Show Information
Show: 55
Air date: Saturday, March 30
Guest: Don Gooding
Host: Steve Woods (Stevoe)
Studio Contributor Debi Davis
Executive Producer: Mark Gould (Sharky)
Assistant Producer: Shannon Maguire
Don Gooding received his B.A. from Yale University cum laude with distinction in Economics in 1981, concentrating on the economics of data transmission. Gooding moved to Maine in 1996 to pursue his dream of creating a worldwide source for a cappella music, based out of Southwest Harbor.
TideSmart Talk with Stevoe host Steve Woods (left) welcomed Executive Director of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development Don Gooding (right) to the studio.
The Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development strives to advise entrepreneurs and foster innovation in the state of Maine. Through programs MCED assists, educates, and connects entrepreneurs throughout the state. Their most popular program “Top Gun” is an accelerated, 16-week, customized platform to match entrepreneurs with mentors. This relationship will allow the entrepreneur to develop their business plan and decrease the risk in building their startup.
Since the Top Gun’s start in 2009, the program has graduated 64 entrepreneurs, most of which are still in business.
Gooding is the Vice Chair of Maine Angels, a group of Maine investors whose goal is to invest in and mentor Maine start-ups and entrepreneurs. Gooding has invested in early stage technology companies, including Ocean Renewable Power Company, Emergent Music, Axon Labs, Neuroptix and IW Financial. Gooding’s most successful “angel” investment to date was backing his longtime friend Jay Borden in Granite Systems, a New Hampshire software firm serving telecom carriers, for which he was the first outside director.
In Gooding’s free time, he enjoys singing a cappella music and Frank Sinatra.
