Best Startups in Burlington Vermont
Burlington is a city of about 45,000 people, situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, the sixth largest lake in North America. Because of its proximity to New York City, Montreal and Boston, Burlington is a prime location for those on the East Coast who want to enjoy a city while also living in a quieter area.
Burlington is home to the University of Vermont, Champlain College, and Saint Michael's College which turn out plenty of fresh talent from their hallowed halls. The combination of college town and proximity to nature makes Burlington a great location for startup companies looking to balance professional fulfillment with personal development. In this article, we'll look at some of the most amazing startups in Burlington, Vermont.
Keep in mind that it’s not an ordered list, each startup we cover is the best in their own special way. And it’s not a complete list, there are many other startups in Burlington and across Vermont that we haven’t had the time to write about. In fact, feel free to contact us if you know of one, even if it’s your own!
If you are thinking of joining a startup in Burlington, or creating one, put yourself in good company. Synaptic Supercollider 💥 is a conference and festival that takes place in Burlington every fall. The event creates unexpected collisions of forward thinkers to discuss new trends in innovation, entrepreneurship, music, lifestyles and the arts.
Benchmark Space Systems
Benchmark Space Systems designs and produces propulsions systems that maneuver small satellites between low earth orbit and the moon. These systems utilize a non-toxic green propellant to provide thrust that moves a satellite onto a specific orbit, helps maintain their position or avoid collisions. These capabilities also enable sci-fi-esque activities, such as refueling and manufacturing on orbit, and other in-space activities. True to its Vermont roots and values, Benchmark’s mission is to keep space accessible and sustainable for generations to come, and to enrich Vermont’s growing tech sector.
According to co-founder Ryan McDevitt, “Vermont has been at the forefront of the green movement on Earth, and we really take that ethos and think about how we can keep space sustainable and the space ecosystem sustainable.”
In 2022, the team launched a Collision Avoidance (COLA) Kit to help satellites quickly maneuver out of the way of impending space debris collisions.
Benchmark has built a world-class team of engineers and business development professionals with offices on the shores of Lake Champlain, in Silicon Valley, and the United Kingdom, with a distributed team across the United States and Canada.
Benchmark Space Systems is one of many examples of how Burlington, Vermont is emerging as an innovation hub. Vermont may be known as the home of Ben & Jerry's, but its reputation is quickly expanding in leading-edge industries such as space exploration and aviation.
Benchmark Space Systems website
Beta Technologies
Beta is the future of flight. That's their mantra, and it's fast becoming a reality. Beta's mission is to design a self-sufficient eVTOL aircraft ecosystem that satisfies the needs of humans, embraces the laws of nature, and works in harmony with the planet.
The company was founded in 2017 by Kyle Clark, a Harvard trained engineer, experienced entrepreneur, and former professional hockey player. One of Beta's early backers was United Therapeutics, who awarded the company a $48 million dollar contract to develop an efficient means of delivering man-made organs for human transplant.
In recent months, the company has received an order for 140 aircraft from United Parcel Service and secured over $400 million dollars in funding from Amazon's Climate Fund and Fidelity Investments.
Beta's home page includes a quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, an aviation pioneer and the author of Le Petit Prince. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” The quote exemplifies founder, Kyle Clark's vision to simplify and amplify access to the vertical dimensions of mobility.
THINKMD
THINKMD is a Burlington startup that has a mission to developed clinical intelligence technology universally accessible so anyone, anywhere can make better data driven healthcare decisions for themselves and their communities. Its clinical decision support platform uses next generation machine learning based approaches designed to replication physician based knowledge, “thinking” and minimal skill sets to determine how ill a patient is, with over 95% accuracy.
"For several years, we've worked to bridge access to high quality healthcare for those who need it most, starting with newborns, children and mothers. This year, we expanded our clinical capacity to all adults - a significant milestone for us as we strive to identify clinical risk, triage and generate care plan recommendations for early detection and intervention, from birth to adults" says Dr. Barry FInette, THINKMD co-founder.
The company has also built a dynamic Data Driven Decision platform using real time data acquired by use of its technology that can be used to generate better healthcare decisions in order to reducing preventable deaths and mortality to anyone, anywhere. Whether a patient themselves, or a parent, clinician or frontline health worker, the tool can be used for instant access to high quality health information, including risk, referrals, care plans and triage.
THINKMD is currently deployed in 11 countries and is now partnering with Save the Children to promote the adoption and scaling of its technology globally.
Mamava
Mamava, the Vermont-based inventor of freestanding lactation pods, offers a full line of comfortable all-in-one lactation spaces designed specifically to meet the needs of breastfeeding employees at work and to help U.S. workplaces comply quickly with the expanded federal labor law.
Mamava lactation pods are private, self-contained spaces with comfortable benches, shelving, and outlets for plugging in a breast pump. The lactation suites come in a range of sizes to meet the needs of various businesses and organizations.
“As employers evaluate policies, some offices are being reimagined to better meet the needs of a hybrid work environment. But even where employees might be working on site only a couple days a week, businesses will still need to comply with lactation accommodation laws and make sure the needs of employees are met,” says Sascha Mayer, Co-Founder of Mamava. “Our designs are fully inclusive of the physiological needs of breast pumping and provide best-in-class lactation options and support, not just something that brings them into compliance. This will also drive the creation of better lactation policies and employee training.”
OhMD
OhMD is an innovative two-way texting platform transforming medical practices. With it, practices can easily manage high patient call volume while providing better care for their patients. The company has over 5,000 healthcare organizations across the country using the solution to communicate with over 10 million patients.
The HIPAA-compliant texting platform leverages generative AI to make it faster and easier for practices to communicate with patients. Patients can quickly send SMS or secure text messages to their care team, schedule appointments, get appointment reminders, receive test results, ask general questions, and more.
"It's harder than ever for practices to manage patient call volume on top of everything else that needs to happen every day," says Ethan Bechtel, co-founder and CEO of OhMD. "Most of us know the frustration of being a patient trying to schedule an appointment or find out test results. We're focused on solving both sides of that problem to improve the patient experience and allow practices to manage huge workloads more efficiently."
Fluency
Fluency is a digital advertising automation and management platform that helps large agencies and organizations better manage sophisticated digital ad programs. ad platform. Its platform leverages Robotic Process Automation to tackle the challenges of advertising operations by simplifying repetitive and time-consuming tasks in digital advertising management and optimization. The result gives advertising teams more capacity to drive strategy and performance, boost efficiency, and drive profitability.
Recognized as one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work, Fluency was also recently named the fastest growing company in Vermont and #200 overall on the Inc. 5000.
Vernal Biosciences
Vernal Biosciences was started by Christian Cobaugh as an mRNA contract development and manufacturing organization, passionate about channeling its technology and the hard work of our team to democratize mRNA R&D. Vernal believes that science matters more than ever and that mRNA will open many more doors for science to change the lives of humans everywhere. To fulfill this vision, Vernal is committed to increasing access to high-quality mRNA.
Before building Vernal Biosciences to open up access to this precious material, mRNA, Vernal grew accustomed to the challenges of outsourcing mRNA manufacturing: unreliable supply, variable quality, regulatory confusion, and difficulty scaling the technology and business considerations from research to clinical needs.
Vernal Biosciences' primary focus lies in harnessing the untapped potential of plant-based compounds, exploring their therapeutic properties and applications in modern medicine. Leveraging advanced genomic sequencing and molecular biology techniques, the firm has identified and patented a slew of plant-derived molecules with promising anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties.
Vernal will help companies eliminate those challenges by leveraging the successes, and even occasional failures they have had during their years-long odyssey of outsourcing mRNA.
Plink!
Plink transforms any glass of water into a refreshing drink. Because you bring the water, Plink has less carbon impact and less packaging than canned and bottled beverages.
Founded in 2020 by Max Luthy and Luke Montgomery Smith in Burlington Vermont. Their goal is to deliver radically sustainable beverages. Their current line of products use 99% less packaging than canned and bottled alternatives, and have been independently verified to use 98% fewer CO2 emissions to transport. The company is working towards even more efficient packaging and a zero-plastic solution.
Plink website
Myti
Myti is an online platform where shoppers can find their daily necessities from local businesses. Myti first launched in Vermont, but is planning to roll out to communities across the country.
Myti is changing how people shop locally. The convenience of today’s technology makes it easy to lose sight of personal relationships and their effect on the character of our communities. Shopping with Myti keeps more money in local business and creates opportunities for people to know people.
Myti’s Mission is to be a community-driven online shopping platform that allows you to search for items by proximity and purchase products from independent retail businesses.
Renoun Skis
Check out Renoun Skis for your skiing needs. This Burlington startup was founded by Cyrus Schenck. Renoun builds skis with non-Newtonian polymers, using a patented technology called VibeStop. It’s a Hyper Damping Technology (HDT) and it stops unnecessary vibrations in the ski by hardening when vibrated.
The technology is not new; NASA used something similar, but Renoun is the first startup to use it in production. Renoun aims to move the skiing industry into the future by using more experimental materials, and, to boot, they are a climate neutral company. That is, they aim to offset the impact of their production as much as possible, and they use a third party auditor to remain accountable. Finally, Schenck is a born and raised Vermonter and is headquartered in Burlington!
Caledonia Spirits
Located in Montpelier, just 45 minutes south of Burlington, Caledonia Spirits is racking up recognition across the world. This startup was founded by a beekeeper and an amateur distiller. Caledonia Spirits are made from all-natural ingredients, and the results are: Barr Hill Gin, Tomcat Gin and Barr Hill Vodka. In fact, their Gin has won awards at the New York and Hong Kong International Spirits Competitions: Double Gold and Best Gin of the Year, the two highest awards.
In keeping with the beekeepers wishes, all Caledonia Spirits incorporate raw, in house produced honey into the process. If you’re looking for an authentic Vermont distillery, definitely give Caledonia a look. You won’t regret it.
Dealer Policy
DealerPolicy helps make the insurance step of buying a new car easier by moving the process online for both dealers and customers, enabling them to save more on insurance and thus have more purchasing power. DealerPolicy offers a tool, FastPass, which allows customers to access competing insurance quotes on a vehicle they want to buy, right there on the showroom floor.
DealerPolicy has partnered with J.D. Power to use their Intelligent Match software, which displays insurance quotes based on your personal preferences. This all combines to deliver a smoother, much more pleasant experience when purchasing a car. If you want to buy a car and are worried about purchasing insurance for it, don’t worry. DealerPolicy is the startup for you.
Zero Gravity Brewery
Headquartered in Burlington, Zero Gravity aims to give back to the community and ensure everyone is around to enjoy their beer for many years to come. They inhabit a 30 barrel taproom in the South End Art District on Pine St, and offer a full canning line and tasting room in addition to a beer garden and retail shop.
Zero Gravity adheres to classic brewing styles painstakingly through the use of the best malt and hops, ensuring balanced smooth beers. Their quality control is paramount, and should you taste it, doesn’t disappoint.It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
That’s our round-up for this year. If you have a startup you would like to suggest, or some information you think we should add, email me at marcb@supercollider.live 👀
Marc Bolh
Founder Supercollider
