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give me that green light give me that green light name give me that green light give me that green light name give me that green light give me that green light may give me that green light give me that green light name tonight's green light main is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank you matter more [Music] good evening and welcome to green-light Maine a series dedicated to showcasing the amazing talent grit and creativity of Maine's top entrepreneurs these are the people who are building Maine's future one dream at a time I'm Don Gooding executive director of the Maine Center for entrepreneurial development and vice-chair of the Maine Angels Maine's largest investment group I'll be your host for tonight's show featuring two promising entrepreneurs pitching to this evenings panel of judges for a chance at winning $100,000 in cash let's meet our distinguished panel of judges first we have Dave Anderson they've worked for a bunch of years at Top Gun a program that we run you're also the managing director of supply chain ventures which is a venture capital group focusing on companies in the supply chain and you're also on the board of trustees of the University of New England yes currently chair that's right correct exactly so involved in many different aspects of entrepreneurship here in Maine then in the middle we have Michele new yar Michele great to have you here it's kind of fun because sometimes I've been a judge at your events who run the entrepreneur Center at Southern Maine Community College and you also are owner of a business renovation Center so you've got a lot of different entrepreneur hats on yep so I'm very much looking forward to your thoughts on these companies thank you it's great to be here and then finally we have tonight's sponsor we have Bob Montgomery rice CEO of Bangor Savings Bank Bob it's great to have you here it's great to be here yeah and of course you all are no strangers to the entrepreneur community across the state of Maine so I think tonight's presenters are really going to benefit from your insights and your questions about what they're trying to do with their opportunities and with that we will be back in just a few moments with our first presenter tonight you [Music] you please visit greenlight main comm to follow the progress of your favorite entrepreneurs and find information and resources about becoming an entrepreneur yourself welcome back to greenlight Maine I'm excited to introduce our first presenter of the evening Matt James from course storm hi my name is Matt and I'm from course storm we offer online registration for local classes our customers are schools libraries hospitals and museums and they'll teach you anything from CPR to crime-scene investigation so the first thing you need to know about our company is that we are obsessed with simplicity we don't just like to make things simple we like to make them impossibly simple and if there's one group out there that's looking for that kind of simplicity its parents so I don't know how many of you were parents but my co-founder Brian has four kids and I'm pretty sure there's not a musical instrument that they can't play or sports team that they haven't belonged to they are really busy when you talk to parents about signing up for activities like these they all tell you the same thing it is a hassle it is crazy how complicated it can be just to give someone money so what makes it so complicated well let's step through a typical registration and sign our child up for art camp first we're gonna have to go to the camp's website and print out their registration form then we're gonna have to find our checkbook then we're gonna have to dig through the drawers looking for an envelope then we're gonna have to find a pen then we're gonna have to find another pen that actually works we're gonna fill it all out pray that we have stamps and stick it all in the mail just to send it a few blocks down the road or if we're lucky this program will take online registration where hopefully we can use our credit card but it's almost always a nightmare but the trick is kids don't just have one activity they have lots of them so parents are repeating this process for every activity their kids are involved in so even in the best case scenario where they all let you register online you're still going to Google for eight different programs visiting eight different web sites setting up eight different accounts and running your credit card through eight different payment systems thankfully there is a simple solution to this problem and it's called core storm for kids and it's an 800 million dollar opportunity we're gonna put all local programs in one place where parents can register with one account and never fill out the same information twice so you see parents won't just enjoy this type of convenience they're gonna demand it if you offer kids classes in an area we serve you're gonna need to be on our site and this isn't just great for parents it's amazing for programs too in Maine alone we have more than forty thousand student accounts already in course storm that means forty thousand potential new customers for these programs on day one we're not new to this our company has been profitably building software for education for more than 15 years we know this market we know this can work and we're really excited to make signing up for kids classes impossibly simple thank you great job Matt questions Bob what kind of questions do you have for them so how's the company gonna make money at this yes I'm glad you asked so rather than a subscription service like a lot of other software companies we actually take a percentage of the transaction and that's our only cost to the to the programs and the parents which is really great because that means when our customers grow we grow and we're really good at our jobs so our customers will actually grow they'll double in size in about the first three years we've seen that Dave you've worked with a lot of software companies what kind of thoughts do you have what's your go-to-market strategy sure so that's what's great about this we have innovation all over the place so the first thing you would think of is well we'll just put this across the nation right but but that's like boiling the ocean it doesn't work especially when you're talking about really local things like this and so instead what we want to do is identify select cities and towns and we want to saturate that market because the value of our network is only really there if all of the programs are on board but we can bring those programs together and the more we do that the more parents come and the more parents come the more programs come and so we'll take that and create a blueprint that we can use to spread into other select cities and towns and eventually cover the US Michele loved the idea having had many kids in many activities how are you going to manage all these multiple relationships with the small art camps and soccer camps and ya know it's a challenge for sure right now we have quite a few programs so we actually have all of the adult and community education programs in the state in the network just like this for adults and so we've had experience doing this and we think that we can scale that experience one of the nice things about running a software company is and I'm for instance I'm have a background and user experience that's really my focus simple and easy to use and so what we try to do is make it so simple that we can update the software and make it so that it's sort of people trained themselves on it thanks Matt that was a great pitch we'll be right back with green light Maine in a conversation with tonight's sponsor Bangor Savings back [Music] you you if any of you in our television audience has a big idea we encourage you to visit greenlight main dot-com for a list of resources and information about starting your own business welcome back to green-light Maine we're going to have a conversation now with one of the big supporters of entrepreneurs in Maine Bangor Savings Bank and with us tonight we have CEO Bob Montgomery rice Bob it's great to have you here great to be here Bangor Savings Bank has been supporting entrepreneurs for over a hundred sixty years now now you want to talk a little bit about the kind of role that the bank takes on because it's a little bit unusual I think from what banks typically do well we try to be that advisor in a group of advisors to a business at all the different phases and especially at this phase it's important you have the right advisor so we try to play and work with the other advisors in the process whether it's interning a lawyer and just making sure the business has the right support that's great and I think that's led to you being a real leader in the state in terms of Small Business Administration kind of backed loans which are the riskiest for entrepreneurs yeah that's that first loan into the banking sector and we've been the lead for the last four years in the state when it comes to SBA lending that's incredible so you've been around now for a hundred sixty years your own organization has been through many many different challenges and we're going to see a video now that talks about that story it's really quite an amazing one Bangor Savings Bank opened its doors in 1852 in downtown Bangor with the goal of helping the city's working men and women save money the bank has seen the rise and fall of the great lumber industry survived the flood of 1902 rebuilt after the great fire of 1911 and remained strong during the Great Depression today with 57 branches statewide and more than 720 employees our secret to success has always been providing the people of Maine with an exceptional customer experience we know we have to show our employees our customers and our communities how much they matter to us key to creating a best place to bank for our customers is maintaining a laser focus on the employee experience we understand the importance of investing in our employees and earning their trust and loyalty it's gratifying that our employees have consistently ranked us a best places to work in Maine small businesses are the backbone of our economy we are proud of the partnerships we have with hundreds of businesses throughout Maine and know that by supporting the small business community we are doing our part to keep Maine moving forward for the fourth consecutive year Bangor Savings Bank was recognized by the Small Business Administration as Maine's top lender to small businesses clearly our efforts have made an impact on our customers with Bangor savings earning highest customer satisfaction with retail banking in the New England region by JD Power in 2015 giving back to Maine's communities is an essential part of who we are Bangor Savings Bank and its foundation invest over 1 million dollars into our communities annually additionally our employees contribute thousands of hours of their time to nonprofits Bangor Savings Bank where our employees customers and communities add or more you please visit greenlight main comm to follow the progress of your favorite entrepreneurs and find information and resources about becoming an entrepreneur yourself welcome back to greenlight main we're ready for our next presenter Alex chasse from revolution research take it away Alex so here I have two small little samples of insulation you can see they're both pretty similar both hard rigid obviously there's a little color difference pinkish purple and white and although they look really similar they're actually made of vastly different materials so this one here which is on the market you're probably more familiar with it is styrofoam based oil-based and unlike this product here ours is eco-friendly and recyclable it's actually pretty simple it's may have cornstarch which we're all familiar with and little tiny fibers from trees obviously it's a little bit more complicated than that I don't really want to bore you with all the technical stuff but this product really got started over my partner and I are mutual guess you could say dislike for cold weather he's from a really warm part of Turkey moved here it's all snow for the first time really cold and I'm from Maine but more of a Maine summer guy myself the winter not so much so we were joking around about kind of cold weather and started looking at insulation and we realized there really no eco-friendly products on the market so we decided to form our own company and after about four years of research this is what we developed eco-friendly psycho insulation now the insulation market right now it's around ten billion dollars and that's expected to increase by seven point six percent annually we really looked at Target Green Building I don't know how familiar you are with LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design those buildings tend to be more green and eco-friendly however they still utilize the styrofoam based insulation so we see a perfect opportunity for our product here obviously there are some big competitors out there or as my partner to say big sharks and we're kind of the underdogs but you know that's we realize that's kind of you know the American Dream being the underdog small guys taking on the big guys so you know we want to work with you guys state of Maine together we really want to take on the big guys great Jah Dave what questions does this bring up for you Alex where did you develop this technology Oh glad you asked we really develop this technology up at UMaine I went to Maine myself and my partner is a PhD student there finishing up so this whole idea kind of we started kicking around up there we've gotten some NSF funding and have kind of rented some lab space up there and that's really where this all developed Michelle Lee you and your husband have been in the construction industry what thoughts do you have on this how are you gonna break in and develop those key relationships as with you as you said the big sharks big sharks actually one of the big sharks I don't really want to name names actually reached out to us said they want to collaborate on the project and kind of learn more about it we respectfully decline kind of want to do our own thing at the moment but we really look to foster these relationships about reaching out we've had a lot of exposure and actually a lot of people surprisingly reaching out to us they're interested so kind of just fostering and developing those relationships as they come now Bob of course as a bank you all are involved heavily in the construction industry what pots does this bring to your mind so it's gonna be key to getting you to profitability geez a lot of things so obviously I talked a little bit about what it's made of and some of those have varying price points and as more mills open up that make these small wood fibers we look at the drop price points buy that and hopefully some continue to NSF funding would allow us to open up our own manufacturing facility and I think those would be key to turning us to profitability and Alex just at the beginning what do you see as the price premium that you're gonna be able to charge these customers baseline right now we're looking at probably around a 20% more than the competitor so they just throw some rough numbers I guess you could say if they cost you 5,000 insulate with the other material be about 6,000 for ours so it's very close comparable Dave on the venture capital side of things is this the kind of thing that a venture capitalist might look fondly upon yes yeah and I'm interested in you talked about developing a joint don't develop an agreements with some other people that that would be a key way of go to market for you guys is to work with a chemical companies or whomever to do this and Michelle do you see these guys working with some of the entrepreneurs that you're having going through SMCC absolutely and what is your timeline for launching and getting out there and growing this that's all our timeline right now is a little flexible so we did get some NSF funding and so we really looked to for this year for the NSF funding kind of take our product to the next level and hopefully get some additional funding so we're looking at three to five years great pitch Alex we'll b right back with our judges deliberations on these two wonderful presentations [Music] you and we're back with green light main it's time now for our distinguished panel of judges to share your opinions about these two presenters so Dave let's start with you what did you like about the course storm presentation well I think course storm is solving a real problem that parents have in terms of scheduling things and making sure their kids get to where they should be at the right times having it in one place to me was a was a very interesting technology Michelle what I loved he said it a couple times the simplicity I could understand his concept and the problem he was trying to solve and as a parent I could have used that ten years ago I definitely agree with you how about you Bob you know it's a great presentation and you could just feel his passion excitement about the product in the service is amazing yep but I felt there there are certainly some challenges he faces like all entrepreneurs do any thoughts on that Dave getting getting to market this is not an inexpensive way to get parents online to get school systems online camps online it's gonna be an expensive proposition to make this happen yeah definitely a challenge there any others Michelle that you I saw just a the financial package he didn't really talk about you know how are they gonna make money and I just still in the back of my head was thinking where's the money in this yeah it's definitely hard to see of course it's hard to say in a full 3 min recitation any other thoughts Bob yeah you just you know what's the threats of free services and you know really can you come on attack yes yep free premium is definitely a challenge for all of these well then we also have revolution research really at kind of the different business Bob any initial thoughts of what you liked about that presentation well you know finding a nice solution that's green and can really you know change that dynamic in the installation that was pretty exciting yeah Anna Michelle I'm sure with your construction industry backing absolutely I mean I it's a product that's needed it I just loved the concept behind it and I love his energy and that he's young and he's going for it yeah definitely what we like to see more of here and absolutely about you Dave main products main technology I'm all for that I thought they did a really good job and I the fact that they have major companies like Owens Corning calling them up and asking for to work with them that's a real sign that there's successfully a sign that there's something going on there exactly but there are of course challenges now Michelle you from the construction industry what do you think think their biggest biggest challenges in the green industry is convincing the customer to spend more they say they want it but when push comes to shove they pull back and don't use the green technology because it's cheaper not to and so I think that getting their price point down is gonna be key yeah so there's not as maybe as much premium as they think that there might be yeah Dave any thoughts well I think it's again it's a go to market situation for them you know doing this with it through a channel and not through trying to do it yourself it's gonna be a critical part of of them being successful they need they need good channel relationships yep and and Bob any final thoughts I wish I'd heard more and had a chance to talk more about how they're protecting the idea nice idea there but how do they protect it so they can so maybe we can help them refer to some intellectual property attorneys who might help figure out the patentability of what they have to make sure that they can go forward and how are you going to think about the two of these together there are really quite different businesses huh it's quite a challenge well we're gonna be back in just a few minutes and we're going to hear how these judges wrestle through all of these different challenges that all businesses face and come up with their own conclusion of who's going to get the green light going forward here on green light name you we hope you at home will support your favorite entrepreneur tonight by going to green light main comm and clicking on their GoFundMe link you can make a difference and we're back with green light main it's that time we've been waiting for we've heard two fantastic presentations from two really exciting companies now judges you've had your time to deliberate it's time to show the audience who you think are going to be the companies that get the green light are you ready okay it's time to show is it going to be course storm or revolution research and the answer is its unanimous that means tonight's winner is Alex chasse of revolution research congratulations Alex he's gonna be moving on to the final round of 13 companies that are competing for $100,000 in cash and you at home have an opportunity to go to green-light main comm and vote with your hearts and dollars for the company of your choice we'll see you again next week for another two exciting presentations on greenlight named greenlight main would not be possible without the support of all of our corporate sponsors thank you greenlight main has been brought to you by Bangor Savings Bank you matter more prize money for greenlight Maine is provided by Maine accelerates growth through a grant by the Maine Community Foundation stewards of charitable giving helping donors help Maine outreach and community engagement in partnership with Maine startup and create week a conference worth skipping work for furniture for green light Maine is provided by Thomas Moser furniture handcrafted American furniture since 1972 broadcast facilities provided by nesco the New England School of Communications at Hudson University [Music] Green give me that relight Maine