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Breaking Money Silence
Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is an author and wealth psychology expert whose mission is to empower women, couples and families to shatter money taboos and communicate more effectively about financial matters. She and I met last September at the annual Women’s Economic Opportunity Conference sponsored by Vermont’s Senator Patrick Leahy where Louisa and I presented a workshop on Investing in Women.
Kathleen was intrigued by Milk Money’s focus on “investing local” and asked if she could interview me on her Breaking Money Silence podcast. On Jan. 9, 2018, even though I was in the midst of the flu (and felt like a “fudge head” as my husband would say), Kathleen guided us expertly through a conversation to bust the myth that mutual funds are the only place for average Americans to invest their savings.
Keep Our Businesses Local
Early this morning we learned that Keep BT Local did not win the bid to buy Burlington Telecom (BT). As huge fans of local ownership in general and the co-operative business model in particular, we were, of course, very disappointed that this important member of the Burlington business community will now be owned by private interests with no real connection to Vermont.
While there are many lessons to be learned from the whole BT sale process (check out the #btvcc thread in the Twittersphere and it’ll keep you busy for hours!), a key take-away for us was the speed and scale with which community support for Keep BT Local (KBTL) poured in via Milk Money.
Milk Money Case Study #3: Vermont Evaporator Company
Vermont Evaporator Co. - The Capital Challenge
After a couple seasons of backyard maple sugaring, during which Kate and Justin McCabe spent a lot of money on propane to boil down (sometimes burn) sap on their erstwhile barbecue grill, they figured there must be a better way. Justin, an engineer and patent attorney by day, rigged up a 55 gallon drum with an exhaust stack, baffled tray and other gadgets to make an affordable, outdoor evaporator (no sugar shack required), that could handle sap from 5 to 50 taps.
Read more: Milk Money Case Study #3: Vermont Evaporator Company
Milk Money Case Study #2: Our First Fully Funded Campaign
It’s been a year since we launched our first Milk Money campaign. It was a great learning experience for Louisa and me, as well as for the Burlington Herb Clinic, and we’d like to share some of our insights as you consider raising money via Milk Money.
Read more: Milk Money’s First Fully Funded Campaign (Case Study #2)
Milk Money Case Study #1: How Do We Define Success?
Our first client achieved a fully funded campaign without ever launching it on the Milk Money website. How can that be, you ask? I’ll tell you the story and then pose a question right back to you – can we truly call this success? Read on and please let me know what you think.
Relocalizing Vermont
Had a lot of fun talking with Carl Etnier on his radio program, Relocalizing Vermont, which airs every Thursday morning 9-10:30am on WGDR, Goddard College Community Radio. On the show, we explored how to strengthen Vermont’s local economy through local investment opportunities.
Listen to the half-hour interview here.
Jericho Settlers Farm and the Multiplier Effect
I remember when Jericho Settlers Farm was just Christa Alexander & Mark Fasching sitting under a pop-up canopy with a card table loaded with vegetables on Christa’s mom’s front yard. That was 2002 and on summer weekends I’d make sure to stuff a grocery bag in the back pocket of my bike jersey so I could stop on my way home from a ride to load up on their fresh local produce.
The Law of Startups Podcast
Joe Wallin is an attorney in Seattle, WA, who does a lot of work with start-ups and played a key part in the creation of Washington State’s equity crowdfunding law. We met Joe at ComCap2016 in Portland, OR, last April, and had a great conversation over dinner (and a few of Portland’s finest brews) about the state of equity crowdfunding and where it could go in the future. He was so intrigued by what’s going on in Vermont that he invited us to continue the conversation on his podcast, The Law of Startups.
Greater Good Entrepreneur Podcast
Jim Verzino is Entrepreneur in Residence with Windham Grows, a program of Strolling of the Heifers helping to build the food and agriculture business sector in Windham County, Vermont. We met Jim at the Slow Living Summit in June where he participated in the session we led with John Hamilton to explore “New Ways for Local People to Invest in Your Business.”
We take the conversation further on Jim’s podcast, Greater Good Entrepreneur.
Small Money Matters
When I was single and in my early 30’s living in Boston, I got into cycling. For no other reason than a friend saying, “Hey I’m doing a bike ride out in Concord this weekend, I’ve got an extra bike, why don’t you come too?” So I did, and after 40 miles of pedaling my friend’s too-big-for-me mountain bike around the beautiful suburbs and countryside outside Boston, I was hooked. Got my hands on a used road bike (actually, a pretty sweet old Specialized racing bike that still hangs proudly in my basement) and I started riding.
Why We Need Your Driver's License
Originally, under the VSBO regulation, only Vermonters could see the offering documents and invest in Vermont companies. So, here on Milk Money we had to see your Vermont driver's license to give you access to the investment information and documents.
In April 2017, the regulation was updated allowing anyone to see the offering documents. This meant a huge change at Milk Money. You can now immediately create an account, log in and see the campaigns and all documents, without having to prove Vermont residency.
However, only Vermonters can make investments. So when you decide to make an investment, please make sure you include a copy of your Vermont driver's license with your paperwork.
The verification of Vermont residency is a protection for the issuer (the Vermont business) to ensure they are properly using the intra-state exemption (i.e. VSBO), which requires that both the offer and sale of securities be within the state of Vermont.
READ MORE
- Breaking Money Silence
- Keep Our Businesses Local
- Milk Money Case Study #3: Vermont Evaporator Company
- Milk Money’s First Fully Funded Campaign (Case Study #2)
- How Do We Define Success? Case Study #1
- Relocalizing Vermont
- Jericho Settlers Farm and the Multiplier Effect
- The Law of Startups Podcast
- Greater Good Entrepreneur Podcast
- Small Money Matters
- Why we need your Driver's License
- Milk Money Vermont Was Born
- FFF
- Investor Event @ Burlington Community Herbalism Clinic
- The True Story