No shortage of startup ideas — or help for entrepreneurs
Maine seems to have no shortage of ideas for new businesses. As this issue focused on startups and entrepreneurs shows, there is also a wide range of resources for entrepreneurs.
For our cover story, Senior Writer Renee Cordes visited an operation that a year ago was on the ropes. Fork Food Lab in Portland was on the verge of closing, with its New York-based owner offering no explanation for why the incubator of small food companies was not working. In stepped Bill Seretta, a Yarmouth nonprofit leader. These days, as Renee reports, Fork Food Lab is a hub of activity, with Fyood Kitchen, North Spore Mushrooms, Plucked Fresh Salsa and a couple dozen others working there. Seretta is still raising money to cover past losses and looking for a location that better suits the mission, but Fork Food Lab has reasserted its position as a place where entrepreneurs can develop food products. “This is important because we tend to overlook the value of small, individual companies,” he says. The story starts on Page 18.
In Waterville, Senior Writer Maureen Milliken spent time at Summer Startup, a mentoring program for young entrepreneurs. Drawing on students from Thomas and Colby colleges, the program aims to help foster startups but also help Waterville retain some of those entrepreneurs after graduation. Nick Rimsa, co-founder of the Bricks Coworking space and the Summer Startup program, is himself a Colby graduate who at one time had his sights on Los Angeles. Now, “I’m sticking around,” he says. “I love working in this place.” See Page 26.
In Orono, a good idea growing up on the University of Maine’s campus is the UpStart Center for Entrepreneurship, which offers space at a reduced rate and lunch-and-learn sessions with like-minded go-getters. It recently added two lab spaces, built at a cost of $850,000. All with the aim of marshalling the collective brain power. “People think of entrepreneurs as lonely. But it’s really a team sport,” says Martha Bentley, a state economic development official. See Page 30.
This issue features two lists. Women-owned businesses is on Page 34, while the list of the largest investments by Maine Technology Institute is on Page 42.
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