It Takes a Village

CMU alumnus pours a life’s worth of financial knowledge into his hometown distillery

The creation of Village Garage Distillery has all the makings of a Hallmark holiday movie.

On a snowy December 24, Carnegie Mellon University and Mellon College of Science alumnus Matt Cushman and his friend Glen Sauer decided to open a distillery in Bennington, Vermont, a picturesque town nestled in the Green Mountains.

Both men have deep roots in the area, which their families have called home since the early 1800s.

When municipal officials were toying with the notion of demolishing the historic Village Garage, a former International Harvester tractor dealership that was later used to house highway equipment, the pair offered to imbue the beloved landmark with a new spirit. 

"Garages have been home for many great startups, and this seemed like an ideal home for ours,” Matt says. “Underneath decades of dust, there was a beautiful industrial building in the heart of town with a bowstring truss roof and lots of design details from the post-war era ready to peek through.”

“We felt that renovating it would be a great way to contribute to the revitalization of our hometown."

Village Garage opened for business in March 2022 with Vermont’s Lt. Gov. Molly Gray helping to cut the ceremonial ribbon.

“The distillery now serves as a model for what’s possible for communities across Vermont,” Gray said during the ceremony.

Inside the cavernous tasting room, customers can stock up on bottles of bourbon, rye whiskey and vodka and enjoy a signature cocktail. Village Garage is also a full-service restaurant focusing on Vermont products such as apples, cheese and maple syrup.

Matt earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mathematics at CMU in 1995 and has founded or launched several companies across the country and on Wall Street including Ajna Labs, a decentralized finance project; Etale, Inc., a cryptocurrency trading software firm; and Engineers Gate, a quantitative equity hedge fund.

The Andrew Carnegie Society member and former ACS Scholar is using what he learned at CMU and his more than two decades of experience developing quantitative models for financial markets to tackle Village Garage’s financials.

"Carnegie Mellon not only gave me an amazing scientific education, but it taught me the flexibility to take what I've learned as a foundation for moving into new and unfamiliar terrain,” Matt says. “This skill has been invaluable to me many times in my career, and I've certainly been relying on it again in launching this distillery."

He has two goals for the fledgling distillery that he believes will add up to success: to make it a destination and to put Vermont spirits on the map.

“At the end of the day, I think it’s these guiding principles that make us unique,” Matt says. “We have a sense of place tied to Vermont.”

The Green Mountain State has a unique growing environment with extreme seasons, giving local ingredients — and even the water supply — a clean, distinct flavor profile. In addition to current offerings, the business will soon release a barrel-rested gin, too.

Although completely renovated, the facility still boasts nods to its former vehicular incarnations, with vintage truck axles doubling as table legs. Hemmings Motor News Filling Station is nearby and doubles as an automotive museum.

Matt hopes drivers, who typically bypass Bennington on their way to upstate ski resorts, will spend a few hours in the quaint town before hitting the slopes.

"Great organizations like Carnegie Mellon University have a sense of purpose beyond just conventional markers of success,” Matt says. “At Village Garage, ours is to contribute to our home by providing a destination where people can feel the sense of history and attention to craft that are associated with small-town New England.”