Do North CO.STARTERS Program Facilitator RFQ

It’s the People, Connections, and Constellations that Illuminate the Entrepreneurial Journey in the Northeast Kingdom

Newport to St Johnsbury, Guildhall to Greensboro, there’s so much to celebrate in the Northeast Kingdom. As a newcomer to the region in the last few months, I’ve enjoyed a fresh perspective on the attributes and assets that contribute to a palpable sense of excitement and optimism around innovation and entrepreneurship in the Kingdom. And I sense that places like Do North — “platform” spaces to gather, harness, and direct that energy — will play an increasingly important role in the years ahead.

Working in the Northeast Kingdom over the last few months, I’ve learned that the region, which constitutes 30 percent of Vermont’s land area, contains only 10 percent of the State’s residents. With this low population density, the NEK is graced with the clearest, most light pollution-free night skies in the northeast; it’s designated among the 200 or so International Dark Sky places in the United States. That means, on a clear night, it’s an incredible place to see and to photograph celestial phenomena like the Milky Way.

I’ve also learned that Lyndonville’s regional airport is likely to become a hub for pioneering electric aviation. The region’s 100-plus miles of woodland trails attract over 100,000 visitors to the Kingdom each year, with room to grow. And with its high per capita concentration of organic farms — the highest in the state at 20 percent, which produces 90 percent of our maple syrup — the Northeast Kingdom is a beautiful and healthy place to be. In fact, from 2020–2023 the region experienced a 14 percent increase in the number of young people 25–34, bucking the national outmigration trend from rural areas. Many of them brought their jobs, bought or rented homes, and began to put down roots in the region.

All of which (and more) makes the Northeast Kingdom an incredibly attractive place to start a business. In fact the NEK Collaborative alone has tracked the growth of 75 new businesses over the last decade. Downtown St Johnsbury counts more than 40 new businesses open in half that time. And Main Street, Newport is bursting with fresh ideas and energy. Moving outward from I-91, the commercial backbone of the region, towns like Lunenburg, Brighton, Greensboro and Hardwick are experiencing an infusion of fresh talent and energy that is generating solutions to persistent challenges and emerging opportunities.

Over the last five years alone we’ve seen north of $72M invested in new businesses development projects throughout the Northeast Kingdom. Just over 40 percent of these businesses are started by new Vermonters between the ages of 25 and 40, 48 percent of whom are women. And 44 percent of these new entrepreneurs bring their own capital with them.

From what I see in the data and what I sense from numerous conversations, Do North and the community of support that surrounds it are poised for a bright future, balanced at a moment ripe with change. In the weeks, months, and years ahead the organization will encounter innumerable opportunities to fulfill its role as a platform for regional innovators and entrepreneurs who seek to bring about positive change in the Northeast Kingdom. The quality of Do North’s services and programs will become increasingly catalytic for the region and beyond. In fact, rural Vermont businesses already export products to an average of 13 foreign countries — an unexpected figure for companies rooted in towns where many roads remain unpaved.

The energy, ideas, and culture formed by Do North members will add momentum to everything that passes through its doors.

Among the great joys of my time at Do North have been encounters among the constellation of people and organizations committed to the success of the region — a network of talent and resources as thick as the forests that carpet the hills. It’s this human infrastructure that fosters the bonds, trust, and intent with which great things are achieved — the ecosystem conditions necessary for innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive.

It has been a thrill to experience the vision, energy, and leadership that animates organizations like the Northeastern Vermont Development Association, the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, Discover St. Johnsbury, Kingdom Trails, and Discover Newport. And I’ve found myself recharged by the passion and talent of founders who are building and leading in the NEK — companies like Cary and Main, Built By Newport, Ytsera Air, NEK Biosciences, TMBR, Whiteout Solutions and many more. Banks are flush and the leaders who steer them have a remarkable commitment to place.

Necessity, we have been told, is the mother of invention. And entrepreneurship is said to be the larger part of rural DNA. Farms, it seems, are the favored incubator for success. And the Northeast Kingdom has a deep bench of farm-raised talent.

I recall a story about the early years of Bell Labs — about how so many of their brightest minds had been farm kids breaking apart their crystal set radios and learning about diodes and capacitors along the way. The fancy math came later. So imagine my surprise when earlier this year I learned that Theodore Vail, the founding president of the American Telephone and Telegraph company, had set himself up with a sizable farm barely a mile outside Lyndon where the campus of Vermont State University now presides. As a student of innovation and entrepreneurship it was a full-circle moment for me.

What my time at Do North has proven to me is that the rural attributes of self-reliance, persistence, frugality, even a diffident cooperation lend themselves to startup success. “Grit” in contemporary parlance. Here are a few ways I’ve seen these attributes expressed:

• Over the last decade rural entrepreneurs have created 32 percent of patents related to renewable energy though they comprise only 14 percent of the US population.
• The average rural startup requires 40 percent less capital than their urban counterparts and achieves profitability 18 months sooner.
• Rural startups in Vermont have a five-year survival rate of 75 percent, twice the survival rate for startups nationally.
• Roughly 60 percent of Vermont’s rural startups are founded by natives or long-term residents; 38 percent of founders are first generation farmers.
• Vermont leads the nation in women-owned agricultural businesses, accounting for 43 percent of the state’s small farm enterprises — nearly triple the national average.
• The opening of Hardwick’s new Food Hub supports over 100 farms and expects to generate millions in expanded market access for local producers.
• And the recent sale of Burke Mountain, which anticipates $30M in investment in the coming years, will be a boon to the region’s four-season outdoor recreation economy.

The Northeast Kingdom has all the ingredients of a vibrant startup ecosystem. With focused effort to connect its people, nurture our culture, and generate the kind of energy that builds momentum, the NEK can become a vibrant hub of innovation across sectors often thought to exist elsewhere. These include renewable energy, forest products, outdoor recreation, transportation, and bioscience — right alongside the legacy actors in dairy, maple, manufacturing, and skiing among others.

Ray Kurzweil, inventor of OCR and author of “The Singularity Is Near,” once said something to the effect that there’s a terabyte of information in a rock, it’s just poorly organized. In a similar way, there are troves of talent, energy, ideas, and capital to be unlocked among the hilltops and valleys of the Northeast Kingdom — a remarkable amount of entrepreneurial potential. Perhaps with better organization it will generate even greater impact than if it were left alone.

And that, I hope, will be the mission of Do North in the years ahead — to draw out and help bring organization and momentum to the assets we have. To increase the connections among the people, the ideas, and the resources that abound in the brilliant region known to be the Northeast Kingdom. The people and their gifts are the bright lights in our dark northern skies, they are the points in the innumerable constellations that orient us toward progress. It has been an honor to be here among them and I can’t wait to see what the future will bring. Onward, and Do North!

Lars Hasselblad Torres is an artist, writer, and social entrepreneur who has worked at the intersection of the arts, innovation, and entrepreneurship for 20 years. His favorite piece of writing on creating startup communities is posted at Startup Colorado. He served as entrepreneur in residence at Do North in 2025.