Helping Maine Entrepreneurs

February 2, 2015 County, Economic Development

The Top Gun Entrepreneurship Acceleration program is an annual five-month business accelerator for entrepreneurs. Top Gun combines mentoring and curriculum in three locations statewide: Orono, Portland and Rockland. The program is offered through a partnership among the University of Maine, the Maine Technology Institute and the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development.

The University of Maine’s Target Technology Incubator coordinates and hosts the Orono Top Gun class as a part of its focus on helping Maine-based startups and innovative companies grow their businesses.

Entrepreneurs enrolled in the program:

  • Participate in biweekly training sessions, each one focused on a single business topic
  • Are assigned one or more mentors who provide guidance and answer questions throughout the five-month period
  • Engage with other entrepreneurs who share successes, failures and lessons learned
  • Receive guidance, practice, and feedback on business pitches
  • Get a chance to deliver a business pitch and/or showcase a business to an audience of over 300 potential investors, business leaders and journalists

Participants from the 2014 class from Penobscot, Hancock, and Piscataquis counties include:

  • The Juice Cellar, Belfast
  • Specialty Sweets, Bangor
  • The Loyal Biscuit Company, Belfast, Camden, Rockport, Waterville
  • The Northern Maine Distilling Company, Brewer
  • GenoTyping Center of America, Bar Harbor
  • Oats Any Time, Palmyra
  • Sandra B. Dressing and Dressage, Dover-Foxcroft

Of Top Gun’s 79 graduates, close to 95 percent are still in business. To date, Top Gun graduates have landed over $8 million in grants and other financing.