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84 Locavesting<br />
Taking the Middle Path in New Hampshire<br />
Micro- enterprises are just one part <strong>of</strong> the equation.<br />
In Concord, New Hampshire, not far from Main Street, is<br />
a modest stretch called Wall Street. It has little in common with<br />
its more famous namesake in New York. Concord’s Wall Street is<br />
just two blocks long and its low- rises are mainly populated by dentists.<br />
But at the eastern end <strong>of</strong> the street, some promising fi nancial<br />
innovation is underway at the <strong>of</strong>fi ces <strong>of</strong> the New Hampshire<br />
Community Loan Fund.<br />
In its nearly three decades <strong>of</strong> existence, the loan fund<br />
has mainly supported community- owned housing and microenterprises<br />
in the state. In its fi scal 2009, for example, the fund’s<br />
microcredit program loaned more than $213,000 to 66 businesses<br />
with up to fi ve employees, increasing their gross sales by an average<br />
<strong>of</strong> $13,249 and helping to create or retain 1,934 full- time<br />
equivalent jobs. Individual investors in the fund, mean while, get a<br />
steady 5 percent return for a 10-year investment in the fund.<br />
For the past several years, the organization has been devising<br />
new ways to help established small and midsized businesses—from<br />
$2 million and $15 million in revenues and 10 to 150 employees—obtain<br />
much- needed expansion capital. That’s been the mission<br />
<strong>of</strong> John Hamilton, vice president <strong>of</strong> economic opportunity at<br />
the fund and managing director <strong>of</strong> its Vested for Growth program.<br />
Hamilton sees a fi nancing gap for established businesses that are<br />
too risky for banks’ lending models but that either can’t attract<br />
or don’t want equity fi nancing. Vested for Growth is designed<br />
to address these high- growth, high- margin businesses that fall<br />
through the cracks <strong>of</strong> the fi nancial market.<br />
“The market thinks in bipolar ways—either bankable debt<br />
or equity, as if those are the two choices that are out there,” says<br />
Hamilton. And yet, he says, there is a giant gap between the two.<br />
“Think <strong>of</strong> all the businesses that fall in between.”<br />
In New Hampshire, businesses with $2 million to $15 million<br />
in revenue and up to 150 employees make up the backbone <strong>of</strong><br />
the state’s economy, he says. These businesses tend to create good<br />
jobs that stay local. Yet if they don’t have a perfect track record or