Healthy Business Model

Since 2004, Vermonters have been shedding weight with the help of Vtrim [1]. If Krista Conley Lincoln has her way, the program will soon be available everywhere. Last month, the Middlebury grad businesswoman took over Vtrim Online Solutions as CEO and managing director.

Vtrim’s research-based, behaviorally focused weight-loss program was designed by the University of Vermont’s chair of nutrition and food sciences [2], Dr. Jean Harvey-Berino [3]. The six-month series results in an average weight loss of 24 pounds, but until now, the program was generally limited to UVM students and faculty and other Vermonters taking classes online.

Last month Vtrim became a private company, run by Lincoln and a small-but-growing staff from an office in Middlebury. Lincoln, who licensed the concept from UVM, says her passion is “creating jobs in a socially responsible way.” She’s working with large (in some cases, multinational) corporations to help them adopt Vtrim, targeting hospitals, the military and even the National Football League. She also plans to encourage insurers at large companies to add Vtrim as a worker-benefit option.

Lincoln’s other plans include the creation of Vtrim smartphone apps to enhance postloss weight management and Vtrim products such as shirts bearing its new slogan: “Body by me.”

If Lincoln has her way, before long, Vtrim will be listed among Ben & Jerry’s [4] and Burton Snowboards as Vermont-born and -bred businesses known across the nation. “I believe there’s a chance to make this product one of the major brands coming out of Vermont to the rest of the country,” she says.