Top Gun Program Focus of BDN Article, Radio Show

Jesse Moriarity, coordinator of the University of Maine’s Foster Center for Student Innovation, and Jennifer Hooper, entrepreneur and mentor coordinator at the Foster Center, were interviewed for a Bangor Daily News article about the Top Gun program they help manage. The Top Gun program is offered by Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development (MCED) and UMaine’s Target Technology Incubator as part of the Blackstone Accelerates Growth initiative. Participants of the Top Gun entrepreneur accelerator program attend classes in Portland, Orono or Rockland and work with mentors who will help them apply what they have learned to accelerate growth. The program began in 2009 and has graduated 60 Maine companies to date, according to the article, which also quoted several of the program’s alumni. “Common areas of interest are learning how to better market themselves, expand distribution, add a location, raise capital, hire employees, and balance their business with their life,” Hooper said of companies in the program. The Top Gun program also will be the focus of Deb Neuman’s “Back to Business” radio show 2 p.m. Feb. 22 on 103.9 and 101.3 FM, The Voice of Maine.

The BDN also published an article featuring the three contestants of the next Big Gig pitch-off event Feb. 24 at Husson University in Bangor. The Big Gig is a network for innovators and entrepreneurs in the Orono, Old Town and Bangor areas that was started by a partnership between UMaine, Old Town, Orono and Husson University. It is supported by Blackstone Accelerates Growth. Event participants were preselected to deliver a three-minute elevator pitch about their business idea to a panel of judges and attendees. The winner will receive $250 and have the opportunity to compete at the Big Gig Finale in April for a $1,500 prize, the article states.