🔒Maine Funding Network hosts funding and counseling agencies as a platform to help entrepreneurs

When Clint Chase wanted to relocate and build out a new shop for his solo business, Chase Small Craft, he connected with the Midcoast Council of Governments to look into gap funding.

Chase makes do-it-yourself kits for customers who want to build their own small wooden boats, complete with high-quality, precut wooden parts, supplies, plans, instruction manuals and even personalized support and onsite and off-site workshops and classes.

Since establishing the business in 2015, he’s operated in a leased location at 959 Portland Road in Saco, where he produces and ships out as many as three dozen kits per year.

He was ready to own a shop and wanted to be in the midcoast region. After finding the right piece of commercial real estate in Wiscasset, Chase contacted the council and was put in touch with Mathew Eddy, the council’s executive director.

“We got talking and he said, ‘This is a great fit,’” Chase relates.

Chase submitted his application through an online portal for the Maine Funding Network, a state program launched in 2024 to be a one-stop shop to connect businesses to financing and consulting services.

An initiative of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development and the Finance Authority of Maine, the network hosts public, nonprofit and alternative funding and counseling agencies. The centralized platform is designed to help borrowers navigate the options.

Chase’s application was the first project the Midcoast Council of Governments has carried out as a member of the network. Now Eddy is finalizing loan resources for Chase that provide favorable terms such as low interest rates.

“It was the first project we did through the Maine Funding Network,” says Eddy. “We like it so much that MCOG is flipping the entire application process through the Maine Funding Network.”

Where to turn

Before the network’s launch, business owners didn’t always know where to turn to find public and nonprofit funding and consulting sources. Many businesses are unaware of the many alternative funding and business counseling services available to them.

Funders can connect with businesses they might never have otherwise encountered.

The Finance Authority of Maine administers and hosts the platform.

“This first year is the foundation for what [Maine Funding Network] can become — Maine’s alternative funding hub,” says Michael Duguay, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. “It helps Maine businesses find the help they need when they can’t always figure out where to initially look. As the platform grows, so will our ability to create more access to funding, expanding Maine’s economy.”

The process

The process starts at the network’s online portal (mainefundingnetwork.com) and moves rapidly to establish a direct connection to a funder or advisor.

A business creates an account and fills out a common “match request” form. The application gathers information such as industry, funding goals and location to identify funding matches.

The platform uses the information to identify the partner organizations best fitting the business’s type and goal automatically. The match request process not only saves businesses the legwork of identifying alternative funders, it saves them the time required to fill out applications when they may not be a good match for the funder’s specific criteria.

Businesses receive potential funding options and/or business counseling resources, after which the funding organization reaches out to help. They will be able to complete a common loan application. If a business is working with multiple financing providers, they only need to submit one application.

The funding partners work with the business to collect additional information needed for loans or equity financing.

Collaborations

Organizations can work with each other to create funding packages for an applicant, potentially increasing the total amount of funding available to any given applicant, while facilitating reporting to financing organizations.

Similarly, they can serve as resources for commercial banks and are familiar with creating public or private funding packages.

If an applicant is not ready for funding, the network redirects the applicant to one of its advisory members, who help the business owner understand and prioritize the steps it should take to qualify for funding.

‘Pathway to growth’

Jonathan Poole and Charlotte Mace, FAME’s COO and director of business, respectively, were working at the Department of Economic and Community Development during the pandemic, when they were helping businesses find and navigate public and nonprofit business’s support programs.

“There were conversations: ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there were kind of a front door where people can be connected with these agencies?’” Poole recalls.

FAME made an initial investment and ongoing annual funding commitment to advance the idea, working with the state Department of Economic and Community Development and a core group of agencies and procuring a software company to develop the platform. Initially launched in the spring of 2024 with 16 member organizations, the network now numbers 24 funding members that have supported around $500,00 in lending.

Word is getting out through social media, advertising, events and word of mouth, says Poole.

“For businesses, this was a pathway to growth and stability that they would otherwise never have been able to access,” Poole says. “I think it’s been pretty successful in increasing awareness and connecting businesses to partners.”

Finding options

So far, over 800 businesses have registered with the network, most of them small operations with at most a handful of employees, either just getting started or entering a growth phase. The network is designed to support all types of businesses, including high-growth startups, business from out-of-state looking to move to Maine and large-scale businesses.

One new Maine entrepreneur, Tyler Menifield, owner of Hoot Pickleball, a Pickleball accessory company, found the right match on the network, one he may not have easily found on his own.

“Thanks to the ease and resources of Maine Funding Network, I was matched with Community Concepts Finance Corp. and was able to secure a loan to help me get Hoot Pickleball up and running,” says Menifield.

The network has facilitated connections between Community Concepts and businesses across Maine, enabling expansion into new regions, agrees Natalie Washburn, president of the South Paris-based institution.

“This collaboration benefits businesses statewide and strengthens Maine’s economy,” Washburn says.

Expanded awareness

Eddy says the network is particularly helpful for the Midcoast Council of Governments as a smaller institution, allowing it to upgrade its technology instantly from the council’s paper application system and to expand awareness of its presence and services.

It’s also a great opportunity for small nonprofits to blend their services and connect with larger institutions, he continues.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for all of us to talk together,” says Eddy.

So far, five businesses have connected with the council through the network. Two hadn’t reached a stage where they were ready for funding, but the goal is to continue talks with them and redirect them to startup consultants. Two applications are underway and loans for Chase Small Craft are close to finalizing.

“It was s fun project and it came together well,” Eddy says of Chase’s plans.

One-stop shop

Tanner Hanes, a loan officer at Eastern Maine Development Corp. in Bangor, recently closed on a loan, with favorable terms, to Cubhouse Childcare LLC in Dover-Foxcroft to expand operations.

The Maine Funding Network makes it easier for small business to find EMDC, Hanes says.

“Before that, we relied on referrals from communities, towns and business development nonprofits, and from banks, if they couldn’t lend to someone, because we have a range of products that can serve people outside of that typical lending range,” Hanes says.

The network provides synergies between services, he says.

“I like to consider the Maine Funding Network a one-stop shop that connects Maine businesses with the wide range of community lenders that they might not have known about beforehand,” Hanes says. “It’s been our experience that it’s helping get our services and our ability to help to a wider range of people.”

EMDC has worked with 10 to 15 businesses through the network, including child care, mental health counseling services and a salsa manufacturer.

“It’s 10 to 15 more businesses that I wouldn’t have worked with before,” Hanes says. “I expect that number to grow.”

Information, anytime

Breanna Stewart was an assistant teacher for Bangor community action agency Penquis; she achieved a child development associate credential and acquired Cubhouse Childcare as an existing business for children age six weeks to five years old.

Soon after, she leased a second, nearby location for older children up to age 12. The need for child care in the region is acute, she says.

“There needs to be more centers and more aid from the state to help parents who can’t afford it,” Stewart says.

She was doing an online search for financing to update operations when she came upon EMDC and connected with Hanes. She found him to be instantly responsive.

“Over the year and a half since I’ve taken over, he’s helped me a lot with any information, any time I have questions,” she says. “He told me about the loan and said, If you’re interested I can help you get through this. It was perfect. It was maybe a couple of weeks after that, that the other building was available. So I jumped on it.”

Attracting investment

At Chase Small Craft, Clint Chase found Eddy to be equally responsive and the network’s application process easy to work with, including a videoconference with the council’s board of directors that was a positive experience. The loans will go toward building construction, including installation of prefabricated shipping containers, plus equipment upgrades.

“They’ve been great work with,” Chase says.

For the network, Poole says plans for the future include platform improvements and adding more partners and resources, potentially to include those in New England that are looking to do more work in Maine.

The network’s rewards goes beyond its capabilities for businesses, says FAME’s Charlotte Mace.

“Because the state of Maine and FAME are taking a leadership role in putting this tool together, it enhances how we’re viewed by national and global investors,” Mace says. “They’ll see Maine as a state that is organized, with an ecosystem for supporting business that’s streamlined and coordinated. That helps attract new investment to the state.”