Global Entrepreneurship Week brings together over 10 million people through competitions, activities, and events each November. With over 40,000 activities spanning 180 countries, its purpose is to inspire millions to explore their potential as entrepreneurs while building connections within their own communities.
To celebrate GEW and honor our local entrepreneur's, Upstart Maine has created the yearly Most Exciting Start-Up award for the Bangor Region.
We invite you to take a moment to read more about our nominees. Once you have, scroll to the bottom of this page and cast your vote. Please share this link with your friends on social media.
Voting will be open from 10am on Friday, November 13, 2020 and will close at 6pm on Friday, November 20, 2020. The winner will be announced on Monday, November 23, 2020.
Let's work together to celebrate these exciting local start-up companies and encourage others to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
Click in to learn more about each start-up
Box of Maine
Box of Maine is a locally owned and operated business based out of Old Town, ME. Our goal is to represent Maine in the best light possible by creating a unique and memorable experience through our custom gift boxes. We currently stock 100 Maine made products from 40 businesses throughout the state. Box of Maine is an excellent choice for corporate, hospitality and holiday gift giving with the added convenience of a one stop shop for all your quintessential Maine favorites.
CourseStorm
CourseStorm offers smart, streamlined tools to help educational organizations save time and money while increasing enrollments. CourseStorm is used every day by arts, nonprofit, adult, and higher education programs across the country to improve access to education, manage registration, payments, class catalogs, and more.
Coffee Hound
Coffee Hound Coffee Co. is veteran founded and women owned, now headquartered in Brewer, Maine has been in operation since 2013. Their team has over 21 years of combined experience in coffee and they have personally served over 1 million customers. As a Maine Made brand they are dedicated to Maine’s craftsmanship and work hard to create an extraordinary coffee experience by ethically sourcing and artfully roasting each batch of coffee. They sell their roasted coffee nationally through online sales, to Maine grocery stores through a distributor and also to Hannafords through their local program. They distribute kegs and barrels of their 207 Cold Brew Coffee in collaboration with Geaghan Brothers to restaurants, bars and cafes. They also collaborate with Spencer’s Ice Cream and have recently launched two ice cream flavors now in stores. While they started the company with several of their own cafes in busy tourist locations due to COVID they have pivoted fully into coffee roasting production and servicing their two licensed café locations.
Cerahelix
Cerahelix’s goal is to help our customers solve their filtration and separation challenges and improve process efficiency by leveraging the power of ceramic nanofiltration. To that end, we manufacture disruptive products that are taking nanofiltration to another level by opening the door for new applications of ceramic technology. As a result, a growing number of companies across an array of markets now use Cerahelix membranes to address their filtration, treatment and separation requirements.”
AIT Bridges
AIT Bridges, a division of Advanced Infrastructure Technologies, is the leading provider of composite bridge solutions. We are located in Brewer, where we have our engineering office and manufacturing floor. AIT Bridges offers a composite arch bridge system and a composite tub girder system (CT Girder), for small to medium bridge spans. AIT Bridges has constructed over 30 bridges across the country, including eight here in Maine. The technology utilized in our bridge systems was developed and tested at the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures & Composites Center under Dr. Habib Dagher. AIT Bridges is proud of the connections it has with the University of Maine and the state. AIT was founded by a University of Maine Alum, Brit Svoboda, and currently employs seven UMaine graduates. We would like to thank UpStart Maine for recognizing AIT Bridges as one of 2020’s Most Exciting Start-Ups in the Greater Bangor area.
Activas Diagnostics
The epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease incidence is projected to affect 50M people by 2050. There exists a $236-billion-dollar health care cost for Alzheimer’s Disease assessment and intervention. Early diagnostic tools are in development, as more than 60% of patients are undiagnosed in early stages prior to dementia. Sleep disturbance is an early symptom, but in-hospital sleep studies are challenging and uncomfortable for aging patients. Activas Diagnostics, LLC has developed an overnight test in the home bed with SleepMove wireless mattress system to be used as a provider diagnostic adjunctive for early diagnosis. As a home diagnostic, SleepMove is easy and convenient for the patient and family, is a medical grade device that produces an inexpensive diagnostic test, is reusable and is proposed as a service model, but later sales to hospital systems and sleep clinics are planned. The competitive advantage rests on the sensor system design and AI software for identification of Alzheimer’s risk. Early market adopters aim to aid medical providers in diagnosis, as well as offer a broader application platform for neurological diseases and injury, including a larger market related to accidents, falls, TBI, and sports injury. Current business strategy is focused on FDA pre-submission regulatory needs to continue clinical studies (assigned de novo status); engage CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) reimbursement, and medical marketing penetration. FDA pre-A was successful (assigned de novo status). Activas Diagnostics, LLC was incorporated in 2010. Co-founders, MJ Hayes, Ph.D. and A. Abedi , Ph.D. lead the organization and science work. Other employees: chief engineer, PhD-level software architect, operations manager, clinical study coordinator and research assistants. Advisory Board is shown on our website: www.activas diagnostics.com . IP protection is through the patent award (US10244977B2; owned by University of Maine System), license granted to Activas Diagnostics, 2020. Current assets: NIH SBIR Phase I and II awards ($1.1M) and NIH CRP continuation award under consideration ($3.2M). Tech-start grants through NASA and Maine Technology Institute support commercialization efforts.
True North Beauty
At True North Beauty, we believe there is nothing more beautiful than a woman who exudes extraordinary strength and spirit from within. We exist for every woman who is looking to build and maintain her confidence and achieve healthy, clear skin through luxurious and natural skincare. Our truly unique skincare products are formulated using Chaga; a powerful mushroom, sustainably harvested from deep within the woods of Maine. Chaga contains an abundance of natural antioxidants, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. When combined, these ingredients not only smell and feel amazing, they address some of the most concerning of skin conditions! Our patent pending process allows us to extract these valuable properties and incorporate them into luxurious oils and create silky, emulsified skincare products. True North products are proudly formulated, manufactured, and distributed in central Maine.