Maine Startup Challenge 2022 Recap – High School & College

The annual Maine Startup Challenge is a business plan competition for Maine’s startup ecosystem hosted by Maine Venture Fund. Our goal is to encourage participation and entrepreneurial thinking across all ages and stimulate the next generation of innovative Maine entrepreneurs.

As we are excitedly ramping up efforts for the 2023 Maine Startup Challenge (applications open on September 4th!), we wanted to circle back and provide an update on two of our 2022 MSC winners. 

High School Tier Winner: Aoife, Julia Twomey

Aoife, founded by Julia Twomey of Baxter Academy, won in the High School Tier and was awarded a $1000 prize. Leading up to the event, Aoife hadlaunched as a free app that uniquely analyzes and compares fashion and beauty products to ensure that users are buying the most suitable products for the best prices available.  You can view her pitch here.  

Since winning, Aoife is pivoting slightly to better meet the needs of consumers.  After working with her business mentor, Julia recognized the need to do more customer outreach and market research to better drive the direction of the app.

By participating in the Maine Startup Challenge, Julia learned how to build a one-pager business plan, develop a survey to get invaluable feedback, and better understand her customer demographic.  She was also inspired by the ideas, creativity, and passion of the other contestants and it had a tremendous impact on her business idea!

Julia will be attending Smith College this fall and plans to continue an entrepreneurial path.  With her academic path confirmed, she now plans to invest the prize money in her business marketing needs, such as signing up for Canva Pro and taking relevant classes.

College Tier Winner: WAVED Medical, Kendra Batchelder and Andre Khalil

WAVED Medical, founded by Kendra Batchelder and Professor Andre Khalil, of University of Maine, won the College Tier Maine Startup Challenge with a $1500 prize.  WAVED provides risk counselors at breast centers with an image-based breast cancer risk assessment to identify more high risk patients to increase preventative care and improve patient outcomes.  You can watch their pitch here.

Since winning the Maine Startup Challenge, WAVED has continued to gain momentum.  After completing her PhD thesis, Kendra received a notice of award from the National Cancer Institute for a Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I grant.  This grant will fund research and development expenses for the next year and will allow Kendra to continue to validate the WAVED product and move toward commercialization. 

The Maine Startup Challenge experience helped Kendra focus on the key steps to  commercialization and to remember how important it is to get feedback from your customers. 

Kendra recalled, “It was an invaluable practice to share my pitch in front of others and receive both positive and constructive feedback.”  

As Kendra moves WAVED into the next stage of her startup, she will be using the prize money towards legal fees during the exclusive licensing negotiations.  

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Congratulations again, Julia and Kendra.  We wish you both all the best and much success! Next month, we will bring you updates for last year’s K-8 and Open Tier winners. 

If you are inspired by these stories and want to participate in the Maine Startup Challenge this fall, head to the MSC webpage for more details and a template to get started!