Colby’s latest investment in downtown Waterville, the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, a mixed-use residential complex. (Photo credit: Trent Bell Photography)

Waterville is a small city (pop. ≈16,000) nestled on the shore of the Kennebec River in central Maine.

Like many Maine cities and towns, its economy once relied on mills and manufacturing. And, like many Maine towns, it has had to find creative ways to rebuild its economy and redefine itself as the mills closed and thousands of residents lost their jobs.

Technology and entrepreneurship are often cited as answers to rural economic woes, with some efforts more successful than others. In Waterville’s case, it seems to be working out as the city has emerged over the last few years as a hot bed of entrepreneurship.

“The central Maine region is Maine’s best-kept secret for launching new ventures,” Susan Ruhlin, the newly appointed director of Dirigo Labs, a new startup accelerator in Waterville, tells Maine Startups Insider.

Some recent companies being launched and built in Waterville include The Cubby, an online marketplace for student artists; Tree Free Fire, which sells portable fire pits; and SledTRX, an online resource and mapping platform for Maine’s snowmobiling industry.

But what exactly has fueled the rise of Waterville’s startup community?

It comes down to three primary factors, according to several prominent members of Waterville’s innovation ecosystem that were interviewed for this article:

  • Passionate people
  • Investments in infrastructure
  • Programs that support entrepreneurs from idea to fruition

“It feels like Waterville has finally reached a critical mass of entrepreneurs and professionals. There is a palpable buzz around town with networking, events, and support for the area’s entrepreneurs,” says Mike Duguay, a longtime Waterville resident and executive director of Thomas College’s Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation.

The institute, which Duguay leads, plays a pivotal part in promoting entrepreneurship in the region, providing a suite of resources and programming that individuals interested in exploring their entrepreneurial ideas can access for free.

Beside Thomas College, the Waterville area is also home to Colby College, which in January announced the creation of the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which will be the country’s first cross-disciplinary institute for artificial intelligence at a liberal arts college. The school expects the new academic program will make the Waterville campus a prominent center for the teaching and research of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

These education institutions are part of a continuum of programs that support entrepreneurs throughout their entire journey, and enhance the area’s vibrancy, arts and cultural amenities, and educational, and professional development opportunities.

“There seems to be considerable momentum in welcoming people to start down the entrepreneurship path,” says Nick Rimsa, co-founder of Waterville’s Tortoise Labs and a Colby College graduate. “More people are giving entrepreneurship a try. Waterville’s culture is making entrepreneurship a more socially acceptable path, and the area now has a full spectrum of support resources to make that path easier.”

Tortoise Labs is another resource in the continuum of programs that support Waterville’s entrepreneurs. Rimsa helps ambitious entrepreneurs start and grow their startups, offering free online classes for people who have an idea and are looking to build something that people want.

During a short stretch this past summer, seemingly every startup that was winning pitch competitions was from Waterville and had worked with Tortoise Labs. In May, Josh Kim, founder of The Cubby, won the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs’ Top Gun event and its $25,000 top prize. Then in June, two Waterville companies that had worked with Tortoise Labs—SledTRX and Tree Free Fire—took the top two spots in Greenlight Maine’s College Edition competition, winning a combined $17,500.

Tortoise Labs’ next six-week session starts September 13 and is free to Maine students and residents.

For those entrepreneurs who are ready to scale, the Dirigo Labs accelerator will soon offer a semiannual cohort-based curriculum targeted to the needs of maturing startups, which are not met by existing resources. Applications for the accelerator will open in late fall of 2021, with an anticipated launch in early 2022. The first cohort of innovation-based startups will participate in an entrepreneurship-focused curriculum, targeted mentoring sessions, and leverage the academic expertise from the accelerator’s partner institutions, student interns, and the region’s general business community.

In addition to the passionate support by Waterville professionals, the city’s infrastructure supports its growing tech hub.

The city is nearing the completion of a $9.2 million downtown project supported by a $7.4 million federal BUILD grant, and additional private and public sources. The project aims to direct traffic into downtown to spur more economic activity, increase property values, and make downtown Waterville a safer and more attractive pedestrian environment.

The downtown area also boasts a free wifi network and the Bricks Coworking & Innovation Space, a vibrant, flexible office space for entrepreneurs.

Waterville’s recent emergence as Maine’s latest technology hub is a prime example of a result that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Passionate people, investment in infrastructure, and a continuum of support across all stages of the entrepreneurial journey have come together to create Waterville’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“Entrepreneurship is a lonely path,” Duguay says. “Waterville is a community where people are open and collaborative, which has created a safe, nurturing environment where creative and innovative people can prosper. We celebrate our entrepreneurs like celebrities!”