Success Stories

Success Story: Idaho

Imagine bringing the best of Victorian-era masculinity to the 21st century while also creating local jobs and protecting the environment. Luke Webster’s The Grooming Network (TGN) has accomplished all of these since starting up in 2011.

Along with his wife and two business partners, Webster has cornered the market in old-fashioned wet shaving. Webster started with a single product, a website and a small marketing budget. Within a short time, they had over $40,000 in orders and Webster knew they had connected with real need.

Webster and his team at TGN resurrected the lost art form of creating quality, American-made straight razors by patenting a unique process for manufacturing the blades in North Idaho. These reusable razors help reduce landfill shave waste by 96% while saving customers money. (more…)

VtSBDC Advising Assists Business Start-Up

Megan Haygood and her family already had the land, hay and equipment needed to start a horse boarding, breeding, training and riding facility in Danville. But they knew they needed more in order to start a successful business.

Enter Michelle Lemieux, an established equine trainer and manager, and you have the makings of a quality small business partnership. The two opened Northern Lights Stable last year after combining Haygood’s resources and Lemieux’s expertise and customer base.

“Our business is special as it provides exceptional equine care and 24-hour monitoring, highly skilled training and riding instruction, and a regulation-size indoor competition arena,” Haygood said. But even with the combination of resources and skills that Haygood and Lemieux brought to the table, they knew they could use additional help before launching the business. (more…)

America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) celebrated and showcased 11 clients from around the country in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill February 13th.

The showcase included:
Colorado, Alt Ethos
Florida, Dignitas Technologies
Iowa, Gross-Wen Technologies
North Carolina, KBI (Kepley Biosystems)
Ohio, WaterStep
Louisiana, Tadpole LLC
Wisconsin, MobCraft Beer
Pennsylvania, Play Impossible
Rhode Island, S2S Surgical
Southwest Texas, Taste Elevated
Washington, Whooshh Innovations (more…)

Meet Whooshh Innovations, LLC (whooshh.com | @JustWhooshh)

Whooshh Innovations™ is revolutionizing fish passage, fish handling and seafood processing through its proprietary, proven technology — moving fish cost-effectively, reliably, and gently. The company was launched 10 years ago, with the goal of enabling the mechanical harvest of highly perishable agricultural products such as tree fruit.

Soon recognizing the need to apply the same technology to move fish gently over obstacles and barriers, the company began testing its technology on live fish. The initial success with farmed fish led researchers to explore the use of Whooshh technology to move fish over dams — as well as in processing plants where hygiene is critical. (more…)

Meet Taste Elevated  (tasteelevatedshop.com | @tasteelevated)

Taste Elevated, founded by Lori and Benny Krieger in 2013, is a specialty food manufacturer based in South Texas. Lori and Benny also own a specialty wine and gourmet food store. The team at Taste Elevated gained national recognition for their brand after winning multiple national specialty food awards, being recognized as a top ten editor’s pick and being featured in the Wall Street Journal.

In the first four years of business, the leadership team has achieved retail distribution to some of the largest retailers in their region, such as: HEB, Whole Foods, Spec’s and Albertson’s. The company also offers a food service line of products available to caterers, prepared food sections at grocery stores, and restaurants. There are currently 24 items in their product portfolio, and that is always expanding. (more…)