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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 9 M A R C H 6 , 2 0 2 3 S TA R T U P S F O C U S "Our goal had always been to get to health care, but we were just wait- ing for the right opportunity," Hafner says. A two-person company for the first several months, the duo worked hard to assemble an international net- work of mentors and advisors and a diverse board initially led by Krystal Williams, a Portland-based lawyer and entrepreneur. "As Kinotek's inaugural board chair and now, as a friend and champion of their work, I celebrate the company's continued and rapid growth," she says. "rough Justin's leadership and the team's ability to execute, Kinotek is really poised to be a significant player in a market that is just beginning to take shape." Growing team Kinotek's first hire was Daniel Lesko as chief technology officer in January 2019. Today, Kinotek employs 17 peo- ple, including two part-time. "If you want to be an entrepreneur or start a company," Holomakoff says, "it is all about being able to bring a team together and work as a team … You need a wide variety of perspec- tives and skill sets to get to your goals." The Portland-based company has raised funding from a variety of sources, from winning the $25,000 "Greenlight Maine Collegiate Edi- tion" grand prize in 2019 and various other grants to raising $3.5 million in two venture capital funding rounds. Maine Venture Fund first invested in Kinotek in 2021 as part of the com- pany's $2.1 million seed raise. "At the time Kinotek was still beta testing their product, but they demonstrated that they were doing good customer discovery and lis- tening to feedback to refine their value proposition," says Nina Scheep- ers, the fund's investment manager. "ey have made a lot of progress in the past 18 months, and we are excited to see them achieve their next milestones." Kinotek launched its first product in August 2022, after scrambling to get U.S. Food and Drug authorization as a medical device in a mere six weeks. Hafner led Kinotek as CEO for the first four years before passing the baton to Patricia Panaia, a for- mer executive at two large Maine companies focused on animal health, the publicly listed IDEXX Labora- tories Inc. and Covetrus Inc., which recently went private. Hafner pre- dicted at the time that his succes- sor's "experience and leadership will be invaluable in Kinotek's next phase of growth," as he changed roles to chief strategy officer. is year, Kinotek is on track for $1 million in annual recurring revenue. Health care accounts for three-quar- ters of its business, while sports make up the rest, and clients range from Florida's OrlandoHealth to major league baseball and soccer teams. e next chapter is growth and scaling up, with initial plans to build the commercial side of the business as well as engineering. e founders' advice to today's bud- ding entrepreneurs: "Do something that matters to you and that you think matters to the world," Hafner says. Holomakoff suggests, "Focus on learning human psychology, empa- thy and communication skills … e technical and business challenges are simple by comparison, and you will be grateful you spent the time to edu- cate yourself on those softer skills." R e n e e C o r d e s , M a i n e b i z s e n i o r w r ite r, c an be r ea ched at r cor de s @ m a i n e b i z . b i z a n d @ r s c o r d e s hmscareercoaching.com Get in Touch! Kinotek Inc. kinotek.com / Portland Founded: 2018 Founders: Justin Hafner and David Holomakoff What it does: Developer of a digital-health platform for human movement health assessment Workforce: 17 employees, including two part-time Funding: $600,000 in grants, $3.4 million in venture capital raised in two rounds Different.From the start. OPTICLIFF.COM/SCHEDULE

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