MedRhythms emerges from startup accelerator, a Q&A with Bixby & Co.'s Kate McAleer, and more...

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Good afternoon. I'm going to keep this short since it's a slow news week. 
 

MedRhythms emerges from Philips accelerator

MedRhythms, the Portland-based digital medicine startup, recently emerged from a startup accelerator operated by the healthcare division of Philips, the multinational healthcare and electronics company.

Philips HealthWorks selected MedRhythms as one of six healthcare-related startups to take part in the 12-week accelerator, which was held in Cambridge, Mass., and offered companies access to internal resources and experts in the areas of regulatory issues, reimbursement, clinical, design, and business modeling. MedRhythms has developed a medical device that combines sensors, neuroscience, and music to help people recover from neurologic injury or disease.

"The Philips HealthWorks program gave us an opportunity to be challenged by and learn from a leading company in the healthcare industry. And with a shared commitment to patients and innovation, Philips has been a tremendous partner in helping us accelerate our mission," Brian Harris, MedRhythms' CEO told Maine Startups Insider.

Philips HealthWorks posted a video featurung MedRhythms on YouTube. 
 

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Founder Forum

Kate McAleer of Bixby & Co.

Kate McAleer, founder of Bixby & Co., which manufactures organic chocolate bars and other products out of its facility in Rockland, attributes a lot of her success to plain, old, get-your-hands-dirty-and-stop-complaining grit and perseverance.

"You may not be the perfect person, but if you work really hard and put a lot of passion and grit into something, you’ll keep getting somewhere," she told me. 

Kate, who founded the company while in her early 20s and is now 29, sells her organic candy bars in more than 1,000 stores across the country and says sales are growing 30% a year.

She's also had noticeable success in pitching her business. In 2015, she won Gorham Savings Bank's Launchpad competition and $30,000. Last year, she was named a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow and ended up winning the concluding pitch competition along with $100,000 (half in grant money and the other half in a low-interest loan). 

In her Founder Forum interview, Kate speaks candidly about the personal challenges of building her business, why she hasn't taken on outside investors, and offers her advice for new entrepreneurs (hint: develop grit). 
Enjoy.

Read the Q&A with Kate McAleer >>

Briefly Mentioned

+ The Today Show recently aired a clip about Abigail Carroll, founder of Nonesuch Oysters, and her story of becoming an "accidental oyster farmer" after moving from Paris, France, back to her native Maine. 
 

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!

+ Forager, an early-stage tech startup in Portland with a B2B platform for sourcing local food, is hiring an account manager. 

+ Pika Energy in Westbrook is hiring an office manager and a director of electrical engineering.

+ Visible Logic, parent company of Branding Compass, is hiring a junior- to mid-level designer to work on a large range of projects from logo design to web design to video and infographics.

+ Big Room Studios, a software and web development firm in Portland, is hiring a project manager. 

+ CourseStorm is looking for a software engineer. Bangor-based is preferable, but the company is open to a remote worker if the right candidate was to come along.

+ Rapport is looking to hire a Senior Sales Rep and a Ruby/SQL developer in Portland.

+ BetterLesson, a Cambridge-based edtech startup, is hiring for a few sales and marketing positions. The right person does not need to be based in Boston, according to BetterLesson's Chief Revenue Officer, Betsy Peters, who lives in Freeport. The company is hiring a Director of Sales, Director of Marketing, and an Inside Sales Account Executive.

+ Certify in Portland is hiring a full-stack developer and several sales and marketing positions.

+ NBT Solutions in Portland is hiring a geospatial developer, a technical SaaS sales lead, a GIS analyst and a marketing programs coordinator to support its VETRO FiberMap product expansion.

+ BlueTarp Financial in Portland is hiring an engineering manager.

+ Academic Merit, an educational software startup in Portland, is hiring a software engineer.

+ 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.

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

+ CashStar is hiring a UX designer and full-stack software engineer, among other positions.
 

Calendar

NOTE: In an effort to make this calendar of events more accessible, I've created a shareable Google calendar that I hope to keep updated. You can find the calendar here. Feel free to share it. As always, send me your event or calendar item for possible inclusion. 

Tues., July 11 — Hack Portland hosts Civic Hack Night from 7-10 p.m. at Mechanics Hall on Congress Street in Portland. Civic Hacking is the idea of applying rapid prototyping and modern, open technology to the solution of common civic problems such as voting, budgeting, parking, and community engagement. More details. 

Thurs., July 13 — UpStart Maine hosts a weekly meetup in Bangor for entrepreneurially minded people. It's called Solve for B and the topic this week is the Startup Playbook. 7:30-8:30 a.m. at CoVort in Bangor. More details.

Thurs., July 27 — Global Shapers Portland Hub hosts an event, "Making it in Maine: Getting by in the Gig Economy," at Space Gallery in Portland. 6-8 p.m. More details.
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