Hires Andy Doe

*Draker Labs Announces Management Team Changes

*BrighterPlanet Study Ranks Airline Carbon Efficiency

To read the complete newsletter, click here: the freshtracks flurry August 2011