MIDDLEBURY SOLUTIONS GROUP
ENTREPRENEUR’S FORUM
Saturday November 22, 2008
8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall, Room 216
Middlebury College
A Reception will follow at 3:30 PM in the Great Hall of Bicentennial Hall
WELCOME!
Do you presently operate an under-funded young company? Want to start a for-profit or not-for-profit enterprise? Want to learn more about the process of creating and growing an early-stage company? Then the DigitalBridges2.0™ Entrepreneur’s Forum at Middlebury College on November 22, 2008 is for you!
Witness the pitch-for-funding process first hand, as four Vermont start-ups present themselves to a panel and audience of potential investors, entrepreneurs, and Middlebury students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Get free training at the workshop, which is designed to teach the ins and outs of transforming an idea into an enterprise, the hurdles you will face and the local resources that are ready to assist you in becoming an operating young business.
Meet Middlebury students and alumni, and network with Vermont investors and businesspeople.
Workshop
VT Venture Ecosystem – Filling the need for Re-intermediation and Specialization
The highly fragmented Vermont marketplace for new ventures requires re-intermediation and professionalization. This reality creates an opportunity to build an entity that focuses on delivering a suite of services to entrepreneurs, advisors, professional service providers, investors, Economic Development, institutions of higher learning, etc.
Our survey of past MSG clients concluded: that Vermont’s small business resource community needs more efficient coordination and distribution. Two themes emerged in that connection:
• There are many entrepreneurial support resources available in Vermont, but they are underutilized or not utilized at all,
• The absence of an efficient search platform for locating and navigating all appropriate and available resources provided for Vermont entrepreneurs appears to be the primary driver of underutilization.
The Middlebury Solutions Group in cooperation with Middlebury Capital Services LLC has worked towards understanding the problem in detail since last spring. We will pitch and seek your reactions to the entirely new concept for a comprehensive, one-stop resource for entrepreneurs, professional advisors and angel and institutional investors that has emerged from this process.
SCHEDULE
8:30–9:15AM Continental Breakfast and Conversation
9:15–9:30AM Welcome from Michael Claudon, Professor of Economics
9:30AM–12:30PM Company Pitches
12:30–1:30PM Luncheon
1:30–3:30PM Workshop
3:30 PM Networking Reception in the Great Hall of Bicentennial Hall
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC – we ask that you RSVP for accurate meal counts
Please E-mail to mosborne@middlebury.edu
or call 802 443 5435
or fax to DigitalBridges2.0: 802-443-2270
