Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 21 J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 2 1 A U G U S TA / WAT E R V I L L E / C E N T R A L M A I N E F rom a digital marketplace for collegiate art to snail-mail greeting-card kits for older individuals, central Maine is a hotspot for new businesses. Many are in Waterville, which is home to Colby and Thomas colleges, Bricks Coworking and Innovation Space, and Tortoise Labs, which works with entrepreneurs of all stripes (see sidebar). Kennebec Valley Community College also has two campuses, in Fairfield and Hinckley. Why so much startup activity in the region and Waterville in particular? Mike Duguay, executive director of the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation at Thomas College, chalks it up to a multi-tiered ecosystem. "Right now, entrepreneurs have the ability to plug into services at three dis- tinct stages of a startup: the idea, the incubator and the accelerator stages," he says. "Other areas of the country may have one or two of those stages covered, but in my experience, it is very rare to find an area that has all three." Couple that with statewide resources including the "Greenlight Maine" business-pitch television series and the Maine Technology Institute, "and you immediately have an incredibly robust support network and suite of offerings for entrepreneurs." Here are five founders who shared their stories with Mainebiz. Blazing trails for winter 'weekend warriors' As Jake Warn gets ready to start his senior year at omas College, the entre- preneurship/small business major has big plans for his own small business after winning the $10,000 "Greenlight Maine Collegiate Challenge" pitch contest. His company, called SledTRX, offers an online planner for snowmobilers. It's a map of trails across the state, along with sled shops and places to get food and gas and spend the night along the way. e 21-year-old came up with the idea in his first semester of college. "I had been a long-time snowmobiler myself," he says, "and I was always aware of how people struggled to find infor- mation. I found it funny that at every trail head there'd be a fleet of snowmo- biles trying to figure out where to go." at's because while there are a lot of maps on paper, online resources are few and far between — owing in part to the fact that 90% of Maine's land is private. Using data from multiple sources, Warn crafted a map he offers for free online. He gets advertising revenue from local businesses, some of which are seasonal. Warn says they appreci- ate the opportunity to connect with customers in an industry that con- tributed more than $600 million to Maine's economy in 2019, accord- ing to a 2020 study by University of Maine researchers. Warn describes his target market as snowmobile "weekend warriors" from Maine and out of state who ride every weekend during the season, which runs from January until March or April depending on the weather. Much to Warn's surprise, some 8,000 people visited the SledTRX site in January and February. Next steps include developing a GPS-based map and eventually devel- oping a similar map for ATV trails as well. Warn, whose interest in starting his own business goes back to high school, says he's made a lot of use- ful connections at omas College to make that happen. Outside of classes, Warn is a member of the school's entrepreneurs club, which he joined "the minute he set foot on campus" according to Mike Duguay, executive director of the Harold Alfond Institute for Business Innovation. As for Warn's current endeavor, Duguay says, "Jake has an uncanny abil- ity to see a problem from the customer's vantage point and continue to refine how he might solve it until it's the per- fect fit for the customer. I believe Jake's willingness to see the situation through his customer's eyes, along with his high level of intellectual curiosity, is his super- power as an entrepreneur." Telehealth wellness coaching At 57, Katt Tozier is a seasoned entrepre- neur and part-time college student about to start her next venture, a virtual well- ness business called Bless Your Body. F O C U S C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R TH OM AS C OLLEGE S TU DENT C OM PANY: SledTRX, Waterville Jake Warn, 21 P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R PAR T-TI M E S TU DENT AT KENNEBEC VALLEY C OM M U NI TY C OLLEGE C OM PANY: Bless Your Body, Waterville Kate Tozier, 57 CENTRAL MAINE STARTUP STORIES A regional roundup of 5 new businesses B y r e n e e c o r d e S

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