CONTACT:
Steven Bazinet, President
228-8525
MAY 12, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Portland, Maine) The Maine Center for Enterprise Development (MCED) has received funding from the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) to develop and pilot a new and innovative approach to providing training, resources and mentoring to technology-focused entrepreneurs across the state. “With the support of MTI, MCED will test a new model for identifying and developing Maine’s future technology business leaders through a network of experienced mentors who will provide continuous learning opportunities”, explains Steve Bazinet, MCED’s President. “There are no substantive reasons why aspiring entrepreneurs with the greatest potential should feel the need to leave the state when Maine can create access to know-how, mentors and capital through an innovation such as the Applied Entrepreneurship Program aka ‘Top Gun’. Investing in the professional development of tomorrow’s leaders of fast-growing technology companies is a smart strategy for the state of Maine.”
We believe the most promising business leaders of tomorrow need practical training, street smarts, a hunger for knowledge, and a drive to succeed. Given the need to address the lack of programs that provide in-depth and customized support for growth-oriented entrepreneurs, the Applied Entrepreneurship Program is a customized program that links the State’s most promising growth-oriented technology entrepreneurs with our most seasoned business professionals and other resources needed to accelerate business growth.
Bazinet continues, “This program will create and leverage the connections among Maine’s entrepreneurs, the private sector, state agencies, and capital providers. There is no other program in the State today that is systematically identifying the very best-of-class talent and connecting them in this way so that they will become our state’s future leaders.”
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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Applied Entrepreneurship Program (“Top Gun”) is an entrepreneurship program that is practical and demands a commitment. The goal is to teach future entrepreneurs what they really need to know to run successful businesses. The instructors are entrepreneurs with “real-world” experience and the program combines street smarts with academic intelligence to develop successful entrepreneurs.
The program is highly selective to ensure that the most capable technology entrepreneurs are afforded this unique and limited opportunity. The criteria are simple – find the technology business leaders of the future who want to pursue their future successes from Maine.
An advisory board made up of private sector professionals and leading technology entrepreneurs will carefully consider each application looking to indentify the state’s “best of the best” technology entrepreneurs and partner them with Maine’s most seasoned professionals.
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ABOUT MCED
MCED is a private, not-for-profit 501-c-3 organization created to establish an environment where small companies, start-ups and first-time entrepreneurs can grow, prosper and successfully commercialize their technology in southern Maine. As Maine’s first business incubator, MCED was created out of the Portland Regional Chamber in 1997 to be a model of excellence for nurturing entrepreneurs, launching successful start-up companies and implementing innovation as an economic development tool for Maine.
Additional information about The Applied Entrepreneurship Program, including a complete list of guidelines and the online application will be available soon at http://www.mced.biz.
