New co-working space in South Portland, MaineStream Finance offers startup classes, FocusMaine hires ED, and more..
Like Maine Startups Insider? Forward to your friends, who can subscribe here.
Good morning from the home office, loyal readers. Kind of a slow news week, but there are a few items worth noting.
As usual, before we dive into the news, I want to take a moment to thank MSI's newest sustaining member: Rob Gould, a senior marketing and communications manager at WEX. Sustaining members help me continue to provide an outlet for news and information about Maine's startup community. If you have the wherewithal, please consider becoming a sustaining member.
On to the news...
New South Portland coworking space wins pitch contest
Startup South Portland held its second pitch contest this week. The winner was James LaPlante, who pitched his concept for a new co-working and shared-production-studio space he plans to open in South Portland. LaPlante, who runs his own Emmy-award-winning animation studio, told Maine Startups Insider he's currently working on financing, but hopes to open the space in early 2018. Beside the normal coworking amenities, it will include a production studio for members to create video content and access to virtual reality development gear.
Read more at Maine Startups Insider >>
More below the sponsor message
A message from our sponsor
Maine Startups Insider is presented by Pierce Atwood. Sponsors like Pierce Atwood allow MSI to continue delivering news & insight about Maine's entrepreneurs, so thanks for supporting them!
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alum joins FocusMaine
FocusMaine, the private-sector economic development effort launched by a who's who of the Maine business community (Mike Dubyak, David Shaw, Bill Ryan Sr., Karen Mills, etc.), has secured $6.6 million in funding and hired its first full-time president. Kimberly A. Hamilton will assume the role in October. She is a North Yarmouth native who has worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and most recently served as chief impact officer at Feeding America. The impressive amount of capital FocusMaine has raised is mostly thanks to the Harold Alfond Foundation, which provided a $4.9 million matching grant. The group's goal is to create at least 10,000 jobs in Maine over the next 10 years by focusing on the agriculture, aquaculture and biopharmaceutical industries. Here's more from Mainebiz.
BostInno profiles another Portland company
BostInno, the tech-focused news website in Boston, again turned its attention north. I mentioned last week that it had profiled Chimani. This week, it published an article about Vets First Choice titled, "Portland’s New Tech Giant Is All About Pet Care & It’s Surprisingly Complex." It also published a less impressive and lazy post on WEX. Is this evidence of a more concerted effort by BostInno to cover Maine's startup community? Not really. Dylan Martin, a staff writer at BostInno who used to live in Portland and work for Mainebiz, said the three articles were a result of a week-long attempt to review Portland's startup scene.
U.S. seeing a "startup slump"
I don't often post news items not specifically Maine-related, but I think this article in The New York Times is worth highlighting. While culturally it might seem like we're in a startup boom, the stats don't back that up. In fact, according to recently released data from the Census Bureau, the share of U.S. companies less than one year old has declined by almost half over the last generation. The article discusses the probable causes of this, and concludes that this "start-up slump" has far-reaching implications.
"Small businesses in general are often cited as an exemplar of economic dynamism. But it is start-ups — and particularly the small subset of companies that grow quickly — that are key drivers of job creation and innovation, and have historically been a ladder into the middle class for less-educated workers and immigrants. Perhaps most significant, start-ups play a critical role in making the economy as a whole more productive, as they invent new products and approaches, forcing existing businesses to compete or fall by the wayside."
Free startup class launching in Brunswick and Rockland
MaineStream Finance is offering a free seven-class course, which it calls the Hatchery, on how to launch a business. The classes will meet weekly and cover how to develop a business plan, how to create a pitch, how to approach raising capital, etc. The classes are free and begin next week. The seven-class course will be taught in Brunswick and Rockland. For more information and to register, visit MaineStream Finance's website.
A recipe for economic transformation
“Focus on research. Encourage risk taking. Embrace failure. Reward collaboration. Attract immigrants and venture capitalists. Build networks of experienced workers. Take advantage of nearby universities. Get professors to train the next generation of students and to work with local business leaders to spin out important technologies. The status quo only brings woes.”
And so begins Charles Lawton's latest column for the Portland Press Herald, in which he discusses the "primordial ooze" needed for economic transformation, concludes that the recipe Maine needs to use to create that transformation is universal, and finally uses that conclusion to reflect on Venture Hall's inaugural Demo Day.
Briefly mentioned
+ Steve Case is still collecting votes from the cities he's visited during his Rise of the Rest tour. Let's get him back to Portland. Please vote.
+ A Forbes listicle that places Maine among the least innovative states in the nation made its way around social media this week. The list is from last March, so I'm not going to dredge it up for another teardown. Suffice it to say, Maine's startup community still has some work to do, even if I don't agree with some of the methodology used to create the list.
+ Don Gooding, former head of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, reflects on his career as an angel investor in a new post on his website, the Four Colors of Money.
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!
+ Launch Security, a cybersecutiy firm in Portland, is hiring a front-end web developer and a UX designer.
+ 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 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.
+ 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 a director of electrical engineering.
+ Big Room Studios, a software and web development firm in Portland, is hiring a project manager.
+ NBT Solutions in Portland is hiring a geospatial developer to support its VETRO FiberMap product expansion.
+ Academic Merit, an educational software startup in Portland, is hiring a software engineer.
+ 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 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.
Civic Design Fest
Sat., Sept. 23 — 9 a.m.-9 p.m. at the Maine Charitable Mechanics Hall and Think Tank Co-working in Portland.
What if civic engagement were more than just surveys and hearings? If ordinary people put our imaginations together, what could we build for our city? This is a one-day hackathon hosted by the Portland Global Shapers Hub, Code for Maine, and the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association. This event is part of Code for America's National Day of Civic Hacking, where cities across the country organize and participate in civic hackathons. More details, and to register.
Robot Hack Night
Tues., Sept. 26 — 7-10 p.m. at Big Room Studios in Portland
Hack Portland hosts Robot Hack Night. More details.
Startup South Portland
Wed., Oct. 4 — Location TBD
The final pitch contest for Startup South Portland, which will feature four entrepreneurs—the top two winners from the first two events&emdash;pitching their bsusiness before a panel of judges. First place gets $1,000; second place gets $750. More information.
MTI's Portland Grant Funding Workshop
Wed., Oct. 4 — 12-2 p.m. at office of Greater Portland Council of Governments
Workshop in Portland for entrepreneurs and inventors interested in learning how to access grant funding from the Maine Technology Institute. More details and to register.
MTI's Bangor Grant Funding Workshop
Thurs., Oct. 5 — 12-2 p.m. at the Husson Center for Family Business
Workshop in Bangor for entrepreneurs and inventors interested in learning how to access grant funding from the Maine Technology Institute. More details and to register.
|=0=|