Building the Scratchpad Team: Part 2
Searching for people who might want to join our team began a bit like dipping our toes in water: hesitantly and tentatively. Our team had been operating smoothly at warp speed all summer long. What would it be like to disrupt the known? How would "New Guy" fit in? Would our personalities mesh? We set up meetings, determined to find out. They were in person, by cell, and through Google Hangouts (or some combination thereof). We knew several of these folks already and were
Building the Scratchpad Team: Part 1
Here at “Scratchpad Headquarters” (a secret classroom at UMaine in Orono)--where we thrive on seltzer water, wasabi peas, and Google Hangouts--we’ve been working to grow our team. We’ve known we needed more “manpower” to get the accelerator up and running. The challenge has been figuring out how to do that. Like a startup, we have limited resources, limited time, and need someone on board as of, like, yesterday. We started our search before we actually had the funding in t
Our accelerator gets better when we talk to other accelerators!
An important part of developing Scratchpad is figuring out what other accelerators are doing. Last week, we talked to staff at an accelerator at Texas Tech. Great insights, but theirs is heavily focused on students and faculty, so it doesn't exactly reflect the experience we want to create for entrepreneurs here in Maine. Yesterday, we talked to the Desai Accelerator at the University of Michigan. What was cool about talking to them is that their accelerator is just one st
Listen in: A podcast with more info!
If you read yesterday's post (This thing is for real!) you may remember that I mentioned that we lined up a chance to share our exciting news on the radio. We owe a debt of gratitude to Don Cookson, the host of The Pulse Morning Radio Show on 620 AM, for getting us on the air on very short notice (thank you, Don)! Jason called in from Kansas City, I was in the studio, and Jesse is still on vacation. It felt great to disclose our vision for the accelerator, like exhaling air
