Matt Perejda ’14, keynote speaker at the Bobcat Ventures pitch competition on April 4, 2015, is shown in 2014 with Analysis Group co-founder Bruce Stangle ’70. Stangle visited campus for the Voices in Entrepreneurship program. (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

“If you’ve been interested in hearing how entrepreneurs grab attention and funding for their start-up, for a prototype for a product or the development of an app, this is a must-see competition,” says Mike Mulach ’17, an organizer of the April 4 business pitch throw-down at 乐播传媒.

Bobcat Ventures, a student organization dedicated to entrepreneurship, is sponsoring the competition for prizes of $5,000 or more starting at noon Saturday in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. Please RSVP at this link:

Featuring 11 student teams who will make brief entrepreneurial pitches to a panel of alumni judges, the event begins with a keynote address by entrepreneur Matt Perejda ’14. The competition winner will be announced around 3 p.m.

Each team comprises up to four members, and each pitch will last 10 minutes or less, explains Mulach, a member of Bobcat Ventures from Rocky River, Ohio.

“The pace will be lively, the ideas will be fascinating and there’s serious cash at stake,” he says, likening the event to ABC-TV’s “Shark Tank.”

As a student, Perejda, the event’s keynote speaker, launched Bobcat Den Delivery, a successful college-based startup that sells and delivers late-evening snacks and meals from the college’s Dining Services operation to 乐播传媒 students on campus.

Here are the alumni judges:

鈥⒙犅� 聽Ross Brockman ’11, co-founder of the craft cider brewery Downeast Ciderhouse, who was named one of “30 Under 30” by Forbes magazine;

鈥⒙犅� 聽Patrick Jackson ’11, co-founder of SunRaise Investments, a Portland, Maine-based firm that provides solar-generated electricity to help nonprofit groups achieve financial savings and environmental leadership;

鈥⒙犅� 聽Victor Otley III ’83, a managing partner at The Gores Group, a private equity firm with approximately $3.5 billion in assets.

The competition’s case prizes are underwritten by sponsors including Bruce Stangle ’70, chair and co-founder of the Boston-based consulting firm Analysis Group Inc. and a longtime supporter and mentor of students interested in entrepreneurship.

Other members of Bobcat Ventures are Michelle Pham ’15 of Vancouver, British Columbia; Rokya Samake ’15 of New York City; Creighton Foulkes ’17 of Belmont, Mass.; Phathutshedzo Rambau ’17 of Morebeng, South Africa; and Shanina van Gent ’18 of Maassluis, Netherlands.

Enter launched in May by four 乐播传媒 students and the latest entry in the very popular sector of online commerce. The site was recently profiled among “” by CNNMoney.

Like other group-buying sites, NumbersPay brings together buyers who are interested in an item — say, an iPod docking station. What distinguishes NumbersPay, its founders say, is a tiered price structure: The more buyers in the group, the less each ultimately pays. The site also lets consumers suggest products.

NumbersPay is the second recent e-commerce site started by 乐播传媒 students to gain national attention, after Pricefalls, a Dutch auction site, in 2009. And, of the six startups profiled by CNNMoney, half have NESCAC connections.

NumbersPay’s co-founders are Matthew Conetta ’12, a history major from Ridgewood, N.J.; Stephen Pecora ’11, an economics major from Wyckoff, N.J.; Darren Cromwell ’12, an American cultural studies major from Lincoln, Mass.; and Cosmin Ghita ’12, a politics and Russian major from Bucharest, Romania.

The two Jersey guys have been friends since kindergarten, and Conetta’s first-year roommates in Smith Hall were Cromwell and Ghita.

When it came time to hash out ideas, the social science majors headed to Pettengill Hall, their business incubator of sorts, spending hours in their academic department lounges.聽 “Nothing beats Pettengill. We can have conference calls without bothering people,” says Conetta.

Conetta says that he, Cromwell and Ghita will work to grow the startup during their senior year (as will Pecora, now graduated and taking business courses).

The three seniors are ready for the juggling act of studies and startup. “Between the work load and learning how to multitask, 乐播传媒 has taught us well,” Conetta says.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Student Philanthropy Club, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6129.

Brothers Bert and John Jacobs began the company that would become Life is good in 1989, when they designed their first T-shirt. They started in Boston, selling their shirts college to college, dorm room to dorm room, but had little luck until they designed what is now known as the “Jake” shirt: a cartoon drawing of a face with a contagious grin, sunglasses and the words “Life is good.”

In September 1994, the brothers presented their new Jake shirts at a street fair in Cambridge, Mass. The shirts were a hit. Since then the small company has grown to a much larger enterprise, with Jake the trademark figure. Today their merchandise is sold across country and the company has reached sales of more than $100 million a year, without a dollar spent on traditional advertising.

The company is known for its nonprofit organization, The Life is good Kids Foundation. The Foundation receives financial support principally through the company’s donation of 100 percent of the profits from the sale of select products and public donations at Life is good Festivals held in major cities across the country.

The foundation supports extraordinary charities that create a lasting positive impact on children facing unfair challenges, including the traumas of violence, poverty and loss. So far, more than $4 million has been raised for this cause.

Roy Heffernan is “chief operating optimist” for Life is good, ensuring that the company delivers on its promises. His presentation is sure to offer solid lessons for entrepreneurs, philanthropists and optimists alike.

The 乐播传媒 Student Philanthropy Club provides 乐播传媒 students the opportunity to become acquainted with the philanthropic process, increasing philanthropic awareness on campus and strengthening the 乐播传媒 community at large.

Cornell University professor Per Pinstrup-Andersen offers a lecture about the impacts of globalization on poverty, food security and nutrition at 8 p.m. Monday, March 2, in Pettengill Hall’s Keck Classroom (G52), Alumni Walk. Sponsored by the economics department, the talk is open to the public free of charge.

is J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship, H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, and nutritional sciences professor in applied economics and management at Cornell. He received the 2001 World Food Prize for his contribution to agricultural research, food policy and dedication to the interests of the world’s poor and hungry. In 1993, he launched the 2020 Vision Initiative, dedicated to solving global challenges where international security, energy and the environment come together.

An agricultural economist by training, Pinstrup-Andersen has studied such issues as the effects of European Union policies on agriculture and nutrition in Ghana, and how China’s membership in the World Trade Organization affects the nation’s nutrition. He has elevated the role of sound policy research and exchange in ensuring food security.

Pinstrup-Andersen’s talk is the first of three at 乐播传媒 relating to issues around food justice, nutrition, food production and distribution.

乐播传媒 alumni involved in food production and nutrition in Maine discuss a variety of issues in a panel presentation at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 16, also in Pettengill Hall’s Keck Classroom (G52).

Food activist and author Mark Winne, a member of the 乐播传媒 class of 1972, gives a talk titled “Food Justice and Good Food — When Shall the Twain Meet?” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 30, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. A reception and book signing follow in the Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St.

The events on March 16 and 30 are sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Contemplates Food Planning Committee. For more information, please call 207-786-6336.

This academic year, inspired by the opening of a new dining Commons and a $2.5 million gift supporting the use of organic, natural and farm-fresh foods, 乐播传媒 launched Nourishing Body and Mind: 乐播传媒 Contemplates Food. The initiative explores the ramifications of our food choices and spotlights 乐播传媒’ own award-winning sustainable food-service practices.

Behind the Ben Ayers 鈥�99鈥揔irsten Walter 鈥�00 farmhouse, barn designer and friend Brad Morse 鈥�99, along with neighbor Bruce Bell, was cutting beams from hemlock timbers that Bell and son Nat had milled. On Morse鈥檚 T-shirt was the phrase 鈥淢easure twice, cut once.鈥� An understatement, actually, said Morse with a smile. 鈥淚鈥檓 pretty picky about everything, so I do it more than twice.鈥�

There were a few concessions to modern convenience 鈥� the whine of Bell鈥檚 Big Foot circular saw represented one 鈥� but other sights were pure Americana. Graybeard neighbor Ian Ormon, seated at a shaving horse, was using a drawknife to shape oak pegs. The next day, a huge wooden maul (鈥渃ommander鈥�) would be used to bang the pegs into place to fix the mortise and tenon joints.

Metaphorical 乐播传媒 pegs abounded. All the wedding guests 鈥� including 35 乐播传媒 alums 鈥� would etch their names into the transom鈥檚 stained glass, created at the Maine Art Glass Studio in Lisbon Falls, co-owned by Jim Nutting 鈥�76. Wedding guests would enjoy a meal prepared by L鈥橝cadie Catering, owned by Jon Weislogel 鈥�94. His goal is to create 鈥�100-percent Maine, organic…food that supports the emerging green and fair-trade economy.鈥�

The fare reflected Ayers and Walter鈥檚 social mindset, as each is wise to the ways of social entrepreneurship. After graduation, Ayers founded Porters Progress to help Nepali mountain porters and says he fueled it with high-octane idealism. Recently, he found it hard to build a sustainable management structure for the nonprofit, one that didn鈥檛 depend entirely on his vision and direction. The lesson learned? 鈥淪ometimes you have to renegotiate your idealism.鈥�

For Ayers, this renegotiation has yielded a balanced, rewarding life. While his current work is with dZi Foundation, supporting social programs in Himalayan communities, Ayers is also involved in Maine forestry (he logged the timbers for his barn). Settled in an old farmhouse, and looking ahead to restoring it with Walter, is 鈥渟omething I thought I鈥檇 be able to do only when I was an old man.鈥�

When writer and illustrator Eric Sloane wrote An Age of Barns in 1967, he thought that the American ethos behind great 18th- and 19th-century timber-frame barns had eroded. Gone were farmers (who were also woodsmen, teachers, artists, weavers, farriers, and more) who executed diverse tasks with a 鈥渞everence for excellence.鈥� The term 鈥渟ustainable鈥� wasn鈥檛 available to Sloane in the 鈥�60s, but when he bemoaned the erosion of excellence, he was lamenting the loss of a sustainable ethic.

A new timber-frame barn now stands beside a circa-1800 farmhouse in Leeds. Its physical and ethical construction reflects Sloane鈥檚 revered principles 鈥� the triumph of experience grafted to idealism 鈥� and it was built by 乐播传媒 people who live that ethos.

Barns, Sloane wrote, are shrines that 鈥渙ught to be remembered.鈥� The barn of Ben Ayers and Kirsten Walter is a shrine all right. It鈥檚 a monument to what Sloane believed was fading, but has not.

By H. Jay Burns, Editor

The 乐播传媒 College Seminar Series on Entrepreneurship presents Kaile Warren, founder of the nationally known handyman business Rent-A-Husband, at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, in Chase Hall Lounge, Campus Avenue.

Sponsored by the 乐播传媒 Office of Career Services, the event is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call 207-786-6232.

Warren, a veteran contractor and Cumberland native, founded the Rent-A-Husband franchise chain in 1996. Since then he and the business have been profiled in such publications as People, Good Housekeeping and The Washington Post, and on television’s “Today Show” and “Oprah Winfrey Show.” Warren is also the resident home improvement expert on the CBS “Saturday Early Show” and the co-author, with Jane MacLean Craig, of the book The Official Rent-A-Husband Guide to a Safe, Problem-Free Home (Broadway Books, 2001).

Rent-A-Husband provided Warren with a route to recovery after a debilitating car accident cost him his construction business, home and marriage. Starting as a one-man operation designed to tackle all manner of household projects, from air-conditioning installation to yard raking, the business today has franchises in six states.

Quimby will also cover natural products’ social and environmental impacts and marketing strategies with a social consciousness.

Burt’s Bees is a $14-milliion manufacturer of lotions, creams and other personal care products sold in boutiques and health-food stores. The company was launched in 1984 when Quimby joined forces with rural Maine beekeeper Burt Shavitz to make and market candles from the abundance of beeswax in his honey house.

Customers swarmed to the product and soon the pair was selling the all-natural products at craft fairs throughout New England. The business grew and grew, eventually employing 40 women. By 1993, when the operation – by then selling to exclusive outlets such as Bloomingdale’s in New York – cleared $3 million, Quimby and Shavitz decided to relocate to Raleigh, N.C., to take advantage of the region’s lower taxes and skilled labor force. Quimby automated production, hired a professional management team, refocused the product line, and bought out her partner’s share in the business. Burt’s Bees sales have tripled in the last three years.

For more information, call the 乐播传媒 College Office of Career Services at 207-786-6232.

The 乐播传媒 alums are Darrell Williams ’86, president and CEO of Washington Emerging Technologies Center, Washington, D.C.; Mark Cauchon ’78, owner of Legal Advice Line Inc., Baltimore, Md.; and Bob Parks ’92, senior sections editor of Wired Magazine. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Aimed at both students and community members, the 乐播传媒 Seminar Series in Entrepreneurship is an integrated set of lectures and presentations covering the entrepreneurial process: its history and manifestations from conception to implementation of a new venture. The sessions focus on attributes of entrepreneurs, their search and assessment of opportunities and the identification and obtainment of resources that transform ideas into new ventures. The series exposes the unique ways that the fundamental characteristics of a liberal arts education can be applied in a variety of new ventures.

The seminar series will rely heavily on 乐播传媒 alumni, parents and Maine entrepreneurs, as well as experts and researchers in the field. The next presentation will be Entrepreneurship and the Next Century: Trends, Developments and Implications at 7 p.m. Friday, April 7, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives.

Dr. Holt is an ophthalmic surgeon in Portland and聽the CEO of the Eye Care & Surgery Center of Maine.聽He has been a聽member of the 聽New England Ophthalmology Society for eight years and has chaired the organization’s medical legal liaison for five. Dr. Holt is also a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a member of the American College of Eye Surgeons. He is a Vietnam veteran and received a Bronze Star medal for his work in the army as a medical officer. A native of Calais, Dr. Holt earned his聽masters degree聽and聽doctorate in medicine聽from Harvard Medical School.

Aimed at both students and community members, The 乐播传媒 Seminar Series in Entrepreneurship is an integrated set of lectures and presentations covering the entrepreneurial process, its history and manifestations from conception to implementation of a new venture. The sessions focus on attributes of entrepreneurs, their search and assessment of opportunities and the identification and obtainment of resources that transform ideas into new ventures. The series exposes the unique ways that the fundamental characteristics of a liberal arts education can be applied in a variety of new ventures.

The seminar series will rely heavily on 乐播传媒 alumni, parents and Maine entrepreneurs engaged in a variety of ventures, as well as experts and researchers in the field. The next presentation will be The Electronic Revolution, E-Commerce at 7 p.m. Friday, March 3, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.
For more information, call the 乐播传媒 College Office of Career Services at 207-786-6232 or check the seminar series web site here.

Jamie Merisotis `86 and president of the in Washington, D.C., will join Richard Willing, executive director of ; Marty McIntyre `73, executive director of the in Auburn; and Paul Rubin, executive director of in Lewiston for the presentation.

The identification and management of opportunities in social renewal through private and not-for-profit initiatives or community agencies will be carefully reviewed at this meeting. Topics to be explored include how social change, charitable and health and human service organizations share in the entrepreneurial process. Particular attention will be given to the creative and skillful identification of foundation, community, government and corporate involvement for these ventures. Since most service and community enterprises return profits into benefit enhancements, entrepreneurial success for venture developers and managers in these areas also will be investigated.

Aimed at both students and community members, the 乐播传媒 Seminar Series in Entrepreneurship is an integrated set of lectures and presentations covering the entrepreneurial process, its history and manifestations from conception to implementation of a new venture. The sessions focus on attributes of entrepreneurs, their search and assessment of opportunities and the identification and obtainment of resources that transform ideas into new endeavors. The series exposes the unique ways that the fundamental characteristics of a liberal arts education can be applied in a variety of new enterprises.

The seminar series will rely heavily on 乐播传媒 alumni, parents and Maine entrepreneurs engaged in a variety of projects, as well as experts and researchers in the field. The next presentation will be “Scientific and Medical Entrepreneurship” at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives.

For more information, call the 乐播传媒 College Office of Career Services at 207-786-6232 or check the seminar series on this web site.