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| Mar 22, 2024 | Can Tempeh Change the World? | Sarah Speare, cofounder and CEO of Tootie’s Tempeh in Maine, believes that tempeh is a sleeping giant that can alleviate global hunger, reduce our dependence on animal agriculture, and help solve the climate crisis. |
| Mar 19, 2024 | Can Plants Replace Plastic Packaging? | As consumers better understand the health and environmental cost of plastic packaging, businesses are increasingly looking for alternatives. A startup in Maine is looking to the abundant Northern Forest and the state’s legacy pulp industry ... |
| Mar 19, 2024 | Can Plants Replace Plastic Packaging? | As consumers better understand the health and environmental cost of plastic packaging, businesses are increasingly looking for alternatives. A startup in Maine is looking to the abundant Northern Forest and the state’s legacy pulp industry ... |
| Jan 18, 2024 | Through Flood and Pandemic, Entrepreneur Michael Zebrowski is Determined to Up End the Affordable Housing Crisis | Being an entrepreneur takes grit, determination, and vision, all of which Michael Zebrowski, founder of Up End This has in spades. Not only has his young business endured the challenges typical of a startup, it has also survived both the pa... |
| Jan 18, 2024 | Through Flood and Pandemic, Entrepreneur Michael Zebrowski is Determined to Up End the Affordable Housing Crisis | Being an entrepreneur takes grit, determination, and vision, all of which Michael Zebrowski, founder of Up End This has in spades. Not only has his young business endured the challenges typical of a startup, it has also s ... |
| Nov 2, 2023 | An Impact Fund Investor’s Musings: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Investing in Rural Communities | By Janice St. Onge, President, Flexible Capital Fund, L3C |
| Nov 2, 2023 | An Impact Fund Investor’s Musings: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Investing in Rural Communities | By Janice St. Onge, President, Flexible Capital Fund, L3C
Since 2011, I’ve been running the Flexible Capital Fund, L3C (the Flex Fund), a for-profit, impact investment fund and Community Development ... |
| Feb 6, 2023 | Pioneers of African Cuisine, Global Village Foods Finds Community in Vermont | “If you look online, you can find Chinese food, Italian food, and so many ethnic cuisines, but not African,” said Damaris Hall, cofounder of Global Village Foods. “So we thought, ‘why not?’ We will be the pioneers of ... |
| Feb 6, 2023 | Pioneers of African Cuisine, Global Village Foods Finds Community in Vermont | By Kelly Nottermann |
| Jul 1, 2022 | Lighting the Way to a Healthier Future | Bill McGrath, president and chief technical officer of LEDdynamics, has seen how light can transform lives. “The big story of LED technology in the 1990s was about energy savings,” he said, “but for a lot of people around t ... |
| Jul 1, 2022 | Lighting the Way to a Healthier Future | By Kelly Nottermann |
| Mar 23, 2022 | Farmers To You Finds Silver Lining in Tumultuous Years of Pandemic | By Janice St. Onge, Flexible Capital Fund |
| Mar 23, 2022 | Farmers To You Finds Silver Lining in Tumultuous Years of Pandemic | “Our mission hasn’t changed,” said Greg Georgaklis, founder of Farmers To You, “but the world has.”
Launched in 2009, Farmers To You connects farmers and food producers in Vermont to customers in the Boston area. Similar to a CSA, the platf... |
| Mar 7, 2022 | Aegis Founder Lives by His Mission to Have a Net Positive Impact on the Planet | By Kelly Nottermann, Flexible Capital Fund, L3C |
| Mar 7, 2022 | Aegis Founder Lives by His Mission to Have a Net Positive Impact on the Planet | Nils Behn vividly remembers sitting in class at Harwood Union High School and deciding that he would use his time on this planet to have a positive impact on the environment. “There was this aha moment in a tenth-grade anthropology class,” ... |
| Dec 13, 2021 | Maine Entrepreneurs to Manufacture Insulation Made from Wood | By Kelly Nottermann, Flexible Capital Fund, L3C |
| Dec 13, 2021 | Maine Entrepreneurs to Manufacture Insulation Made from Wood | An architect and a chemist walk into a paper mill…
It’s an unlikely partnership in an unlikely corner of the world, but it doesn’t take long for TimberHP by GO Lab founders Matthew O’Malia and Joshua Henry to convey t ... |
| Oct 29, 2021 | Bolton Valley at the Heart of the DesLauriers Family | By Kelly Nottermann, Flexible Capital Fund, L3C |
| Oct 29, 2021 | Bolton Valley at the Heart of the DesLauriers Family | Even though it’s October, Lindsay DesLauriers’ skis are propped in the corner of her office, her helmet hanging off the tips as though she might head out for a few runs any minute. I get the feeling her mountain bike is somewhere nearby too... |
| Sep 23, 2021 | Vermont Manufacturer Introduces Low-Embodied Carbon Building Material to U.S. | “The built environment is responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Rob Conboy, founder and CEO of Glavel. “There is the energy we use to heat and cool buildings, which most people understand, but ... |
| Sep 23, 2021 | Vermont Manufacturer Introduces Low-Embodied Carbon Building Material to U.S. | By Kelly Nottermann |
| Jul 27, 2021 | Innovation in an Aging Industry | The pulp and paper industry is not known for its cutting-edge technology or pushing the frontiers of innovation. In fact, little has changed in the 150 years since wood pulp was first used to make paper at the Smith Paper Company. But where... |
| Jul 27, 2021 | Innovation in an Aging Industry | The pulp and paper industry is not known for its cutting-edge technology or pushing the frontiers of innovation. In fact, little has changed in the 150 years since wood pulp was first used to make paper at the Smith Paper Company. But where... |
| Jun 1, 2021 | From Brownfields to Brightfields: Encore Renewable Energy Reimagines Sites for Solar | An engineer by training and environmentalist by choice, Chad Farrell founded Encore Redevelopment in 2007 to “scratch an entrepreneurial itch.” In those early years, the business focused on cleaning up contaminated waste sites for commercia... |
| Jun 1, 2021 | From Brownfields to Brightfields: Encore Renewable Energy Reimagines Sites for Solar | By Janice St. Onge, president of the Flexible Capital Fund |
| May 7, 2021 | KORE Solutions Inc. is Moving the U.S. Toward Renewables, One Battery at a Time | “Battery storage is what allows renewable energy to be relevant in today’s market,” said Jay Bellows, president and CEO of KORE Solutions, Inc. (formerly known as Northern Reliability). “Mother nature does not provide wind or sun on demand,... |
| May 7, 2021 | Northern Reliability is Moving the U.S. Toward Renewables, One Battery at a Time | By Janice St. Onge, president of the Flexible Capital Fund |
| Apr 29, 2021 | Grow Compost Grows a Business | By Janice St. Onge, president of the Flexible Capital Fund |
| Apr 29, 2021 | Grow Compost Grows a Business | “How can we live in Vermont and not be able to find compost?” That question, posed by Lisa Ransom around the dinner table one evening in 2008 was, in hindsight, the start of Grow Compost. Lisa and her husband, Scott Baug ... |
| Apr 20, 2021 | Localvore App Helps Feed Vermonters During Pandemic | By Janice St. Onge, President of the Flexible Capital Fund |
| Apr 20, 2021 | Localvore App Helps Feed Vermonters During Pandemic | Fresh from a year-long stint at Groupon, Dan White moved to Vermont in 2011 with an idea–to localize the popular couponing platform in a way that supported Vermont farmers, producers, and restaurants.
By 2017, the Localvore app had 20,000 c... |
| Feb 12, 2021 | From Hospice to Good Health, Plant-Based Eating Inspires a Business | When Meg Donahue, co-founder of MamaSezz, Googled “how do you survive congestive heart failure” late one evening in 2012, she wasn’t hoping to find a miracle cure, she simply wanted her mother to have a little more time hol ... |
| Feb 12, 2021 | From Hospice to Good Health, Plant-Based Eating Inspires a Business | When Meg Donahue, co-founder of MamaSezz, Googled “how do you survive congestive heart failure” late one evening in 2012, she wasn’t hoping to find a miracle cure, she simply wanted her mother to have a little more time holding her newborn ... |
| Dec 14, 2020 | Trust Your Gut: Aqua ViTea Founder Jeff Weaber on Growing an Idea and a Business | It was with this idea in mind that Weaber, formerly a brewer for Lucky Labrador in Oregon, started making kombucha in the basement of his Salisbury, Vermont farmhouse back in 2005, primarily to support his wife’s newly opened naturopathic c... |
| Dec 14, 2020 | Trust Your Gut: Aqua ViTea Founder Jeff Weaber on Growing an Idea and a Business | It was with this idea in mind that Weaber, formerly a brewer for Lucky Labrador in Oregon, started making kombucha in the basement of his Salisbury, Vermont farmhouse back in 2005, primarily to support his wife’s newly opened naturopathic c... |
| Dec 3, 2020 | Pressing Apples and Pressing for Prosperity in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom | Movies have been made about the romantic notion of leaving corporate America to start a business in a remote, bucolic Vermont town, but few of those fictional characters can hold a candle to Eleanor Léger, the real-life founder of Eden Cide... |
| Dec 3, 2020 | Pressing Apples and Pressing for Prosperity in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom | Movies have been made about the romantic notion of leaving corporate America to start a business in a remote, bucolic Vermont town, but few of those fictional characters can hold a candle to Eleanor Léger, the real-life founder of |
| Apr 20, 2020 | Getting Started on Your Journey to Invest with Your Values | |
| Apr 20, 2020 | Getting Started on Your Journey to Invest with Your Values | |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Why We Need All Kinds of Capital for Recovery | By Janice St. Onge, Flexible Capital Fund President |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Why We Need All Kinds of Capital for Recovery | By Janice St. Onge, Flexible Capital Fund President
The Flexible Capital Fund, L3C (the “Flex Fund”) provides risk capital in the form of revenue-based financing to growing companies in Vermont’s food system, forestry an ... |
| Mar 9, 2020 | Flexible Capital Fund Invests $75,000 in Ceres Greens to Grow Production of Local Greens | Eating fresh, local greens during the winter months can be a challenge but Ceres Greens of Barre, VT, an early stage vertical farming company, is working to supply fresh, local produce to institutional and food service customers year-round.... |
| Mar 9, 2020 | Flexible Capital Fund Invests $75,000 in Ceres Greens to Grow Production of Local Greens | Eating fresh, local greens during the winter months can be a challenge but Ceres Greens of Barre, VT, an early stage vertical farming company, is working to supply fresh, local produce to institutional and food service customers year-round.... |
| Feb 3, 2020 | Connecting People to the Farmers That Feed Them | On a cold Tuesday, music plays from a radio and workers wheel shopping bags around in a circle lined with incredible looking food items fresh from a farm or local producer, including meat, eggs, cheeses, milk, yogurt, baked goods, fresh bre... |
| Feb 3, 2020 | Connecting People to the Farmers That Feed Them | On a cold Tuesday, music plays from a radio and workers wheel shopping bags around in a circle lined with incredible looking food items fresh from a farm or local producer, including meat, eggs, cheeses, milk, yogurt, baked goods, fresh bre... |
| Dec 10, 2019 | Op Ed: Dan White, co-founder, Localvore.co and Localvore Passport App | I know most of you have heard about the importance of eating (and shopping) local. It’s better for your health. It keeps more money in the local economy. It strengthens community because you know the people who are growing your food. It sup... |
| Dec 10, 2019 | Op Ed: Dan White, co-founder, Localvore.co and Localvore Passport App | I know most of you have heard about the importance of eating (and shopping) local. It’s better for your health. It keeps more money in the local economy. It strengthens community because you know the people who are growing your food. It sup... |
| Jul 9, 2019 | Paying it Forward with Capital | I have mixed feelings. I’m feeling sad and a little lonely. On the other hand, I am hopeful and excited about what we can do together to create a more just and sustainable world – if we really want to.
Over the last 10 months, I’ve been par... |
| Jul 9, 2019 | Paying it Forward with Capital | I have mixed feelings. I’m feeling sad and a little lonely. On the other hand, I am hopeful and excited about what we can do together to create a more just and sustainable world – if we really want to. |
| Jun 5, 2019 | Flexible Capital Fund invests $150,000 in MamaSezz to provide food that heals and a livable wage for all workers | Conscious consumers are demanding products and services from environmentally and socially responsible companies in all industries. Brattleboro-based gluten-free, plant-based meal delivery service, MamaSezz Foods, Inc., is working to provide... |
| Jun 5, 2019 | Flexible Capital Fund invests $150,000 in MamaSezz to provide food that heals and a livable wage for all workers | Conscious consumers are demanding products and services from environmentally and socially responsible companies in all industries. Brattleboro-based gluten-free, plant-based meal delivery service, MamaSezz F ... |
| Feb 26, 2019 | Encore Renewable Energy receives $1 million from impact investment funds to expand solar projects in New England | Montpelier, VT –The Flexible Capital Fund (Flex Fund) of Vermont, Coastal Enterprises (CEI) of Maine and ... |
| Feb 26, 2019 | Encore Renewable Energy receives $1 million from impact investment funds to expand solar projects in New England | Montpelier, VT –The Flexible Capital Fund (Flex Fund) of Vermont, Coastal Enterprises (CEI) of Maine and New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (Community Loan Fund) today announced a joint investment of $1 million in Encore Renewable Energy, a ... |
| Feb 7, 2019 | Op Ed: Learning through failure in business | I recently read a post from a colleague at Goodworks Ventures, an impact investment fund in rural Montana, that hit home:
“There is a lot of discussion around failure and startups these days. Fail fast. Failure is the way you get ... |
| Feb 7, 2019 | Op Ed: Learning through failure in business | I recently read a post from a colleague at Goodworks Ventures, an impact investment fund in rural Montana, that hit home: |
| Dec 3, 2018 | Op Ed: How much is enough? | How much money is enough? Do you really know what your money is doing? What story is your money telling about what you care about? Is your money invested in things that work against what is most important to you – just for the highest finan... |
| Dec 3, 2018 | Op Ed: How much is enough? | How much money is enough? Do you really know what your money is doing? What story is your money telling about what you care about? Is your money invested in things that work against what is most important to you – just for the highest finan... |
| Nov 12, 2018 | Op Ed: Let’s change the face of our investment community | In October, 38 women and four men from Vermont and New England gathered to participate in a workshop on “Addressing Unconscious Bias in Investing and the Workplace.” The workshop was put on by the Vermont Women’s Investors Network (VT WIN) ... |
| Nov 12, 2018 | Op Ed: Let’s change the face of our investment community | In October, 38 women and four men from Vermont and New England gathered to participate in a workshop on “Addressing Unconscious Bias in Investing and the Workplace.” The workshop was put on by the Vermont Women’s Investors Network (VT WIN) ... |
| May 24, 2018 | Op Ed: Jay Bellows, CEO, Northern Reliability, Inc. | Ask any rural business owner what the hardest part about starting and growing a company is and I can almost guarantee you will get the same answer nine times out of ten – finding access to capital.
Our business, Northern Reliability, is no ... |
| May 24, 2018 | Op Ed: Jay Bellows, CEO, Northern Reliability, Inc. | Ask any rural business owner what the hardest part about starting and growing a company is and I can almost guarantee you will get the same answer nine times out of ten – finding access to capital. |
| May 14, 2018 | Flexible Capital Fund Invests $300,000 in Vermont Kombucha company, Aqua ViTea | |
| May 14, 2018 | Flexible Capital Fund Invests $300,000 in Vermont Kombucha company, Aqua ViTea | Flex Fund’s investment will support the critical purchase of a bottling line that will help Aqua ViTea expand its production capacity in Middlebury and meet the growing demand of its customers in Vermont and beyond. The Flexible Fund helps ... |
| Jan 5, 2018 | Expansion of Localvore is growth model for job creation in Vermont | Flexible Capital Fund investment accelerates market expansion for Localvore’s digital marketing platform
Conscious consumers are demanding products and services from environmentally and socially responsible companies in all industries. Burl... |
| Jan 5, 2018 | Expansion of Localvore is growth model for job creation in Vermont | Flexible Capital Fund investment accelerates market expansion for Localvore’s digital marketing platform |
| Oct 21, 2017 | New Deal: Burlington-Based Localvore Aims to Be the Anti-Yelp | Excerpt from Seven Days:
The creators of Localvore Today started the ... |
| Oct 21, 2017 | New Deal: Burlington-Based Localvore Aims to Be the Anti-Yelp | Excerpt from Seven Days: |
| Oct 8, 2017 | Localvore Reinvents How to Discover Local Food & Drink | Burlington, VT – October 5, 2017 — Localvore is on a mission to change the way conscious consumers discover local food and drink, and how local business owners reach those consumers. Localvore merchants are restaurant owners and producers w... |
| Oct 8, 2017 | Localvore Reinvents How to Discover Local Food & Drink | Burlington, VT – October 5, 2017 — Localvore is on a mission to change the way conscious consumers discover local food and drink, and how local business owners reach those consumers. Localvore merchants are restaurant owners and p... |
| Dec 6, 2016 | Diverting waste from landfills is economic opportunity for Grow Compost | Montpelier, VT – The diversion of food scraps and other organic matter from landfills per Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) presents an expanding economic opportunity for Grow Compost of Vermont to provide organics hauling and man... |
| Dec 6, 2016 | Diverting waste from landfills is economic opportunity for Grow Compost | Montpelier, VT – The diversion of food scraps and other organic matter from landfills per Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) presents an expanding economic opportunity for Grow Compost of Vermont to provide organics hauling and man... |
| Oct 5, 2016 | Community development organizations get $4.45 million from US CDFI fund | Excerpt from Vermont Business Magazine: |
| Oct 5, 2016 | Community development organizations get $4.45 million from US CDFI fund | Excerpt from Vermont Business Magazine:
Four Vermont economic development organizations received grant awards totaling $4.45 million from the US Department of Treasury’ ... |
| Jul 14, 2016 | Socially responsible investment made in Burlington, VT clean energy development company | For Immediate Release
July 14, 2016 |
| Jul 14, 2016 | Socially responsible investment made in Burlington, VT clean energy development company | For Immediate Release
July 14, 2016
The Flexible Capital Fund announces the addition of Encore Renewable Energy to their socially responsible investment portfolio. The $400,000 of permanent working capital will enable Encore to hire new sta... |
| May 11, 2016 | Eden Specialty Ciders ready to grow with working capital from the Flexible Capital Fund | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2016
Eden Specialty Ciders (formerly Eden Ice Cider) is poised for growth with $200,000 in permanent working capital from the Flexible Capital Fund, a socially responsible investment fund that provides flexible... |
| May 11, 2016 | Eden Specialty Ciders ready to grow with working capital from the Flexible Capital Fund | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2016 |
| Nov 9, 2015 | $600,000 invested in VT green businesses | Excerpt from Burlington Free Press
Two growing Vermont companies specializing in renewable power and natural-resource efficiency have received ... |
| Nov 9, 2015 | $600,000 invested in VT green businesses | Excerpt from Burlington Free Press |
| Feb 9, 2015 | Two Vermont companies responsible for design, manufacturing and installation of first large-scale wind turbine in New York City | Excerpt from vermontbiz.com |
| Feb 9, 2015 | Two Vermont companies responsible for design, manufacturing and installation of first large-scale wind turbine in New York City | Excerpt from vermontbiz.com
Aegis Renewable Energy, a Vermont based renewable energy company, designed and installed the first commercial w ... |
| Jan 29, 2015 | The Benefits of “Slowing Your Money Down”: Crowdfunding Small & Local | Excerpt from nonprofitquarterly.org |
| Jan 29, 2015 | The Benefits of “Slowing Your Money Down”: Crowdfunding Small & Local | Excerpt from nonprofitquarterly.org
Earlier this month state, regulators in Oregon created a crowdfunding investment program in conjunction ... |
| Jan 25, 2015 | Slow Money formalizes Vermont-style investment | Ruah Swennerfelt lives in Charlotte with her husband, Louis Cox. The retired couple have inherited some money — and they want to make thoughtful decisions about how to invest it. |
| Jan 25, 2015 | Slow Money formalizes Vermont-style investment | Ruah Swennerfelt lives in Charlotte with her husband, Louis Cox. The retired couple have inherited some money — and they want to make thoughtful decisions about how to invest it.
The couple attended a meeting last fall in Montpelier that wa... |
| Jan 23, 2015 | Common Good Vermont: Opportunities and Challenges in Capitalization & Growth | Common Good Vermont interviews Janice St. Onge, the Deputy Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, Inc. and President of the VSJF Flexible Capital Fund, L3C. Janice discusses the importance of capital for Vermont’s innovative bus... |
| Jan 23, 2015 | Common Good Vermont: Opportunities and Challenges in Capitalization & Growth | Common Good Vermont interviews Janice St. Onge, the Deputy Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, Inc. and President of the VSJF Flexible Capital Fund, L3C. Janice discusses the importance of capital for Vermont’s innovative businesses, h... |
| Dec 14, 2014 | Flex Fund borrower, Aegis Renewable Energy installs largest VT rooftop solar array at Ayers Brook Goat Dairy | Aegis Renewable Energy installed the largest single rooftop solar array in the state at Ayers Brook Goat Dairy in Randolph, VT owned by Vermont Creamery. Generating 200,000 kWh of electricity per year, the array will power the farm and send... |
| Dec 14, 2014 | Flex Fund borrower, Aegis Renewable Energy installs largest VT rooftop solar array at Ayers Brook Goat Dairy | Aegis Renewable Energy installed the largest single rooftop solar array in the state at Ayers Brook Goat Dairy in Randolph, VT owned by Vermont Creamery. Generating 200,000 kWh of electricity per year, the array will power the farm and send... |
