Maddie Purcell, founder of Fyood Kitchen in Portland, on Thursday received the national Outstanding Young Entrepreneur award from SCORE, the nonprofit organization that helps connect entrepreneurs with mentors.
Purcell, who has prior experience in event management and food-related businesses, launched Fyood in 2016 with the plan to organize amateur cooking competitions. She began running beta-test events at Fork Food Lab in Portland before launching a successful Kickstarter campaign in early 2017 that raised nearly $17,000. At the time, she described her cooking competitions (or “Fyoods,” as she calls them, which is pronounced like “feuds”) as “Iron Chef-meets-Paint Nite events for Maine’s fun-loving, adventurous foodies.”
While the open competitions helped Purcell gain traction, she pivoted this past summer to provide mainly private group events. She relaunched her website with a focus on team-building “Fyoods,” birthdays, and wedding parties.
Purcell told Maine Startups Insider she’s planning to triple her business over the next year and is in the process of hiring two to three additional team members.
Throughout her building of the business and its evolution, she benefited from mentorship gained through SCORE’s Portland chapter. She has been mentored by Nancy Strojny, Jewel Church, and Jamieson Webking.
“The national SCORE award is such a wonderful opportunity to share what we’ve been creating over the past two years at Fyood with a wider audience,” Purcell said. “We’re so lucky to have a really strong community of supporters already, and it’s been a dream to get to share this award publicly and celebrate it with them. It’s also cool to see folks from around the country recognize Maine as a place where you can build an innovative business, especially with the support of our outstanding local SCORE chapter.”
Purcell is also a finalist in SCORE’s 2018 American Small Business Championship, a contest with $15,000 up for grabs. The winners will be announced in December.
SCORE posted a video on YouTube about Purcell and Fyood Kitchen. Check it out.
