BURLINGTON, Vt. — An entrepreneurial inventor who received loans from the $31 million Opportunities Credit Union to help him develop a product has received a $3 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to produce it.
Harvie, an engineer, approached Opportunities (formerly the Vermont Development Credit Union) in 2002 for loans to help him develop a bladder relief system suitable for Air Force and other long-range pilots, the CU explained. Harvie had approached banks for help, but had been consistently turned down, the CU said. Harvie invented, developed and holds a patent on the system.
"I came to Opportunities with three other people for a small business loan. We wanted to buy some machining equipment. We had all intellectual property and no assets and had been turned down by all the banks in town," recalled Harvie. "We met with Dede Schlageter and showed her our business plan. I knew we could do this in Vermont and not Colorado. They got involved where a lot of bankers wouldn't and they got to know me."
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
