10 finalists named for 2019 Top Gun Showcase event

Photo / Claudia Dricot Tom Rainey, executive director of Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, left, and Brian Whitney, president of Maine Technology Institute, presented a $25,000 cash prize for the 2018 Top Gun Showcase to Erica Schmitz, founder of the Portland startup MyBodyModel. This year's showcase competition features an additional $25,000 cash prize, donated by David E. Shaw. co-founder of IDEXX and Covetrus.

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By Staff

Ten companies will compete for two $25,000 cash prizes in the 2019 Top Gun Showcase that will be held May 23 at the University of Southern Maine’s Hannaford Hall.

The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, along with its partners, the University of Maine, the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council, MaineStream Finance and the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation at Thomas College, announced on Friday the 10 winners of regional semifinal pitch events that were held last week in Bangor, Lewiston/Auburn, Portland, Rockland and Waterville.

Participating entrepreneurs presented five-minute pitches to a panel of judges, followed by a brief question-and-answer period. Scoring was based on presentation, innovation, scalability and feasibility. The top two finishers in each location will move on to compete for two $25,000 cash prizes, one sponsored by the Maine Technology Institute and the other by David E. Shaw, managing partner of Black Point Group and co-founder of the publicly traded Maine companies Covetrus and IDEXX.

Shaw established the second award earlier this year to coincide with the recent public offering for Covetrus, formed from a merger between Portland startup Vets First Choice and Henry Schein Animal Health — uniting two companies that had a combined $4 billion in 2018 revenues — as well as the 35th anniversary of the founding of his first business, IDEXX Laboratories Inc. (2018 revenue: $2.21 million).

Here are the regional pitch competition winners:

Bangor: Neuright and Vigilance Software.
Lewiston/Auburn: i-Tell Alert and My Waffle.
Portland: Hornet Water Sports and Sticky Sweet.
Rockland: Boat Show VIP and Custom Skills Development.
Waterville: Gryffon Ridge Spice Merchants and MugBuddyCookies Inc.

“The excitement is building as 43 client businesses, our largest cohort ever, come down the final stretch of our four-month entrepreneurship program”, said Tom Rainey, executive director of Maine Center for Entrepreneurs. “These hard-working graduates will join 250 alumni businesses stretching across the state from the Canadian border down to York county.”

About Top Gun

The Top Gun program is supported by Maine Center for Entrepreneurs and partners that include the University of Maine, the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, MaineStream Finance, and the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation at Thomas College. MCE receives funding support from corporate and nonprofit sponsors, local businesses, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, FocusMaine the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Additionally, Maine Center Ventures, the University of Maine System’s new Graduate and Professional Studies initiative, will host the 2019 Top Gun Showcase at University of Southern Maine’s Abromson Hall.

About Maine Center for Entrepreneurs

Founded in 1997, Maine Center for Entrepreneurs is an independent non-profit organization based in Portland that helps the most promising Maine companies launch and grow through training, connections and “hands-on” support from dozens of volunteer advisors and business mentors.