Surge Hydro wins pitch contest, talking shop with Davo Technologies' co-founder, Fyood Kitchen succeeds with crowdfunding, and more...

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Feb. 17, 2017
By Whit Richardson (@whit_richardson)
 

Surge Hydro wins Pitch York County event

Surge Hydro makes the newsletter for the second week in a row. Last week, the Belfast-based startup won an award at the national Cleantech Open event in San Francisco. This week, it won the fourth and final Pitch York County event.
Read more at Maine Startups Insider >>
 

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Founder Forum

David Joseph of Davo Technologies

Before co-founding a software company that automates the sales tax collection and payment for small- and medium-sized merchants, David Joseph was a restaurant owner in New Jersey. He hated keeping track of how much sales tax he had to set aside for the state each month and worrying about missing the payment deadline. He hated it so much, in fact, that he decided to leave the restaurant business and build a software company from scratch that would automate that process for fed-up business owners like he had once been. Today, Portland-based Davo Technologies employs nine people and is on the verge of a few milestones that could shift the company's growth into overdrive.

In our conversation, Joseph discusses what it takes to be an entrepreneur, his idea for helping more Maine startups get through that chasm between startup and profitability, and why he never wants to be the smartest person in the room. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Read the Q&A with David Joseph >>

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Fyood Kitchen raises nearly $16,500 on Kickstarter

Fyood Kitchen on Feb. 10 successfully completed its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The Portland company, which organizes amateur cooking competitions, raised $16,485 from 142 backers. The campaign's goal was to raise at least $16,100. The duo behind Fyood—Maddie Purcell and Fuzzy—plan to use the funds on marketing and to expand their arsenal of cooking equipment.

Chimani wins national award for its Acadia app

Chimani Inc., the startup that has developed a collection of mobile travel-guide apps for national parks, received the Corporate Stewardship Award and Honorable Mention for Innovative Product of the Year at the Public Land Alliance Convention on Feb. 15 in Arlington, Va. The award specifically recognized Chimani’s development of a mobile version of the Acadia Quest game, which it built into its Acadia National Park app. The game generated 25,000 check-ins with the park's Acadia Quest program.
  

Calendar

Send me your event or calendar item for possible inclusion.

Tues., Feb. 21 — Hack Portland hosts Game Hack Night, an opportunity to work on that mobile game you've been wanting to build or to hack old-school boardgames. The event is open format. 7-10 p.m. at Big Room Studios' office on Thompsons Point in Portland. More details.

Wed., March 8 — Maine Accelerates Growth hosts the State of the Ecosystem event, which will be a recap of everything that happened in Maine's innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in 2016, and offer glimpses of what to expect in 2017. 5-8pm at Cloudport CoWorking at 63 Federal St. in Portland. For more details and to register.

Tues., March 21 — Applications close for Venture Hall's inaugural summer accelerator program focused on healthcare-focused startups. Here are the details.

Thurs., March 23 — Maine Startup & Create Week hosts it's now-annual event in Boston. 6-9 p.m. at Steelcase's showroom in Boston. Tell your Boston friends. For more details and to register.
   

Jobs

Seeking a full-stack engineer? A technical co-founder? A sales or biz dev superstar? Send me your job postings to make this a great resource!

+ MedRhythms is hiring a data engineer and music algorithm engineer in Portland. Both positions pay $50k-$80k and come with the potential for equity. More details on AngelList.

+ Freeport Metrics is hiring an experience designer and an engagement manager. 

+ CourseStorm in Orono is hiring a growth hacker—or what the company refers to as a "creative scientist—to help elevate its marketing and user-acquisition efforts. Details here. 

+ CashStar is hiring a full-stack software engineer, among several other positions.

+ BlueTarp Financial in Portland is hiring a senior software engineer.

+ Academic Merit, an educational software startup in Portland, is hiring a front-end developer and a software engineer.

+ Coria, a Maine-based data science and marketing consulting firm, is currently seeking an experienced UX developer with Axure experience to join its team. To apply, or for more information, send CEO John Hobart an email at jhobart@coria.com.

+ Flyte New Media, a digital marketing agency in Portland, is hiring a WordPress developer.

+ Environetix Technology Corp., a wireless sensor manufacturer in Orono, is hiring a RF engineer/RF technician.

+ Dream Local Digital in Rockland is hiring for a host of positions.

+ Likeable Local is hiring a "customer success associate" in its Portland office.

+ Double Blue Sports Analytics, with offices in Orono and Brunswick, is looking to hire software engineers. If interested, shoot them an email.

+ Vets First Choice continues to hire like mad. It still has job listings for several positions at its Portland office, from a UX/UI design to a director of e-commerce.

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