The Middlebury Solutions Group (MSG), the only undergraduate venture coaching service among US liberal arts colleges, is six years old and delivering on its mission well beyond our most optimistic expectations.

MSG promises to materially reduce time-to-capital, time-to-market and time-to-job-creation. The numbers say we are delivering on that promise and then some:
FORTY-FOUR = the number of MSG client engagements between 2002 and January 2008
THIRTY-FIVE = the number of those clients who have successfully leveraged off of and used what they learned from the experience, raised funding and are operating and growing today.
Why it works. Student teams are unrelenting in challenging everything the founder puts on the table. They are just as unrelenting in searching for a clear understanding of the opportunity and then developing coherent, actionable strategies for exploiting the opportunity to the fullest.
The process is built on seven deliverables:

1. Select clients competitively from applicant pool – 20 percent of applicants are rejected as not ready
2. Deliver systematic value-creation over several stages
   
   • Intense research
     
   • Tough, relentless, probing questioning
     
   • Deep analysis
     
   • Coherent, actionable plan
3. Tear the venture to zero and start building it back using the Zero Business Model
   
4. Understand the opportunity, the market and how best to exploit them
   
5. Tell the story based on numbers, solid modeling and projections, not dreams
   
6. Focus on building business, customers and go-to-market strategies
   
7. Use the Investor Check List to produce pitches that compel investors to take notice

Accelerating the MSG Record
Contention: MSG has a proven record of helping founders of early stage ventures focus on issues that helps insure their success.
A two-part process aimed at taking MSG to the next level:

1. Plug MSG actively into the region’s business-support-investor ecosystem
   
   • Venture-support service providers: Vermont Centre for Emerging Technology and other Vermont-based incubators; the eight regional SBDCs in Vermont; and ThinkVermont.com
     
   • Investor community: Fresh Tracks Capital LLC, Vermont Investors Forum, Vermont Venture Network, North Country Angels, Granite State Angels
   
   
2. Raise $1 million MSG Seed Capital Fund
   • Five percent yield funds two possible $25,000 seed investments in MSG clients annually

1. Students: raise the bar; open career doors
   
2. MSG: Larger/stronger applicant pool
   
3. Clients
   • Monetary incentive
     
   • Active investor community involvement
     
   • Heightened visibility among investors
4. Investor community
   • Stronger deal flow prospects
     
   • Active role in process
     
   • External funding sources attracted to VT deals
     

For further information on how you can be part of MSG, please contact

Michael P. Claudon, Professor of Economics and Director, DigitalBridges2.0
DKE Alumni House
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753
Tel 802.443.5799
Cell 802.734.1019
Email Claudon@middlebury.edu

Or

MariAnn Osborne, Program Director, DigitalBridges2.0
DKE Alumni House
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753
Tel 802.443.5435
Email Mosborne@middlebury.edu