I eased off the throttle of my 1971 Triumph Bonneville and turned into the parking lot of the Bellows Falls train station. This was no ordinary workday. I found myself cruising through a gauntlet of Ducatis, Harley-Davidsons and BMWs.
Men and women of all ages were easing out of their helmets and peeling off leather jackets. 10 minutes later, I was listening to a business pitch from an artist who needed investment money - to offset the expense of a huge woodworking router, so he could carve bear-shaped sculptures at a rapid clip and sell them quickly.
This was the Freshtracks Road Pitch.
The road pitch is a radical concept with a simple premise: a few dozen entrepreneurs and venture capitalists tour around Vermont for 4 days on motorcycles, stopping to hear pitches from budding business owners along the way. If they like what they hear, those venture capitalists may end up as investors.
As owner of a marketing agency in Brattleboro, I was intrigued by the opportunity to join like-minded motorcyclists on the road. Cruising north on Route 5, I found myself behind the CEO of Small Dog Electronics, who was riding an Indian. The senior global business director at Burton Snowboards was on a sleek Ducati beside me. And a young couple building up an aged gin business were cruising behind me.
We heard pitches from a landscape design company, an energy bar startup, a solar heating system supplier and a clothing company, among others. One entrepreneur had spent months working with a team of engineers to develop a sensor that detects even the slightest traces of cigarette or marijuana smoke. His plan is to sell the product to hotels as a subscription service.
But to my surprise, these pitch sessions were more than just pleas for capital. They were just as much about feedback and advice. Nuggets of wisdom from business teachers, business owners, former Wall Street analysts and marketing professionals flowed freely during, and after, the pitches. In White River, a former actor who moved to Vermont from Los Angeles was soliciting advice on widening market share for his Argentinian condiment business. As samples of the product, called chimichurri, were circulating around the room, the merits and pitfalls of branding a product with one’s own name were explored. Chimichurri, by the way, is delicious.
No one ever said starting a business is easy. And living in Vermont has its own set of unique challenges, whether you work for yourself or a company or, as is often the case around here, both. You’ve gotta be creative to make it work in Vermont. And maybe even a little bit crazy. But if you’ve got just the right amount of crazy in you to start your own business here, there’s a group of leather-clad risk-takers just as crazy as you. And they’re buzzing around Vermont on motorcycles, looking to turn your idea into the next big thing.
