Episodes
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 7, Zootility
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Learn more about Zootility, a design studio reimagining everyday products so they can be made locally and sustainability using futuristic manufacturing. Founder, Nate Barr, explains how became an entrepreneur and what lessons he's learned along the way.
Zootility earned our special $10,000 Business Agility Award in 2021 for outstanding perseverance and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
*This episode was recorded in Summer 2022.
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 6, Vintage Maine Kitchen
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Don’t miss our interview with Vintage Maine Kitchen co-founder, Kelly Brodeur, as she shares her experience running a family-owned business and competing in LaunchPad not just once, but twice.
Vintage Maine old-fashioned small batch potato chips are made in Pownal from locally-sourced, real food ingredients.
*This episode was recorded in Summer 2022.
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 5, NKENNE
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Monday Jun 12, 2023
Learn how our latest guest, NKENNE, is leveraging Maine's entrepreneurial ecosystem to launch the first dedicated African language learning app. Based in Portland, NKENNE is helping connect users to their roots and building a virtual community of African language speakers. Hear Michael Odokara-Okigbo of NKENNE, our 2022 LaunchPad Emerging Business Award winner, on Beyond LaunchPad.
Monday May 08, 2023
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 4, True Fin
Monday May 08, 2023
Monday May 08, 2023
Catch our interview with True Fin President & CEO, Jen Levin, as she describes their mission to innovate Maine's commercial fishing industry and how the sustainable seafood startup pivoted when restaurant sales evaporated early in the pandemic.True Fin earned our surprise $5,000 grant at LaunchPad 2022. Hear Jen talk about the competition and what she took away from the experience.
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 3, Tanbark
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Tanbark, our most recent $50,000 LaunchPad Grant winner, is a manufacturing company in Saco that creates custom, sustainable and recyclable fiber packaging solutions made from Maine trees.
Don't miss our interview with co-founder Melissa LaCasse as she shares her experience pitching at (and winning) LaunchPad 2022, plans to scale, and advice for Maine entrepreneurs.
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 2, Erin Flett
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
e Flett Design Studio is a bold colorful lifestyle brand that draws, silk screens, and sews a line of accessories and homes goods AND a 2021 LaunchPad finalist. Erin has collaborated with Anthropologie and L.L. Bean and has been featured in a variety of well-known magazines. Learn more about the woman behind this innovative Maine brand and hear her advice for new entrepreneurs.
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Beyond LaunchPad | Episode 1, HighByte
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Thursday Mar 17, 2022
Maine is quickly gaining momentum as a home to tech startups including Portland-based HighByte, an Industrial DataOps software that’s disrupting the global manufacturing tech market. What exactly do they do?
Watch or listen to our very first episode of Beyond LaunchPad as Katie Bellerose, Commercial Banker at GSB, sits down with Torey Penrod-Cambra to dig into her path to entrepreneurship, experience competing in LaunchPad, and advice for reaching the next level.