It’s difficult to find qualified employees in Vermont. Some companies, such as Dealer.com, are looking for specific technical workers and are having trouble finding them in the local talent pool. Dealer.com and others say they find it difficult to attract employees from other states because of the high cost of living in Vermont, and the high cost of health care. Not surprisingly, tech entrepreneurs say they would welcome an increased focus on STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math — in Vermont schools, but better tech training isn’t the only need. John Canning of Physician’s Computer Company notes that he needs skilled communicators. PCC frequently hires English majors and liberal arts graduates. “I want kids graduating from school with communication and problem-solving skills, who have experience working in groups,” he says.
Tech companies in Vermont have a hard time finding business financing. Many tech companies are dealing with intellectual, rather than physical, property, which can make it difficult to secure collateral for a large loan. Other states and provinces have created incentive programs to attract these high-paying, low-impact jobs to their communities. Maine, for example, created the Maine Technology Institute, a state-funded nonprofit corporation. It’s run by a governor-appointed board of directors made up of industry leaders and representatives from key public agencies, and its mission is to offer early-stage capital and commercialization assistance for research and development of tech projects that will create high-quality jobs in the state. For every dollar of state funding, MTI leverages an additional $14 of private and public financing for companies in Maine. Lou Krieg of Green Mountain Software suggests that Vermont create some sort of quasigovernmental authority of this sort, to help software entrepreneurs access financing to grow. “There are a lot of creative people in Vermont,” he says. “Maybe they can do for software what they did for captive insurance.” “The software industry,” he adds, “is just the best type of industry for Vermont to have.”
Vermont needs more technical infrastructure to compete. This seems obvious, but it bears repeating. One person interviewed for this publication confided that many of his clients couldn’t get cellphone coverage in Vermont. “We have people who travel here from all over the world, and they can get coverage everywhere they travel, except here.” he says. “It’s kind of a running joke.”
ta p p i n g t e c h : m a x i m i z i n g v e r m o n t ’ s c r e at i v e b r a i n p o w e r
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