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🌞 Good morning. Welcome to the 213th edition of Maine Startups Insider. You are one of 2,052 Maine-loving people receiving this email.

Last week I grabbed a few beers with a local angel investor; we discussed why we don’t see more Boston-based VCs cross the Piscataqua River and invest in Maine startups. This investor, who belongs to a Boston-based angel group, said he often hears the excuse that the distance makes it too hard to keep tabs on Maine-based portfolio companies. Putting aside the question of whether that’s a valid excuse (seems lame to me given Portland is only two hours away and it’s likely those Boston-based VCs are investing in companies in other cities further than two hours from Beantown), I have two questions for the MSI audience:

Do you think the pandemic-induced assimilation of remote work as a business norm will cause investors and VC funds to expand the geographic footprint within which they’re willing to invest in companies?

What would you do to provide more onramps to get those out-of-state investors more exposed to and interested in the cool companies being built in Maine?

Respond to this email and let me know what you think.
New section! I’m testing out a new section of the newsletter. I’m thinking of it as a kind of reverse job board. Instead of only allowing companies to post job openings, I’m going to being posting notices from talented people looking to join a local startup or tech company. Check the beta version below.
Keep creating, keep innovating, keep curious.

-Whit Richardson

/ News

Guideline raises $85M to continue its tech-forward takeover of 401(k) industry

Guideline, the five-year-old tech company that’s modernizing the 401(k) industry, recently raised $85 million. The company, though headquartered in California, decided to base its engineering team in Maine when it launched in 2015. Last year it invested $1 million in its new Portland office, where it now employees 50 people across all teams and is still hiring.

Minnow raises $2.2M for its contactless food-pickup technology

Minnow, a startup that has developed an internet-enabled kiosk that provides contact-free food pickup, has raised $2.2 million as COVID drives interest in contactless technologies. The company’s HQ is now in Seattle, but the company was founded in Portland and still has its hardware and sales teams based here.

12 Maine companies make the Inc. 5,000 list

Inc. magazine’s annual list of the country’s 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies includes 12 companies from Maine. The fastest growing Maine-based company on the list is Brickell Men’s Products, a Portland-based company selling premium grooming and skincare products to men. It ranked 133rd on the list based on three-year revenue growth of 2,774%.

Survey sheds light on impact of remote workers in Maine

Live + Work in Maine collected approximately 450 responses to its survey about remote working in Maine. Here are some highlights:

Employees who work for companies such as Google, IBM, GitHub, Ernst & Young, Zillow, and HubSpot, are remote working in Maine.
Many of the respondents have been living in Maine and working remotely since the beginning of the pandemic (48.6%), but some have been here for years (31.2%).
Needs cited by respondents are better broadband internet access, more opportunities to connect with other remote workers, and access to resources.
When asked if they could see themselves working remote in Maine for years to come, 76.1% of respondents said they “agree” or “strongly agree.”

For more, check out this Mainebiz article and this panel discussion on the Maine Calling radio show, which aired earlier this week.

Quick intermission to thank Maine Startups Insider’s newest Sustaining Member: Frank Capria, a director at Black Dragon Capital.

If, like Frank, you appreciate what MSI is trying to do and have the financial wherewithal to support my efforts, please consider becoming a Sustaining Member.

/ Briefly Mentioned

🚀 The University of Southern Maine co-hosted a webinar with David Shaw, founder of Idexx and a co-founder fo Covetrus, on the state of Maine’s technology sector. The virtual event included a panel of experts: Bob Neveu, founder of Certify; Bob Metcalf, the inventor of Ethernet, co-founder of 3Com, and former Maine resident; Edison Liu, president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory; Amanda Rector, Maine’s state economist; Barry Wark, co-founder and CEO of Ovation; and Kim Hamilton, president of FocusMaine. Watch the webinar here.

🏆 Startup of the Year is a global startup competition put on by Established, whose founders recently relocated to Maine. One semifinalist could earn a $20K investment, plus a $10K cash prize is available for a U.S. Veteran-led startup. Would be great to see some Maine startups in the mix. Deadline to apply is Sept. 15. Apply here.

☕️ The winner of Big Gig COVID-19 edition, which took place July 28th, was Jennifer Litteral of Coffee Hound; she received $2,500. Jesse Lupo of Mossy Ledge Spirits placed 2nd and walked away with $1,500, and third place went to Heather Kerner of The Good Crust, who received $1,000. Machias Savings Bank provided the $5,000 in prize funding. Here’s more from Mainebiz.

🎤 Katie Shorey, president of Startup Maine, was interviewed by Mainebiz. She shared her thoughts on the advantages Maine provides to budding entrepreneurs, what opportunities or obstacles exist for women looking to start businesses, and what’s on the horizon for Startup Maine. Read the interview here.

⚡️ The University of Maine will collaborate with New England Aqua Ventus LLC, a joint venture between Diamond Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corp., and RWE Renewables, the second largest company in offshore wind globally, to develop UMaine’s floating offshore wind technology demonstration project off the coast of Maine. More info.

/ Talent Hub

This is a new section of the newsletter I’m trying out. Instead of only allowing companies to post their open positions, I want to give all the talented people living and working in Maine (or those looking for an anchor job to bring them back to Maine) a space to advertise their talents to startup founders and other tech companies. Posts can be anonymous or onymous (which apparently is the antonym of anonymous; thank you thesaurus). This may be labor intensive on my part if it requires a lot of connecting people behind the scenes, so we’ll see how this beta test goes. I hope to roll this feature up into my online job board, which I put on the back burner after the pandemic hit, but is still on the docket.

🙋🏻‍♀️ Jayme Okma Lee is seeking contract/consulting projects with Maine technology startups and organizations supporting the Maine startup ecosystem. Her specialities include: 409A valuations for stock option grants, financial planning, angel investing, venture fund planning and implementation, angel investing, due diligence, business plans for raising outside capital, investment tracking, and grant applications. Jayme is a former Investment Manager at Maine Venture Fund. To connect, check out her LinkedIn profile.

👩🏻‍💻 Looking for a project manager? Alexis Rudisill has a background in program, project and construction management in the energy and real-estate industries. She was most recently an Associate Project Manager at WeWork, a unique NYC startup in the co-working and real estate industry, where she managed and supported the execution of creative and complex office spaces. Before that, she was a Program Manager for Dalkia, a subsidiary of EDF Group, where she led the delivery efforts of energy upgrades for some of the company’s largest accounts in the grocery and retail market. She is interested in a few potential next moves: a Project Management role in one of her previous industries, a Project Management role in a new industry, and a role that would break her into the Product Management world. To connect, send her an email or check out her LinkedIn profile.

/ Jobs

If you apply for a job you see here, let them know you saw the opportunity in Maine Startups Insider.

+ Northeastern University is hiring a Director of Entrepreneurship for The Roux Institute at Northeastern University.

+ Great Works Internet, which recently became the first Internet Service Provider in the nation to become a B Corp, is hiring a Senior Software Engineer.

+ UpStart Maine is hiring a contract Ecosystem Builder. The Orono-based organization has recently received two grants that is allowing it to contract with someone through late July of 2021. If interested in learning more, email innovation@upstartmaine.org.

+ Neuright, a biotech startup in Orono that is developing a new medical device for the early diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy, is hiring a part-time R&D staff member. This employee should be comfortable with administrative tasks, have a basic level of R&D knowledge, and will be required to assist with data presentations and reports in collaboration with the research team and company leadership. Interested candidates should send a letter of interest, a current CV, and the name and contact information for three relevant references to neuright@gmail.com.

+ Running Tide Technologies, a technology startup in the aquaculture space, is hiring a full-stack software engineer. If interested, search out Phillip Connaughton, Running Tide’s head of software development, on LinkedIn.

+ HighByte, a Portland-based B2B software startup, is hiring a Senior Java Developer.

+ KinoTek, a Portland-based startup at the intersection of health and augmented reality, is looking for a software developer with experience with C++ unity integration. Those interested, email the company at contact@kinoteksoftware.com.

+ Farming robotics startup Farmhand Automation is hiring a mechanical engineer.

+ AskGMS, a Portland-based company that provides benchmarking and data analysis tools to the insurance industry, is hiring a Data Analyst and a Full-Stack Developer.

+ VETRO Inc., a software company in Portland, is looking for a UX/UI designer.

+ MedRhythms, a Portland-based medical-device startup, is hiring a mobile/front-end developer.

+ Defendify, a cybersecurity startup in Portland, is hiring a full-stack developer.

+ Arkatechture, a Portland-based company that provides business intelligence and data analytics services, is hiring a senior software engineer, AWS cloud engineer, senior data scientist and financial analyst, among other positions.

+ Introspective Systems, in Portland, is looking for a lead software engineer and a software engineering intern.

+ Theory and Principle, a legal-tech product design and development startup in Portland, is hiring a quality assurance engineer.

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!

/ Events

2020 Small Business Virtual Forum
Tues., Aug. 18, 2-3 p.m. — Online
Wed., Aug. 19, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. — Online
A two-day virtual forum for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. Mainebiz brings together a group of Maine’s professionals to share their expertise, insight, knowledge, and experience on a variety of topics that business owners and managers need to know. More info.

Python Hack Night
Tues., Aug. 18, 7-10 p.m. — Online
Hack Portland hosts a virtual Python Hack Night for anyone interested in the Python programming language, from beginners to experts. This is your chance to meet other people that use or develop Python in the area. More info.

Application Deadline for Startup of the Year Summit & Pitch Competition
Sept. 15, 2020
This is a global startup competition put on by Established, whose founders recently moved to Maine. One semifinalist could earn a $20K investment, plus a $10K cash prize is available for a U.S. Veteran-led startup. Would be great to see some Maine startups in the mix. Apply here.

Please send me your event or calendar item for possible inclusion.