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V O L . X X I I N O. V M A R C H 7 , 2 0 1 6 12 won TV's "e Voice" playing a Ray LaMontagne Signature Series Bourgeois guitar. Today, Bourgeois still builds high-end acoustic guitars in an 1860s-era mill in Lewiston, but CEO John Karp travels to TechPlace several times a week to oversee one of the luthiers new lines of guitars, the Aged Tone Series that uses a torrefied top from treated Adirondack red spruce. e aged wood, he says, creates an instru- ment that sounds like a decades-old vintage guitar. "e machine we bought for torrefaction didn't fit into our space in the mill, and it used too much electricity," says Karp, who is a mechanical engineer by trade. But it fits handily into an industrial space at TechPlace. e Maine Technology Institute helped Bourgeois buy the machine with a $25,000 seed grant in 2012, which the company has matched over the years with more than $125,000, he says. Maine Venture Fund also is a major investor in the company. e wood's thermal aging takes several days and involves steam, heat and cooling with a weight atop the wood so it doesn't warp. "It smells like old guitar wood, has an aged tone finish and emulates the lacquer of vintage guitars," Karp adds. "We stood the guitar industry on its head." Company founder Dana Bourgeois still tests the flexibility and tone of each guitar before it goes out the door. Right now, about half of Bourgeois' guitars are made using torrefaction. e company's torre- fied guitars, which it has been making for about three years, and its regular wood guitars made by Dana and a dozen other luthiers in Lewiston, range in price from $4,200 to $23,000, and take anywhere from 60 hours to two months to make. Karp adds that TechPlace affords some symbi- otic relationships: a company with computerized numerical control, or CNC, machines recently moved in. Karp says Bourgeois may eventually col- laborate with it to make guitar necks. Military quality 'chic' for consumers Framed patents line the walls of Grifin LLC, while shelves hold models of a new, quieter submarine; a prototype gun that also can cut through or weld metal; a jacket that can stop a .44 Magnum bullet point blank; and a string of stubby cylinders that can cut through supports to dismantle an oil platform or through a sinking ship's hull to rescue survivors. ere's no question founder Eric Bleicken — a Vietnam War veteran and former Navy Underwater Demolition Team member — is an inventor of solu- tions that can be used by the military or civilians. Like "Q" of James Bond legend, Bleicken is in his heyday dreaming up solutions to today's prob- lems and those that may emerge in the future. With 20 issued patents and twice as many ideas in his filing cabinets, he joined TechPlace last summer to have an office, network with others and have access to machine shops and labs. "Plus I get extraordinary access to political folks in Maine and funding sources," says Bleicken, a P H O T O / L O R I VA L I G R A P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY TechPlace: incubating entrepreneurs One year after opening, the business park has 24 occupants and is growing B y L o r i V a l i g r a T echPlace, the entrepreneur incubator at Brunswick Landing, lacks the cacophony and frenetic energy of the typical Massachusetts or Silicon Valley startup space, and that's not a bad thing. Here, many mid-career or encore entrepreneurs move steadily ahead with cutting-edge technology and the experience and connections to guide their ideas from conception through funding and onto commer- cialization, while still chasing their dreams. ere are 24 tenants, says TechPlace administrator Kristine Schuman. ere's still one office space left and about four or five desk spaces, but she plans to expand the building with four more offices upstairs this fall as well as renovating 25,000-square-feet for six industrial spaces mid-year. Both the bio lab and manufacturing space are operational, but will open officially this spring, she says. While Schuman says some of the occupants are in their early 20s to early 30s, many are over 50 with lots of experience and a new dream. "ere's an opportunity to help grow a small busi- ness whether you've scratched out an idea on a paper or worked out of your home for a year," she says. "We offer support and education to run a business." Of TechPlace's fast growth, she says, "It's gone even faster than I thought. I wanted a dozen companies in the first couple months, but here we have 24 companies a year later." New tech to age guitars Bourgeois Guitars knows a lot about chasing dreams, having gotten national recognition in 2015 when 15-year-old Sawyer Fredericks, who just weeks before mucked stalls on his family's New York farm, LEFT: John Karp, CEO of Bourgeois Guitars, which manufactures high-end acoustic guitars. Karp chose TechPlace because he needed a torrefaction machine to thermally age wood and it wouldn't fit into the Lewiston facility. TOP: Eric Bleicken of Grifin LLC. Grifin's first product is a bullet-repellant jacket for consumers. TechPlace provided the opportunity to have an office and network, plus access to machine shops and labs as well as access to political people in Maine and funding sources.

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