Small town entrepreneurs in search of money and advice are getting their chance this week with an unusual group of motorcyclists touring the state.
Leather jackets and jeans are standard attire for the business and investment gurus who rolled into White River Junction on their bikes one afternoon this week.
Not exactly the Born to be Wild crowd, these bikers are all business. They’re getting their kicks by spending a good part of each day in conference rooms from Manchester to Lowell, listening to local people pitch them on business ideas.
The tour, called the FreshTracks Road Pitch is the brainchild of Cairn Cross who runs a venture capital fund in Shelburne. Cross says it’s about giving people in smaller towns a chance to expand their network of contacts..
“What we hope they get is some new connections and hopefully what that does is that gives them a statewide community of folks that they can interact with,” he says.
Most of the six people who pitched the group in White River, were also asking for money.
The business ideas ran the gamut from handmade protein bars to high tech sensors that alert hotel operators to cigarette smoke in rooms.
Paul Blann, who makes Bear Tracks Organic Protein Bars says he needs $240,000 in capital to market his new business.
"What we hope they get is some new connections and hopefully what that does is that gives them a statewide community of folks that they can interact with." - FreshTracks Road Pitch organizer Cairn Cross
“The problem with banks is they require two years of financial statements,” says Blann. “ When you’re just a start up, you don’t have two years of financial statements.”
Joan Ecker’s company, Fat Hat Clothing has been around for many years. Ecker says it’s always been cash-in and cash out, with very little money left over to expand, despite her best efforts.
In her pitch, Ecker told the group that the business thrives on the personal touch. Her retail sales are over the phone, person to person, not through her website.
“They have to call us, and we have a staff of well-trained people like me who say, how tall are you? How fat are you? How wide are your hips,” she explained.
Some in the group were concerned that kind of one-on-one is too expensive and labor intensive. Their advice was to make more use of her website for sales.
Cairn Cross says suggestions like that, which doesn’t necessarily involve taking on debt is a big part of what the group is trying to do.
“They don’t have to sell a piece of their company to investors like us, that’s better for them,” he says.
During their four day tour, Cross’ group will hear 41 business pitches. Halfway through, Cross said he can already tell there are even some strong candidates for financial backing.
“Of the 20 pitches we’ve seen I think the group probably would solidify around a couple of them as having some real potential,” says Cross.
Cross says in each of the seven town the group is traveling to, all of the available pitch slots have been taken.
