ReachMyTeach, a startup building a school-home communication and translation platform, won the Top Gun Showcase event held May 25, and its $25,000 top prize.
The pitch contest, held at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, is the capstone event of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs’ Top Gun business accelerator program. Founders of the six companies in the program each had five minutes to present their businesses to a panel of judges and a live audience of more than 250 people.
ReachMyTeach is a Portland-based startup founded by the teacher-student team of Jeff Borland, a 20+ year computer science and math teacher in Portland, and Aidan Blum Levine, a student of Borland who was working on a senior year project. What the two built is an all-in-one communication and translation platform for schools to help teachers communicate with parents in more convenient and engaging ways. For winning the event, the company will receive a $25,000 grant provided by the Maine Technology Institute.
The judges this year were Dan Walsh of Norway Savings Bank, Grace Mo-Phillips of the CEI Women’s Business Center South, and Leo Waterston of FocusMaine. They evaluated pitches on scalability, feasibility, innovation, and presentation.
The five other companies that pitched to the judges were::
- Awen, a Waterville-based professional coaching service and app developed for families and loved ones of addicted individuals.
- Hootenanny Bread, a farmer’s market artisan bread bakery in Waterville
- Shred Electric, a Lewiston-based company designing and marketing electric off-road vehicles and boats with one battery that is interchangeable and can be swapped to power them all.
- The Sleep NP, a Lewiston-based provider of medically necessary CPAP coaching services
- Tootie’s Tempeh, a Portland-based producer of organic, locally sourced & sustainable plant-based tempeh
The Top Gun Showcase is the culmination of a 15-week program for entrepreneurs. Since 2009, the Maine Center for Entrepreneur’s Top Gun program has helped over 340 entrepreneurs accelerate their businesses.
