Maine Venture Fund was fortunate to host two MBA interns this summer; Adah Lindquist and Katie Kleinknecht are students at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business who have embedded with us for the past 10 weeks, working with both MVF and our portfolio companies. They’re already on their way back to school for the fall, but shared a few reflections for our newsletter audience. Enjoy!

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Maine Venture Fund

Summer Internship 2026

This summer, we joined Maine Venture Fund (MVF) as MBA interns. Coming from different backgrounds—Adah in corporate strategy at a Fortune 100 company, and Katie deeply embedded in the startup community—MVF gave each of us a unique opportunity to gain hands-on exposure to venture capital (VC) investing and apply our classroom knowledge to real-world business problems. 

Founded in 1997 by the state legislature, MVF has invested over $55M into Maine’s startup ecosystem and operates as an evergreen fund, reinvesting capital returned back to the state. Their impact-driven mission was one of many reasons we were excited to join the fund. Given MVF’s focus on driving both economic and social impact, the fund is industry agnostic. This allowed us to learn about and explore a variety of business models. 

The internship is structured so that interns spend roughly 25% of their time on fund management projects and the remaining 75% contributing directly to companies in MVF's portfolio. Adah supported BlueTrace, a software platform that streamlines operations for seafood businesses, while Katie supported North Spore, a mushroom company providing high-quality cultivation supplies and mycology education to consumers. More on both portfolios below!

Inside Blue Trace with Adah Lindquist

You'll know which building we are when you see the tuna out front were the instructions I received on my first day at the BlueTrace office. One of the differentiators for BlueTrace is their proximity to clients, they build technology where seafood happens.

BlueTrace is an operating system that supports seafood distributors and producers in tracking inventory, sales and purchasing, shipping and receiving, and compliance and traceability. What sets BlueTrace apart from typical SaaS products is their proximity to water – clients need an easy-to-use app to monitor and track data as fresh products move in and out of their warehouse.

Over the course of 10 weeks, I was responsible for developing BlueTrace’s AI strategy. Client discovery meetings revealed an appetite for data-driven insights and highlighted challenges associated with onboarding and training customers on new technology. This tension shaped a two-fold strategy. How can BlueTrace leverage AI to build a better product for clients and also strengthen internal efficiency? I led one initiative for each, building a client facing agentic insights tool and identifying automation opportunities for customer success. 

Both initiatives exposed how AI depends on human expertise and intelligence. As technology continues to advance, and AI is adopted more widely, this summer reinforced for me that people still remain a company's greatest asset. This is especially true in an industry where relationships and trust are valued more than an algorithm.

Inside North Spore with Katie Kleinknecht

This summer, I led North Spore's launch into the education market. On my first day, I got a tour of the facility, which in prior lives had been a trampoline park, a go-kart track, and a rave venue. I walked through a door labeled "Welcome to the Mycological World" and found a crew shoveling substrate into a massive sterilization tank, inoculating petri dishes, or packing orders– all of them clearly glad to be there. Out back, a community garden and walking trails dotted with different mushroom varieties became the setting for our walking meetings.

From day one, I was told to be "the CEO of this project." I was given the autonomy and resources to test Ben's hypothesis about the education market. As the project lead, I interviewed teachers to understand their classroom needs, built a go-to-market strategy for education, designed an NGSS-aligned curriculum, and launched a teacher affiliate program. 

Over the course of the 10 weeks, I worked closely with Ben Chesler, North Spore's CEO, and picked up a crash course in DTC marketing along the way. Having co-founded Imperfect Foods and grown it from three employees to a national brand, Ben brought instincts most founders don't have. Watching him move between exploring international markets, overseeing inventory management, and building e-commerce promotions taught me more than any class could have.

I'm excited to see the groundwork we laid come to life in classrooms this fall. I’m grateful I got to spend my summer in Portland building something from scratch and learning from a phenomenal team. If you ever get the chance to work with the North Spore team, take it!

Discovering Portland - Takeaways & Reflection

One of the best parts of the internship was becoming embedded in the Portland community. Early on, we added various Portland eats and activities to our summer project plan, ensuring we'd make the most of our time in Maine while meeting MVF deliverables. Along the way, we joined a run club, went raspberry picking, and became regulars at some of our favorite spots, including Portland Yoga Collective, Standard Baking Co., and Lambs. Weekends usually looked like exploring a new hiking trail or relaxing on the coast (Katie really did bring our MVF-assigned reference book, Venture Deals, to Old Orchard Beach for some "light reading").

Another highlight of the summer was catching a Hearts of Pine soccer game at Fitzpatrick Stadium in downtown Portland. We were charmed by a passionate crowd of fans, a full band in the stands, local food trucks lining the entrance, and “The Ballad of the 20th Maine” roaring across the stadium as fans raised scarfs stitched with a heart on the front. This felt like a quintessential Portland experience, and naturally, we topped off a perfect evening with a scoop of Maine blueberry ice cream. 

Beyond everything Maine has to offer, we're going to miss the vibrant community in Portland the most. Maine's startup ecosystem is not only dynamic but accessible. A tight-knit and well-connected community enabled us to meet far more people than we expected and while we're sad to say goodbye, we're excited to continue watching this ecosystem thrive!