South Portland launches pitch contest, more on Vets First Choice, a Q&A with NBT Solutions' Will Mitchell, and more...

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South Portland to launch startup pitch competition

The City of South Portland is preparing to launch a small-business pitch competition to support local entrepreneurs and project a business-friendly image. It will be called Startup South Portland. There aren't many details known yet, but the city plans to host the first event in early September. 
Read more at Maine Startups Insider >>
 

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More on Vets First Choice 

Mainebiz wrote a follow-up story about Vets First Choice's big raise and got some more on-the-record comments from CEO Ben Shaw. Here are a few new pieces of information to take away from the article:

• Shaw expects the company will employ 800 by the end of the year, though it wasn't clear how many of those positions would be at its Portland HQ.

• We still don't have a more-current revenue figure than the $60.9 million it posted in 2015, but Shaw said revenue grew substantially from 2015 to 2016 and that he expects 2017 revenue to be double that of 2016.

• More than half its pharmacy business is in the form of "continuous auto-ship subscriptions," which offers more consistent revenue and bodes well for long-term revenue potential.

• The company has 16 distribution centers nationwide.

• Vets First Choice recently enticed Stephen Crowley away from WEX. Crowley was WEX's chief information officer and will serve in the same role at VFC.

Founder Forum

Will Mitchell of NBT Solutions

Will Mitchell has worked for himself for the past 17 years, as a GIS consultant and then as founder of NBT Solutions, a professional services firm offering custom mapping software applications to clients. 

His business efforts to date have been solid and offered steady employment, but he also came to realize that working for clients under a billable-hour model can be severely limiting.

So two years ago Mitchell and his NBT Solutions co-founder, Sean Myers, hatched a plan. Instead of spreading themselves thin by saying yes to whatever client approached them about building a different custom mapping application for this industry or that industry, they decided to focus their efforts and drill down on one industry where they had noticed a gap in the currently available software and what type of problems that caused for industry players. Rather than a client-first model, they wanted to shift to a product-first model.

In 2015, NBT Solutions beta launched a new product for the telecommunications industry called VETRO FiberMap and recently raised more than $700,000 to help ramp up the sales and marketing efforts. 

I spoke with Mitchell about the challenges of starting a company, his philosophy around selling equity to raise capital, and his long-term plans for the company.   Enjoy.
Read the Q&A with Will Mitchell >>

Briefly Mentioned

+ Don Gooding, former head of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, has officially launched his new project: The Four Colors of Money for Entrepreneurs. For now, it's a website where Gooding is posting helpful articles that explain various financing options for entrepreneurs (the "Four Colors" of money are bootstrapping, grants, debt, and equity), but he plans to eventually offer online courses, a video channel, and a podcast. 

+ Likable Local, a social media marketing and automation company, which has its development team based in Portland, is raising a $1.5 million Series A at a pre-money valuation of $8 million. The company is promoting its offering on the Seed Invest website, taking advantage of new rules that allow startups to raise money from the public through equity crowdfunding. 

+ NBT Solutions, the mapping software company in Portland, has named its board in the wake of its first raise of equity capital. Joining co-founders Will Mitchell and Sean Myers on the board are Josh Broder, CEO of Tilson Technology; Corky Ellis, founder and former CEO of Kepware Technologies; and Frank Governali, a former Wall Street analyst who covered the telecom industry and now lives locally. Ellis and Governali are investor-appointed members (major investors were CEI Ventures and Maine Venture Fund), while Broder is an independent member. 

+ Maine Kids Code has raised half of the $30,000 it needs to launch its after-school programming for Maine middle school students interested in computer programming, according to Sam Mateosian, founder of software development firm Big Room Studios and the lead organizer behind the effort. But it's still looking for more public support. Most of the $15,000 Maine Kids Code has raised to date has come from large donors ($5,000 of that is from Big Room Studios), but it is raising money from the public through a GoFundMe campaign, where it's only raised $1,000 out of a $10,000 goal. Mateosian said the plan is to launch the program this fall.

+ Zootility Tools is blowing away its current Kickstarter campaign. As of Friday morning, it had raised $28,673 from 212 backers with 14 days still to go in the campaign for its latest product, Tulry. Its goal was to raise $10,000.

+ Opticliff Law recently pulled together in a blog post some of the local resources available for entrepreneurs. 

+ A small-business incubator has been established in Waldoboro, according to The Lincoln Country News. The space, which wins the award for most creative name, is called BugTussle Brooder. It recently welcomed its first tenant, a woodworking company.

 

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!

+ Guideline Technologies, a venture-backed fintech startup that is headquartered in California but has a dev office in Portland (where CTO Mike Nelson is based), is hiring a senior ruby engineer, a senior JS engineer, a customer success associate, and a product designer. All these positions are full-time, available in the Portland office, and come with the potential for equity in the company, which raised a $7 million Series A last summer.

+ Welnys, a tech startup that's developed a wellness marketplace and dashboard for employers, is seeking a Head of Engineering. Tech skills required are Node.js and SQL. Familiarity with React, tech ops, APIs, web services, cloud, and security are bonus. Non-technical skills: ability to advise CEO on trade-offs and timelines, familiarity with agile/scrum, self-directed. Will work with existing part-time team of front-end developer, UX designer and project manager. Welnys is a post-product, post-revenue startup (current clients include PayPal and Stanley Black & Decker) that's planning to raise funding in September. Compensation is equity-based to start with salary upon funding. Very flexible regarding hours/remote work pre-funding. Welnys, while based in Texas, is a member of Venture Hall's inaugural accelerator cohort in Portland. For more info about this job, email heather@welnys.com.

+ 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.

+ 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, 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., Aug. 1 — Hack Portland hosts VR Hack Night from 7-10 p.m. at Big Room Studios on Thompson's Point in Portland. More details. 

Thurs., Sept. 7 — Venture Hall's summer accelerator program culminates in Demo Day. Come watch the seven startup teams who have been working in Portland since mid June present their business models. 6-9 p.m. at Cloudport in Portland. More info and tickets.
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