Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 27 M A R C H 6 , 2 0 2 3 S TA R T U P S F O C U S The business expanded to a 3,000-square-foot space in West- brook at the end of 2014 after a year beneath Space Gallery. Lining up financing Ground-floor financing "was a few hundred bucks here and there and some maxed-out credit cards," says Lomen. "We bootstrapped it till we got to Gardiner," which was the next stop on the company's expansion tour. e company took out a $50,000 loan from Camden National Bank — "enough for us to get a line of credit and generally build out equipment," Lomen says. e rest of the capital came from selling mushroom blocks. "At that time we didn't know how much money we needed," Lomen says. He and Campbell then approached Maine Technology Institute, where they eventually procured four match- ing grants, which were "very interesting to learn about," according to Lomen. "In the world of grants, especially matching fund grants, we learned how accessible the finances were to us based on where those matching funds could come from — i.e. expected labor, inputs, etc.," he says. "We didn't need $25K of cold, hard cash to get $25K, which was amazingly helpful in our initial application and acqui- sition of financial support." In turn, MTI was "very much interested in technology we were m a k i n g a t t h e t i m e , " L o m e n remembers. Back then, MTI had only seen one other mushroom farm come through their inbox and it was for the develop- ment of in-house software and hard- ware for mushroom fruiting environ- mental control systems. "We were interested in building innovative equipment to produce and sell to other farms to increase the number of businesses in the agri- culture sector as a whole," Lomen says. "at expansion, continuation and growth of an industry was what piqued their interest." 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 / C O U R T E S Y O F M A I N E C A P N ' S T E M M U S H RO O M C O. Blue oyster mushrooms grow in a "block" developed by Maine Cap N' Stem.

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