The MSG process is a collaborative one, involving student venture founders working with student venture coaches who are supported by volunteer mentors who bring their own experience and expertise to the challenge of developing the founders' ideas into viable operating entities. Our experience convinces us that good ideas and business plans are much more likely to succeed when our clients and their student team are paired with coaches having proven experience. Here is one example of how superb mentoring led to a spectacular outcome.

New England High Purity (NEHP), a Vermont-based manufacturer of high purity fluid distribution products, came to the Middlebury Solutions Group (MSG) in the fall of 2005 with a goal of breaking out of a stubborn revenue plateau. Recognizing the need for guidance on a project of this magnitude, the MSG team enlisted Lee Bouyea, a Principal at Fresh Tracks Capital LLC in Middlebury, VT to serve as its mentor. Having worked in a variety of industries, ranging from private equity to telecommunications, Lee brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the MSG team. Leveraging that experience and creativity, the MSG team worked diligently with NEHP throughout the fall. Lee's strategic vision and enthusiasm for the project, coupled with NEHP's resolve to embrace change and the MSG team's unabated attention to detail led to a remarkable transformation.

Lee's first step involved helping the students appreciate that neither execution nor a poor fix on the customer were the problem. NEHP is unequaled in custom designing and manufacturing complicated turnkey high-purity distribution products. NEHP's customer base was also well-defined but it was narrow and limited to semi-conductor companies. The key was articulating a value proposition. What business is NEHP really in?

Lee did not simply insert himself and produce "the answer." Rather, he guided the students through a self-discovery process. NEHP is a solutions company, not a complicated fluid distribution products manufacturer. Click here for the new value proposition and home page that now anchors the business: NEHP provides custom modular solutions for manufacturing. Fabricated in-shop and installed onsite, these high purity solutions provide major time and cost savings for the design and construction challenges associated with traditional manufacturing.

The bottom line? NEHP is no longer trapped under that revenue ceiling. In addition to receiving venture capital funding, NEHP has since inked lucrative deals with Intel and IBM; clearly a testament to the power of selfless collaboration and strong leadership that Lee's mentoring provided. Nor is NEHP at the mercy of a short list of mega-corporations any longer. Armed with the new value proposition, it has reached beyond semiconductors and is now marketing its solutions to manufacturing and to FDA-regulated industries including pharmaceuticals, biotech and food and beverages.

Lee F. Bouyea (Lee@freshtrackscap.com)
Bouyea joined the FreshTracks team as an Associate in September 2005, and was promoted to Principal in July 2006. Lee is a native of Burlington, VT where his family owned and operated Bouyea-Fassetts Bakery for three generations. Bouyea-Fassetts successfully sold its assets to the Freihofer Baking Co. in 1989, a wholly owned subsidiary of Philip Morris Inc.

Lee graduated from Colgate University in 1997 and earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in 2005. While at Tuck, Bouyea managed two small businesses with his peers including the school's retail operation TuckStuff, and the monthly newspaper, The Tuck Times. Lee was also selected to be a Fellow at Tuck's Center for Digital Strategies, where his studies focused on the Digital Media industry.
Bouyea's background includes marketing, product and business development experience working as a Category Manager for eBay, Account Representative for Nextel Communications and Product Manager and Marketing Director for the venture-backed startup Ebates.com.

MSG Team
Four seniors made up MSG Team-NEHP in the fall of 2005.

Stephen Atkinson was an economics major from Huntingdon, Quebec, who combined his studies with being captain of the Middlebury track and field team, where he won D3 NCAA All-American honors in the spring of 2005. Steve is currently doing free lance strategy consulting from his home in Quebec.
Clark Peterson, who hails from Wayzata, MN, majored in economics and political science. His hobbies include golf, tennis, and intramural hockey. He is currently an investment analyst at Banc of American Securities.
Gabriel Wood came to Middlebury from Tacoma, WA, and majored in economics with German and Mathematics minors. He was a two sport varsity athlete at Middlebury, playing soccer, where he was captain, and lacrosse. He is currently a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley on Wall St.
Daniel Hutner, Jr. grew up ski racing in Manchester, VT before matriculating to study economics, Chinese, German and Spanish at Middlebury College. He raced for Stratton Mountain School, Burr and Burton Academy, and the Bromley Outing Club. He is an investment advisor with Hutner Capital Management.

NEHP Agrees.
First of all, we would like to compliment everyone on their professionalism and their commitment to this project. Through the whole process, we felt like we were working with young professionals, not college students. Working with Steve Atkinson, Dan Hunter, Clark Peters, and Gabe Wood was an exceptional experience. This project required a lot of hard work and it paid off for all of us

When NEHP initially looked at this program, my first thoughts were that we are going to show them that there is a big difference between real life and what is in the books. As we worked together as a team we bridged the difference between the class and the real world. I think that is what made us appreciate the experience the most. We provided a lot of real life information and the students brought it together through the structure and guidance from their class. What we produced exhibited the best of both.

The questions and the exchange of ideas were terrific. We always felt like we had some much to share with these guys about our business. We would find ourselves explaining too many things. The group would bring us back to point. We were very open with our company's information. We literately did a dump of data giving the group files from various sources within our company. They dug into the raw information we provided and came out just as excited as we are about our company and our prospects. More importantly they went through it all and came up with strong, on-target action recommendations, and helped us develop a focus in some areas that we would not have without them.

What we as a company valued is the fact that the group provided us with information that we actually used. The most important thing they did for us redefined the way were present NEHP to prospective clients. They helped us realize that we were not telling people who we are and what we do in a clear manner. Now we do.

We have followed their recommendations for sales, marketing and company structure. We plan to implement more.

Through everyone's efforts we developed a better understanding of where NEHP has been and were we plan to go. The final presentation that we did as a group was one of the best presentations we have given.

I guess the best compliment we could pay individuals is that we would hire anyone of them to work for NEHP. Whoever is fortunate enough to hire one of these individuals will find themselves with an outstanding employee, team member and future leader.

It is tough to apply specifics comments about each individual. Everyone worked so well as a group. What I'd say about any one of them I'd say about all of them. They all worked hard, provided input and possible solutions. Although anyone of them could have been the leader, everyone assumed roles that got the project done. Working with MSG was far better than what you would expect in working with most real companies out there.

I would recommend that any company considering this project put special effort into getting selected. NEHP received more in return than we put into it, and we did our share. Having an outside perspective of this quality and commitment is invaluable.

Thank You,
New England High Purity, Inc.
John E. Day, CFO