Grow Maine Show Archives - The Grow Maine Show

#15: David Stone co-founder of CashStar speaks at Envision Maine

February 3, 201402/03/14

This is a recording of David Stone’s talk at the Envision Maine series, originally recorded on 1/8/14. Register for the next Envision Maine talk at www.envisionmaine.org and use the discount code GrowMaine for 20% off!

David Stone is one of Maine’s most remarkable entrepreneurs. As co-founder of CashStar, his sixth startup, he put Maine’s tech startup community on the map. The company has grown quickly and in fact was recently ranked the 6^th fastest growing tech startup in the country, handling hundreds of millions of dollars of online gift card sales.

David’s talk is an engaging review of his five previous startups (including one with guest #3 Les Otten) and how they led to the phenomenal success of CashStar.

David has since moved on to another venture but remains a wonderful supporter of Portland’s tech community, and can be reached via his website www.payments-207.com.

PS: Thanks to Mick Dunn of the podcast Risking Failure for making this recording.

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Envision Maine, Maine EntrepreneursCashStar, David Stone, Grow Maine Show, Maine Entrepreneurs, Maine startups

#10: Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes Magazine

December 2, 201312/02/13

5 Responses

You’ve probably heard that Maine has been ranked the worst state in the union for business, but you may not know much about what’s behind those rankings. This week we dig deeper into the topic, with Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor of Forbes magazine, developer of the best known ranking. Kurt’s been doing this ranking for many years, really dives deep into the analysis, and offers lots of valuable perspective.
Maine is not actually last in any category, and scores better than New Hampshire in business costs, something that may surprise you. And what really surprised me was that a low cost of living won’t get you high in the ranking; and that access to education, arts and culture are among the most important factors in scoring well.
But still, I don’t know about having a worse quality of life than New Jersey.

So, do you think Maine deserves to be 50th? Leave a comment below.

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Maine Business Talk50 Best States for Business, Forbes Magazine, Grow Maine Show, Kurt Badenhausen, Maine Business, Maine Entrepreneurs

#9: Don Gooding of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development

November 18, 201311/18/13

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Don Gooding is one of Maine’s most remarkable entrepreneurs. From his days founding the single largest supplier of a capella music resources in the US, to his current dual role as Executive Director of Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development and Vice Chair of Maine Angels, Don is the center of Maine’s entrepreneurial universe. He’s also one of the most engaging people to talk to that you will ever find. So listen in as I screw up his title, and the name of his organization; yet Don still favors us all with a dose of Ol’ Blue Eyes by the end of the show.

Here’s a link to the Business Model Canvas model mentioned in the ‘cast.

Don moved to Maine to sing. Let’s sing along. Don’t be afraid to be awesome.

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Maine EntrepreneursDon Gooding, Grow Maine Show, Maine Angels, Maine Business, Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, Maine Entrepreneur

#8: John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire

November 4, 201311/04/13

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John Lee Dumas is one of Maine’s most remarkable entrepreneurs. Just over 365 days ago, John launched Entrepreneur on Fire, a daily podcast for entrepreneurs. That show now has more than 400,000 listeners per month. If you are a podcaster like me, it’s hard to get your arms around his success – it’s in a different league. He has listeners like Breaking Bad has viewers.

I actually did my first podcast in 2007, for CorrectDeck. I just found those episodes the other day – about 7 minutes long, recorded by putting my mp3 player on the desk and just talking about composite decking for a few minutes, and posted on our company website. Not horrible, really (I specifically remember recording one in my room at a La Quinta – I used to stay in cheap hotels). But those old recordings sure don’t give you the idea that 6 years later, John Lee Dumas will have shown the true potential of podcasting. John is a military man and a systems guy, and behind his success is a precision and execution that the podcasting world hasn’t seen before. And he has done it in a niche the experts told him didn’t exist, producing quality content at a rate practically unmatched by anyone by building a system around producing daily interviews with a set roster of questions that has him on top of the podcasting world in just one short year, .

I kept this episode short because were in a borrowed conference room at a busy trade show. But we cover a lot of ground – hope you enjoy it. And if you have a Maine resource that people absolutely should know about, like Propel or the Social Media Breakfasts that John mentions, please get that to me!

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Maine EntrepreneursEntrepreneur on Fire, Grow Maine Show, John Lee Dumas, Maine Business, Maine Entrepreneur