🌞 Good morning. Welcome to the 214th edition of Maine Startups Insider. You are one of 2,078 Maine-loving people receiving this email.

It’s been a while, so let’s dive right in. This newsletter is a bit more text-heavy than usual because I tried something new this time around—writing directly inside the email rather than making you click through to the website to read an article. I thought the context (me exploring a topic) was better handled in narrative form in the newsletter rather than a news article. Let me know what you think of this. Too much text in the email? Too speculative? Or more engaging? I hope you enjoy it.

Keep creating, keep innovating, keep curious.

-Whit Richardson

/ News

Has Silicon Valley Big Shot Chris Sacca invested in a Maine startup?

Several weeks ago, a MSI reader directed my attention to that day’s edition of Pro Rata, a newsletter from Axios that covers VC, PE, and M&A.

I hadn’t read that day’s newsletter yet, so opened it to find the lead story was about Chris Sacca, a well-known Silicon Valley investor who made early bets on companies like Instagram, Twitter, and Uber. It discussed Sacca’s new VC firm called Lowercarbon Capital, which is investing in startups focused on “technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and actively cool the planet.”

The surprise came when the article listed “an oyster hatchery in Maine” as one of the firm’s portfolio companies. No name, no additional info—just that Lowercarbon Capital had invested in a Maine oyster hatchery.

I hadn’t heard of an oyster hatchery in Maine raising venture capital let alone Chris Sacca investing in one. The only oyster-farming-related startup I was familiar with was Oyster Tracker, which has developed a software platform to help oyster farmers better manage their operations. While Oyster Tracker has raised about $1 million, it was soon apparent that Sacca was not among its investors. (For more on Oyster Tracker, see below for a Q&A with its CEO, Chip Terry.)

So what kind of oyster hatchery would have the business plan worthy of attracting VC? I started to poke around and received a tip that the company I was looking for was a stealth operation based out of TechPlace in Brunswick called Running Tide Technologies.

Now that I had a name, I could dig around a bit more. I found a website. The company is definitely an oyster hatchery, based in Portland, though, not TechPlace (which is where it manufactures its “oyster gardens.” But there’s not much else there that reveals the company is anything other than a traditional oyster hatchery (the only hint is a note that it’s hiring engineers and data scientists). I dug up the company’s latest annual report, filed earlier this year with the Maine Secretary of State’s office. It named Matthew Odlin as CEO (a name I hadn’t come across before) and stated the company was robotizing aquaculture (something not revealed on the website).

Next, a LinkedIn search pulls up several employees. Many appear to be on the traditional aquaculture side of the business, but a few point to the tech-focused nature of the business, including two software engineers (1 & 2).

As far as raising money, the SEC database didn’t turn up any Form Ds outlining a financing, but then I caught a break… On PitchBook, I found a profile of the company that claims it raised $11.2 million in November 2019. That’s a relatively big number in Maine for a company’s first raise. To make sure it was the same company, I confirmed the PO Box address in Portland is the same on the PitchBook profile as it is on the company’s website.

PitchBook lists three investors: Soraya Darabi, an angel investor, and two San Francisco-based VC firms: Pathbreaker Ventures and Yes VC, which also recently invested in another Maine company. Yes VC’s website lists Running Tide as a portfolio company, but Pathbreaker’s does not.

And that’s where I’m left… Several emails to Lowercarbon Capital and Yes VC have gone unanswered. Attempts to reach Running Tide have also been unsuccesful. I even tweeted at Chris Sacca to see if I could entice him to talk, but no dice.

The original Pro Rata newsletter mention is still the only thing tying Chris Sacca to Running Tide. But assuming it is correct about his investment in a Maine oyster hatchery, I’m 90% certain that that investment is in Running Tide.

While my former-journalism-self feels uneasy delving into speculation, I thought I’d just take people along on the journey with me of exploring Maine’s startup scene. While Chris Sacca’s notoriety sent me on the search, what I discovered was a Mane startup that quietly raised more than $10 million to roboticize aquaculture. That’s pretty awesome regardless of whether Sacca is involved. I plan to keep tabs on this story and you’ll definitely hear more about it if/when I learn more.

Founder Forum: Chip Terry of Oyster Tracker

Chip Terry was born and raised on the coast of Maine, but spent his career in Boston working for a series of tech startups in various management and product roles.

After the last company he worked for was acquired, he began looking at his options. While spending time in Maine visiting old friends who now ran oyster farms, he stumbled upon a business idea. These farmers were running their businesses—some with millions of dollars in annual revenue—with wet notebooks, white boards and maybe an Excel spreadsheet. Oyster farmers essentially have a big data problem, which is something Terry knew all about from his previous roles. So he began exploring how a software platform could help oyster farmers manage their farms more efficiently.

He founded Oyster Tracker in 2018 and enticed some top talent, including the head of UX/UI for HubSpot, to join the team. The company raised $1 million near the end of 2019, which is helping it weather the pandemic. It has about 60 oyster farms across four countries on its platform and is rolling out new products to help not only in farm operations, but supply chain management and distributor workflows.

In this Q&A, Terry talks about his experience starting the business; the challenges he’s faced; why he didn’t want to raise outside capital, but eventually did; why the aquaculture industry excites him; and his advice for new entrepreneurs.

Read more at Maine Startups Insider >>

Maine Technology Institute awards $2.16M to 10 projects

The Maine Technology Institute has granted $2.16 million to 10 organizations working on innovative projects around the state. The funds, which are expected to help create or retain more than 1,600 jobs, come from MTI’s Maine Technology Asset Fund, which was capitalized with $45 million MTI received in 2017 from a voter-approved economic development bond.

Read more at Maine Startups Insider >>

Quick intermission to thank Maine Startups Insider’s newest Sustaining Member: Tim Mateosian, CEO of Big Room Studios, a software development company in Portland.

If, like Tim, 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

📚 Ourshelves, a Portland company that launched a subscription book box for kids that prioritizes marginalized voices, got a mention on The New York Times‘ Wirecutter website.

📱 UNAR Labs, a University of Maine spinout company that develops assistive technology for blind and visually impaired users, has been awarded $300,000 under the National Institute of Health’s Small Business Innovation Research program to build a prototype of an information-access system that would help educational institutions adopt more effective accessible learning materials.

💰 Raptor Maps, a Boston-based startup that provides software and drone-enabled aerial inspection services for the solar-energy industry, has raised $5 million. Mentioning it here because Raptor Maps began as a drone-mapping startup targeting the agriculture industry. It received a $25,000 seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute in 2016 to run a pilot program with potato farmers in Aroostook County. CEO Nikhil Vadhavkar, who I’ve interviewed in the past, tells me the company’s remaining Maine connection is a “rockstar project manager” who’s a Maine native and works remotely in Portland.

🌊 Maine Sea Grant has launched Buoy Maine, a new virtual pitch competition to fund innovative projects and ideas to help coastal businesses better address the challenges of operating during the pandemic. Mainebiz has more.

👩🏻‍💻 How have Maine’s entrepreneur-support programs learned to operate online in the time of COVID-19? Mainebiz has the article.

🚀 Another from Mainebiz: Startup journey: Maine’s Top Gun program has a growing list of successful alumni

💻 Great Works Internet, a broadband service provider in Maine, has become the nation’s first broadband carrier to achieve B Corp status. Read the press release.

[Disclosure: Brickyard Collective is my consulting firm]

/ 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.

/ Jobs

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

+ Nearpeer, a Portland-based software company in the TK space, is hiring a lead software engineer.

+ OurShelves, a Maine-based diverse children’s book box subscription service with members in all 50 states, is hiring a part-time Operations Lead.

+ 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.

+ Running Tide, a technology startup in the aquaculture space, is hiring software engineers and data scientists. If interested, email jobs@runningtide.com.

+ 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 SaaS company in Portland, is looking for a full-stack developer.

+ 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 and a technology support specialist.

+ Arkatechture, a Portland-based company that provides business intelligence and data analytics services, is hiring a junior software engineer, AWS cloud engineer, data visualization specialist, 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

Top Gun’s Bangor Regional Pitch Event
Tues., Sept. 15, 5:30-7 p.m. — Online
This year’s cohort of Bangor entrepreneurs in the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs’ Top Gun accelerator program—from someone selling a line of gourmet dry rubs to someone building a web application to innovate the housing rental market—will pitch in front of a panel of judges. Just two will move onto the statewide competition, where they will pitch for a shot at a $25,000 cash prize. Register here.

Python Hack Night
Tues., Sept. 15, 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.

Top Gun Virtual Trade Show
Mon., Sept. 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m. — Online
Tue., Sept. 22, 5:30-7:30 p.m. — Online
A two-day virtual trade show to showcase the companies that participated in the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs’ 2020 Top Gun accelerator program. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, get the scoop on new products and services, and meet the entrepreneurs. Participants will be entered in a drawing to win a gift basket filled with products from our Top Gun Companies. Register here.

Top Gun Final Pitch Showcase event 
Wed., Sept. 23, 5:30-7:30 p.m. — Online
The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs hosts the final pitch event of its Top Gun accelerator program. Finalists from the Regional pitch-offs will pitch in front of a live panel of judges (safely and socially distanced). The winner will walk away with a $25,000 prize. Register here.

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