By Chris Philbrook and Whit Richardson, Maine Startup Insider
Sarah Smith was calling in from the Rocky Mountains, slightly out of breath in that way that makes you remember altitude is real. She apologized for the scheduling lag, the kind that happens when an organization is finalizing partners, board alignment, and a public announcement all at once. Startup Maine, she said, was close. A release would land later that day.
Then she did what people who have built ecosystems tend to do. She started at the beginning.
Smith, a Southern New Englander from New Haven, Connecticut, found entrepreneurship before she ever used the word. At Georgetown, she joined “The Corp,” the university’s student-run nonprofit, often described as one of the oldest student-run nonprofits in the country. It operated businesses. A grocery store. Coffee shops. Real roles, real responsibilities. Smith spent four years working the grocery store and eventually became general manager, doing product work in produce and learning the rhythm of operations and teams without labeling it “startup.”
