Innovators in the News

(Portland, ME) The Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development (MCED), Target Technology Incubator and the Foster Center for Student Innovation announced today the launch of Top Gun Prep, the newest program in the Top Gun Program series.

 

The 9-week online course, beginning September19th, will be open to any Maine entrepreneur up to 100 participants. The course is well suited for entrepreneurs building scalable innovation-based companies, but 75% of the Top Gun Prep curriculum is also helpful to entrepreneurs building small or micro-enterprises. The content will combine important basics with advanced concepts. College students contemplating entrepreneurship will get a great start, while more experienced entrepreneurs will be connected with some of the leading edge thinking on how to build large, successful, groundbreaking companies. The cost for the course is $300.  For more information, please visit the Top Gun Maine registration page or www.topgunmaine.biz.

 

“After three successful Top Gun classes, including our first statewide one, we learned that we were satisfying a great need,” said Don Gooding, Executive Director at MCED, “however, the highly selective Top Gun program has only been available to a small number of entrepreneurs.” 

 

Blackstone Accelerates Growth will be underwriting a limited number of scholarships for students at any Maine college or university who wish to participate in the Top Gun Prep program. For information or to apply for a scholarship, please visit the Foster Center for Student Innovation’s website.  In addition, the University of Maine is offering Top Gun Prep as a one-credit course that can be added to a participating student’s transcript, depending upon the transfer policies of their college or university.

 

Young professional organizations from around the state are also participating in Top Gun Prep by offering scholarships to any entrepreneur participating in the “Back of the Napkin Challenge” contest. Entrepreneurs are asked to visit the Facebook pages for the participating organizations and upload their business ideas on the back of a napkin. For a complete list of rules and guidelines please visit the contest information page.