EAST MIDDLEBURY — What will two 37-year-old friends do after successfully incubating and growing two biotech companies in the greater Boston area?
Of course, they will be the owners and operators of a well-established lumber company in East Middlebury, Vermont.
It's not exactly the script you'd expect to see played out in Forbes, but Andrew Noh and James Burgess, the new owners of Goodlo Lumber in East Middlebury, aren't sticking to a script. They're doing what feels right, and for them, that meant taking a path less traveled by white-collar entrepreneurs looking for a new challenge.
“Our joke is that it was a natural progression to go from biotechnology to the timber industry,” Burgess said, beaming during an interview Monday with Noh at the pair's newly acquired company.
“Fundamentally, we believe that work and community are inseparable,” Nou said. “We are the community, and we wanted to find a business that would give us access to the community.”
The two officially purchased Goodlo Lumber on July 29 from Mark Thomas, Cindy Thomas, Tim Kams and Marie Warner.
“We are excited to begin the fifth chapter of Goodro Lumber's history,” Nou and Burgess said in a statement announcing the ownership change. “We are honored to continue the tradition of exceptional quality and outstanding service that Goodro Lumber has had for more than four generations.”
Founded in 1930 by Harry and Mildred Goodlo, the company originally operated as a sawmill, producing custom lumber products primarily for furniture, before moving into the retail building materials market in 1950. Goodlo is now one of East Middlebury's major businesses, with its lumber yard at 388 East Main St. and its kitchen, bath and flooring division at 3255 Route 7 South.
Goodrose has faithfully served Addison County for four generations, and its owner wanted to pass the baton to a fifth generation.
So how did two friends with plenty of business acumen but no construction experience land a deal with a small-town timber company?
Burgess and Nou's relationship dates back about 12 years, when each gave up on MBAs in favor of hands-on experience in the business world and co-founded OpenBiome, a health care nonprofit that created the nation's first public stool bank for fecal transplant therapy, and Finch Therapeutics, a biotech company developing microbial therapies.
It was a rewarding career, but the two friends found themselves at a crossroads as they reached their mid-30s: They were both starting families and needed new priorities for their future.
“We asked ourselves, 'What do we want for our family long term?' and Vermont seemed like the right mix of values we wanted,” Nou says. “We love the outdoors, we love small communities.”
Greater Boston had many opportunities, but “smallness” wasn't one of them.
“We've had great experience in the (biotech) world, but we wanted to pivot a bit,” Burgess said.
Burgess was the first to say goodbye to biotech and the Bay States. He moved to Vermont (Stowe) with his wife, Meg Broughton, and their young child in the fall of 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Burgess had been a frequent visitor to the state for ski trips and sightseeing, and it seemed like the perfect time to follow his wife's impulse: “What would it be like to live here?”
Nou, meanwhile, continued working for Finch but knew it was only a matter of time before he and Burgess would team up again in business. Nou already had ties to Vermont: His wife, Sarafina, attended Middlebury College and graduated in 2011, and Sarafina's grandparents, Max and Lois Kraus, moved to the county seat 20 years ago.
Getting serious
Last October, Burgess and Nou began thinking seriously about their next move.
“We sat down and said, 'What do we want to do next?'” Nou recalled.
They agreed they wanted to build something tangible, and while the science and drug development was satisfying, it is inevitably a field that involves trial and error.
The partners were very selective when choosing their new business opportunity: They limited their search to Vermont, consulted with brokers, obtained a database of every company in the Green Mountain State, and created a website (milaridge.com) with their entrepreneurial wish list. In short, they were looking for an established company that had been around for at least 10 years and could operate for the next 30 years.
“Our goal is to maximize exit value from the sale of your company while protecting and growing your people, reputation and traditions,” the company said on its website.
Burgess and Nou visited several candidates and Goodlo emerged at the top of the list.
“For us, it just felt like it checked all the boxes, especially the people here care about each other and the community,” Burgess said. “This business has been around for almost 100 years and has been very consistent and stable, which is just what we wanted.”
It was also the scale that our partners were looking for.
Longtime business partners James Burgess (left) and Andrew Noh recently left the biotech industry to start a new chapter in their professional lives as the new owners of Goodro Lumber in East Middlebury.
Independent Photography/Steve James
OpenBiome had a staff of 65, while Finch has grown to about 200. Goodro has 18 full-time staff, which was a great fit for the new owners.
“I think James and I were happiest and felt we could have the most collectively impact when our team was between 10 and 25 people,” Noh said, alluding to a size that allowed management to really get to know employees and allowed employees to gather in one room for the occasional meeting.
Before closing the deal, Nou and Burgess of course met with Goodlo's management.
“As they showed us around (the property), they asked us, 'What drew you to this?'” Nou recalled.
The buyer's answer was that they wanted a company with a small, dedicated team that felt like a family.
bingo.
“(The previous owners) said, 'We're a family,' when they first described the team, and at that point James and I knew they were speaking the same language as us,” Nou said.
The partners realized there were many other upsides to striking the deal, including the fact that experienced GM Tim Cams agreed to stay on in his role during and after the ownership transition.
“It's great to have Tim there keeping things stable for the team and our customers, but he's also been great as a mentor and guide for us,” Burgess said.
The new owners don't plan to make any major changes to a business that has stood the test of time — they might tweak the technology if necessary to help the team, and they'll listen to advice from employees and contractors about adding products — but they're not going to tamper with the blueprint of a successful business.
“Our number one rule is 'don't screw anything up,'” Burgess said.
He and Nou also made it clear that they have no intention of sulking in a side office – they want to be true owner-operators.
“We have energy and a strong willingness to listen to new ideas, but our message is: 'We're not here to change anything. This business is working well,'” Burgess reiterated. “It would have worked well with or without us, and we're happy to be here to put forward a succession plan.”
Nou and Burgess said they were grateful for how welcoming Goodlo employees made them feel, and that their “come to the office” this past week has been markedly different from any workplace experience they've had before.
“When you walk through this pine cabin, there's an amazing smell,” Nou says. “You can't beat it.”
Reporter John Flowers is (email protected).
