2020 Top Gun Applications Open – Two New Industry Specialty Classes
(Portland, ME) The Maine Centerfor Entrepreneurs (MCE) and its partners the University of Maine, FocusMaine, Gulfof Maine Research Institute (GMRI), the Harold Alfond Institute for BusinessInnovation and Lewiston/Auburn Metro Chamber, announced that applications arenow being accepted for Top Gun, Maine’s premiere entrepreneurshipacceleration program that has helped more than 250 startups since 2009.
Top Gun fast-tracksthe progress of Maine’s most promising early stage, high-growth potentialcompanies through a combination of mentoring, learning sessions, andnetworking. The highly selective program will accept close to 60 companiesin total, 8-12 companies in each of the 2020 locations: Portland, Bangor,Lewiston/Auburn, Waterville and Brunswick. Thanks to support from FocusMaineand GMRI, Brunswick will be the site of two separate Top Gun cohorts. One groupwill be focused on companies in the aquaculture sector and a second, from the craft beverage sector.
In addition to submitting ashort online application, prospective companies will be required to submit apitch deck and present a live pitch to the interview committee in the locationthey apply.
The program will conclude withregional pitch off events where the top two finishers in each regionwill move on to compete in the Top Gun Showcase for a $25,000 cash prizesponsored by the Maine Technology Institute.
# # #
About Top Gun:
Top Gun is a 15-week businessdevelopment pitch program designed for entrepreneurs across any industrylooking to grow their startup or early stage business. Former Top Gun graduatecompanies include Garbage to Garden, Pika, Bixby & Co., My Body Model and Flowfold.Neuright and Sticky Sweet, were 2019’s Top Gun Showcase winners.Top Gun companies have competed in the CleanTech Open andMassChallenge. Many receive funding from the Maine Technology Institute, MaineAngels, and various venture capital firms. The Maine Center forEntrepreneurs Top Gun program is supported by FocusMaine, the Maine TechnologyInstitute, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Preti Flaherty, and the UpstartCenter for Entrepreneurship. Other corporate sponsors, local businesses,partner organizations, program advisors and mentors also contribute to thesuccess of the program. Visit us at: https://www.mced.biz/top-gun/to learn more and view our application.
About MCE:
Founded in 1997, MCE is anindependent non-profit organization based in Portland that helps the mostpromising Maine companies launch and grow through mentoring, training andconnections. MCE is a founding organizational partner of Maine AcceleratesGrowth. http://www.mced.biz./