CORI and SFE first began working together in 2017, when SFE made a commitment to support CORI’s K-12 curriculum implementation and a technology startup accelerator in Springfield, Vermont. This round of support attracted other funding partners, national and local, to these projects, including the Vermont Community Foundation, the Economic Development Administration, and the Kauffman Foundation, and functioned as proof-of-concept for the organization’s then-nascent strategy for strengthening rural communities through digital economic advancement.