A guy took a fishing trip to Maine and then compares us to a developing nation because of our Internet speeds. Tourism as a double-edged sword? It’s funny to joke, but the issue of Internet speed isn’t a laughing matter. Michael McKee, Bloomberg’s economics editor, recently took a fishing trip to Maine and returned with the dire conclusion that residents […]

Gov. Paul LePage appeared out of his comfort zone a few times during a presentation he made Tuesday night at the Casco Bay Tech Hub in Portland. While he took the opportunity to cover many of his routine campaign talking points, he also ventured into less familiar territory, such as high-tech industries and crowdfunding, and […]

Automattic, owner of the popular WordPress website platform, has acquired a Bath-based web development startup that’s been around less than two years. It was in April 2013 that Sam Hotchkiss, a web developer who lives in Brunswick, locked himself in his basement with an idea for a security plug-in for the WordPress platform, which is used by millions of website owners around […]

The Maine Angels has found itself at the top of a national ranking of elite angel investment groups. While the Maine group, a collection of affluent individuals who pool their resources to invest in and mentor early-stage companies, is not listed in the top 20 of the overall ranking of angel investment groups, it does top the rankings of angel investment […]

Inc. magazine on Wednesday released its list of the country’s 5,000 fastest-growing private companies. This year, 14 Maine companies made the list. However, only one made the elite Inc. 500 and it’s at the top of that list — at No. 6. That’s the highest ranking for a Maine company I can remember, but have yet to confirm that by poring over […]

Maine has dropped three spots on the U.S. Clean Tech Leadership Index, a national report that ranks states and metropolitan areas on their support of the “cleantech” sector. Cleantech is a loose term, but is generally understood to encompass any type of technology related to renewable energy generation, increasing energy efficiency or resource management. Maine […]

During the Maine Startup and Create Week panel on Portland’s payment innovation cluster, Nicola Morris, WEX’s senior vice president for corporate development, mentioned that WEX was contemplating the creation of a business accelerator program for startups working in the payment technology, or fintech, space. That piqued the interest of the crowd … until Morris said the company was looking to […]

Looking for some free resources to help move your business idea closer to reality? If so, you’re in luck. The Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development has made available for free some of its online tutorials for Top Gun Prep, the online course it offers aspiring entrepreneurs. The five tutorials, which can be found here, are new and should […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $700,000 to Pika Energy, a four-year-old energy startup in Westbrook, to help it improve the performance and manufacturing process for its residential-scale wind turbines. The grant brings the total outside funding the company has received to more than $2 million. “The new DOE funding is great news because […]

Venture capital investment in Maine startups topped $16 million during the second quarter of 2014, a significant increase from the same quarter last year, according to a new industry report. Venture capitalists, who typically invest in early-stage companies, invested nearly $16.1 million in two Maine startups during the second quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report, […]