Maine Accelerates Growth consortium started to spur entrepreneurship

Courtesy / Jess Knox Jess Knox, MxG statewide coordinator for the new, 10-year Maine Accelerates Growth project for entrepreneurs.

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By Lori Valigra

Maine Accelerates Growth, a new consortium aimed at building on earlier work by Blackstone Accelerates Growth to promote entrepreneurship in Maine, was announced Thursday by its coordinators.

The Maine Technology Institute, Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development and the University of Maine’s Innovation Programs are the founding advisory organizations that will work on Phase 1 of a new fund partnership with the Maine Community Foundation.

MxG, as it is called, is a 10-year effort to facilitate infrastructure investment, programs and events to help high-impact entrepreneurs grow.

The program already has a $200,000 MTI challenge matching grant, Jess Knox, MxG statewide coordinator, told Mainebiz. He added that the Blackstone Accelerates Growth program, known as BxG, program will run through the end of the year. Knox also headed that program.

BxG, announced in October 2011, involved a $3 million grant from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation to create innovation hubs throughout Maine and grow the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The initial organizational partners for the new MxG program include Greenlight Maine, Maine Startup & Create Week and Our Katahdin.

MxG’s coordinators said the group aims to build on BxG’s efforts to accelerate the growth of companies, communities and talent by funding, creating and leveraging entrepreneurship and innovation programs and events through a collaborative and complementary network of organizations and individuals across Maine.

MxG will fund, create and leverage programs and events statewide. Phase 1 focuses on building stakeholders and resources and recruiting additional matching investments, advisory partners and governing board members.

“MxG will … allow for new ideas to be tested over a sustainable and predictable period of time,” Knox said in a statement.

— With contributions from Laurie Schreiber