A conversation featuring Katie Shorey of Startup+Maine. A woman with a great amount of passion for the Maine startup community - helping it grow and reach its full potential - and an unbelievable work ethic.

#Important Takeaways

Purchase tickets to 2019 Startup+Maine Conference: http://bit.ly/startupmaine2019

Checkout Startup+Maine's website: https://startupmaine.org

#Show Notes

Katie Shorey in the Press: Press Herald, Bangor Daily News, Grow Maine, and Anania Media.

White Mountain National Forest Service: https://www.fs.usda.gov/whitemountain/

Kancamagus Highway: http://www.kancamagushighway.com/

Smokejumpers: https://www.fs.fed.us/science-technology/fire/smokejumpers

Beth Israel (Boston): https://www.bidmc.org/

Maine Med: https://mainehealth.org/maine-medical-center

Bridgton Hospital: https://www.cmhc.org/bridgton-hospital/

Kathiann Shorey at Lake Region Vocational Center: https://lakeregion.mainecte.org/staff/kathiann-shorey/

Ron Shorey (Retired): https://www.northeastwildfire.org/awards-2

Becoming (Michelle Obama): https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Michelle-Obama/dp/1524763136

Fryberg Academy: https://www.fryeburgacademy.org/page

Saint Lawrence University: https://www.stlawu.edu/

Transforming Communities: http://www.transformcommunities.org/

Susanna Welford: https://runningstart.org/about-us/board-of-directors/susannah-wellford

Running Start: https://runningstart.org

#Credits and Mentions

Written, Produced, Narrated, and Engineered by Tanner Campbell of The Portland Pod.

Music used with permission from Chillhop Records. Tracks featured come from various artists and can be found on the Spring 2017 Essentials album. You can purchase that album here: https://chillhop.bandcamp.com/album/chillhop-essentials-spring-2017

A special thanks to SoPoCo.Works, South Portland's premier co-working space for creatives for sponsoring this episode.

#Episode Transcript
###Show Notes are automatically generated by Sonix.ai and are accurate up to 95%. If you have questions or need clarification for anything discussed in this podcast, please reach out to the Portland Pod via email at [email protected]

[00:00:15] My name is Katie Shorey. I'm from Sweden Maine which is in western Maine. I'm the. Business and community liaison for People's United Bank and I'm also the very proud president and chairwoman of startup Maine.

[00:00:28] Katie is known about town as one of the hardest working women or humans really in the city of Portland. Her dedication to the furthering of Portland's success through a relentless near obsessive support of entrepreneurs and their businesses is nothing short of inspiring. She just doesn't stop. As someone who has spent the last year waking up at 3 a.m. and working until 9 pm almost every day to launch a now successful small business few people can appreciate her drive and ambition more than I do. And so when Katie and I were put into contact I already knew who she was and I was excited to get to know the person behind the work ethic.

[00:01:13] I had a really wholesome childhood. I had a mother who was a nurse Director of Nursing at Bridgeton Hospital. My dad was a forest firefighter for the White Mountain National Forest Service very stable happy home. Yeah that was my life.

[00:01:30] In addition to that wholesome beginning Katie's parents proved to be two stand up examples of strong work ethic and selfless community service.

[00:01:41] My dad worked for the White Mountain National Forest Service right off of the Kancamagus Highway over the border in New Hampshire and he he was the recreation manager so he did anything from managing the parks and making sure that the staff that was going away on fires was Were well-trained with their pack tests and oftentimes in the summer he would he would be gone and fighting forest fires and in other parts of the country in Montana and Wyoming and California.

[00:02:16] I'm pretty sure he was actually at the Yellowstone fire of nineteen eighty eight when I was a very young young child so he was definitely boots on the ground. He was.

[00:02:27] I remember him telling me he was too too tall to be one of those jumpers that went out of the out of the plane like he didn't fit the bill like the size and the weight.

[00:02:36] But he was boots on the ground from the outside looking in and having not grown up with parents in high physical risk type jobs myself. I wondered what from her perspective it was like for her and her mother to have her father out of the home doing that kind of work so frequently.

[00:02:53] You know I don't think it resonated with me so much but my mother who is this very at times can be anxious but like the nurse who knows like the worst of the worst scenarios she I'm sure she was she was scared.

[00:03:08] But my father has always been very communicative so always checked in with with her. But I'm sure he had some stories some that he probably withheld but some that he he shared with her. But he was she always trusted him and knew that he was gonna be as safe as possible. But there were times where oh man we can go back into some some funny stories but like when I was young up in my bedroom a tree fell on the house when my dad was gone and my mom was of course like God why is my husband not here to deal with this or she had a rogue rooster who was like attacking her every time she went in the coop to try to get the chicken so she just called called his friend to take care of that situation.

[00:03:47] Rogue roosters necessitating the enlistment of neighborhood support and rescue teams that does feel pretty wholesome. But Katie's mother wasn't a housewife whose days revolved around the wrangling of rowdy fowl. Although some days it certainly did I suppose mom was a nurse.

[00:04:05] My mom's a nurse she worked at Beth Israel in Boston made her way to Maine med and then they were looking at school districts and when they were trying to start a family and because my dad worked over in New Hampshire they were trying to find a location that worked for both of their commutes so she was a nurse approached and hospital worked her way up to Director of Nursing and vice president of Bridgeton hospital and then after the merger because they actually had to be called Northern Cumberland Memorial Hospital after the whole merger she actually decided to take a little bit of a career change and she actually I think this was under Angus King.

[00:04:47] They had a budget to have these school health coordinators so they were incorporating health into the curriculum at the at school so she did that for a while when I was in middle school she was there for a few years and then she went to become.

[00:05:03] She's now a teacher at a vocational school in Naples Maine so dad is off fighting forest fires saving lives property and public land while mom is managing the home and being a nurse working to climb the ladder and saving lives of her own I imagine raising children is hard enough without having incredibly demanding careers steeped in life or death scenarios. But the more I spoke with her the more Katie shared examples of her parents being pretty stellar in their willingness to put others before themselves. Of course that didn't mean there weren't those typical teenage first parents arguments.

[00:05:43] One in particular Katie still thinks about to this day I'm young right like I'm I'm gonna prom at an age that I probably shouldn't have gone to prom and I I was I think I was in eighth grade and I can understand going to prom in ninth grade but I went in eighth grade with this junior and my mom she was there earlier in the day taking photos with all the other moms of us in our dresses and getting ready to go. But then I show up at Mount Washington Hotel and I walk in and I see my mom hiding behind a plant. So I got a little upset that she had.

[00:06:24] Mind you this was a far drive from Sweden. I mean it's it's tall it's like 45 maybe even an hour. I can't even remember how long it takes. It's out in New Hampshire somewhere but I just remember being mean to her that she showed up and invaded my my little life privacy there for for a night that I was just supposed to have a few hours by myself. I just think that I was just being a young brat and I was kind of embarrassed because I was probably one of the only moms or one of the only people that had moms there so I was just I think I just like laid into her. And I was mean and I think maybe I made her cry. There were there are some times that definitely haunt me that I I hope that I can just forgive myself eventually.

[00:07:07] But we we have blossomed into a beautiful beautiful adult relationship. And I'm so happy about that.

[00:07:14] While Katie didn't mention any such incidents between her and her father I'm sure they existed. Teenagers are as any once teenager will tell you difficult to get along with sometimes after all. She does however paint her father as being just as influential on her life as her mother. She remembers him always working on stuff to around the house and around camp.

[00:07:37] We have a family camp and it's been in the family since the 1920s and so we grew up there it's only 30 minutes from where I grew up in.

[00:07:46] In Sweden it's in Hiram Maine on the small pond and I have these memories of him working on the little fishing a little putt putt boat or a little tin boat or putting the sailboat up with my grandfather and he's very handy so he will always be fixing things at the camp or like making the shutters fit better cleaning up the pine cones and he's just always kind of like puttering around like making things work better.

[00:08:17] And so I just have these memories of him. And it's funny because I look at my grandfather and that's what he's doing now at 80 80. No no no sorry. He's 93 years old and my dad's kind of just the same thing. He likes being he likes being at camp and having some downtime but doing work because he can't ever really sit cannot ever really sit down.

[00:08:35] That sounds like someone we all know. I won't give it away but her name rhymes with Smadi Mori and she's on this podcast right now.

[00:08:44] I'm very close with my father he instilled in me a lot of a lot of things to this day that I still carry with me about communication and just values and hard work and I wouldn't even say I wasn't I wasn't a a a daddy's girl as you would as you would call it but he was very involved in in my life early on. I mean I I remember him making. He was the one that would make my my lunches before I went before I went to school.

[00:09:16] I remember him bringing me to basketball practice and being like Do you have good hair plastics for when you're playing basketball. Like he would be like you would ask like very funny dad questions to make sure that I was that I was ready and prepared at all times. He made sure that I had all the opportunities that my brother did and he wanted me to be as aggressive as everyone else out on the field hockey or whatever field that I was on go Kate.

[00:09:49] I could I can hear it to this day.

[00:09:50] I mean even above my coach I can hear whatever decibel he was yelling at in his booming voice. I can hear him cheering me on and telling me to you know just hustle hustle.

[00:10:02] But more than just good parents. Katie had another inspiring family member in her life.

[00:10:07] Her aunt Vicki my mom. She was a one of five children from a Italian family. Made maiden name. Their last name.

[00:10:16] Her maiden name was Ocialini and my aunt lived near my Uncle Victor.

[00:10:23] My Aunt Vicky lived in Arlington Massachusetts and we would just see them in the summer times over Christmas over holiday and they had two young kids and she was just one of those women there was just very as an aunt was very actively involved in my life.

[00:10:39] You know she asked me about and it's funny looking back now knowing that you're told now to to you know don't tell don't comment on girls that they're pretty and they're beautiful.

[00:10:49] But I tell them that they're smart and ask them what they're reading and ask them what their ambitions are.

[00:10:53] And she was always like that and asking me about that my school ambitions and what I wanted to do.

[00:11:02] But Aunt Vicky would be taken from her young family and Katie in an unexpected instant.

[00:11:08] So I was I was a senior in high school and it happened very quick. I saw her at Christmas and then by. I think it was New Year's Eve or New Year's. We got a call that she had had been having some issues she was coughing up blood. So her husband took her to the hospital. So that was New Year's Day. And she had had melanoma 12 years prior and her arm but they had taken it out gotten gotten it taking care of it.

[00:11:39] And unfortunately it had just spread to her her liver and her lungs. And she was gone not even two weeks later.

[00:11:50] This brought a lot of perspective. Very quickly to Katie she remembers Vicki as she remembers her mother and father on Vicky put others before herself and sometimes many times at the expense of her own ambitions or desires seeing her die before she got to do many of the things she wanted to do with her life. It affected Katie deeply feeling like it was too on the nose not to mention I pointed out her own work ethic and how based on things we discussed up to this point which didn't make it into the final cut of this episode. She was putting many things before herself and her own needs and or desires. There was only a brief pause as she considered this as it wasn't the first time she'd done so.

[00:12:39] It's a few things I think about.

[00:12:41] Am I putting enough time into my my own self and the things that I want to do have a relationship I have luckily I'm near my family. But do you. Are you taking breaks are you. Are you really taking some time to hone in on what and what you need and really taking time to take a break.

[00:13:02] I was I'm actually reading Michelle Obama's book right now called Becoming and she talks about Barack and how she's like I married this guy who has like no concept about like saying no and he just says yes to things because he's like so enthralled by the idea or the partnership or like what could become. And I'm like oh crap like I do that like I just I want I'm like oh you there's this thing that you're working on this initiative that can make Maine better can help us partner with this this and this and I'm like.

[00:13:34] And I say yes because I just I'm so excited by it all I hope you're enjoying my conversation with Katie Schori and that you've taken the time to listen to the other conversations featured on this podcast. We're less than 10 episodes old but we've already had some wonderfully interesting and delightful guests on the court in this week's program Brant Daedalus for example the newly opened Rose confection bar on exchange and middle Pete Levitt of Levitt and Sons Matthew Perry of B.C. music and adverse effects. Kyle the months of good to go studios in Sullivan and down East and some others well worth your listening to and getting to know if you have already listened to these episodes and enjoyed them. Have you perhaps considered supporting the podcast. We rely on support from listeners like you and for just five dollars a month you can help keep this program on the Internet airwaves. Together we can help keep these conversations going and avoid inserting those noxious ads that no one likes hearing. For more information on how to become a supporting patron of the show head over to Portland speaks. All patrons receive a bumper sticker and a T-shirt in their first three months of support. I appreciate having you as a listener and I'm thankful that you enjoy the program.

[00:14:58] Now let's get back to Kate.

[00:15:04] Eventually of course Katie left home and she set out to figure her life out to figure out who she was going to be and what she was going to do.

[00:15:14] I left Fryberg Academy and I attended St. Lawrence University in upstate New York. I wouldn't have known about that school but my headmaster told me to check it out his son went there and I went one beautiful spring day and attended a class and met people on campus and I just.

[00:15:32] It was a really really really good fit for me. A beautiful place like unbelievable campus. I'm actually going back in March and I just can't even wait to see it. But it was one of those quads and fields in those like historic brick buildings when you drive on campus it's it's it's stunning. I started to take some biology classes.

[00:15:53] I liked science I was taking all the science courses I was thinking at one point nursing not my thing on the college level. So I I took a American politics class and that really opened my eyes for me.

[00:16:10] I think I had this untapped interest in in in specifically Democratic politics. But just like understanding how it worked in our in our country.

[00:16:21] And and it just I took it from there.

[00:16:25] And just like that her fire for politics was ignited.

[00:16:29] So I learned about this program called Transforming communities.

[00:16:34] It was a semester at American University in DC. There was somebody that I am still very close with to this day. He was the student government president at the time at St. Lawrence and he had a internship and a job in DC and he was like you need to come check out this program.

[00:16:53] And so I did this program transforming communities it was all about public policy at the local state and national level. And that really hooked me. And looking back it's like oh transforming communities like how do we make communities better and thrive with all the things that are changing. And with you know we have crime to deal with and there's we have all people of different backgrounds and different income levels and how do we have a how do we have communities and a culture that will allow them to thrive as their as their own people. So that was a that was a really interesting semester. And then I did a few internships after that in the summers.

[00:17:34] And that led Katy to an initiative called running start.

[00:17:38] I met this woman. Her name is Suzanna Welford and she at the time was running. She had just started this company called running start. She was working out of her house out of her attic. And I actually had already had an internship set up but I was like I'll go to this internship fair see what this is about. See what we'll see what's out there. And I met her and we just had this amazing kinship and I was like I need to work for you. So that was I think 2007 into 2008 and I actually asked her I think on the third day on the on the job. I was like Can I come work for you for the summer. So I extended and worked for her through another three to four months that summer. And so running start was a group that inspired and trained women to run for office political office. They targeted women specifically under the age of 40 because there are already such a small number of women that are that are running for office but specifically under the age of 40 foreign food between in 2013 a job offer took her to San Francisco but only briefly when I was still in D.C. I landed a job where I was able to work remote and so I was about a year so I was in San Francisco working for this technology coalition and I had a relationship that went sour and I was sort of floating around figure out what I wanted to do. And it was June so I said well I'll just go back to Maine for the summer.

[00:19:19] I'd be willing to bet that 50 percent of Maine's population is made up of people who come back to Maine. It's one of the many charming qualities of the people here. Well traveled but with a strong love of home.

[00:19:31] So I came back to Maine and it was promoted on TV but I heard about this conference at the time. That was then called Maine startup and create week. And I had no idea that Maine had a startup community let alone startup conference.

[00:19:50] It's it's just so funny looking back because every a lot of states do like Nebraska Omaha does like Little Rock Arkansas does. But if you're not in it and really know kind of like what's going on on the ground you don't know that it's going on around you with people like starting businesses left right and starting these really cool companies like this. So I just didn't know that it existed. And so I sort of just raised my hands and hey I I'm I'm just got here like your conferences next week can I just. Can I volunteer and help out there. And I just I just jumped in. And so I attended the conference in Portland this is the summer of 2015 and I met a ton of not only business contacts but flick friends to this day like people that I volunteered with or people that I just met in passing at that event.

[00:20:41] I'm still friends with them to this day. And it was really impulsive but I signed a lease at the end of that week and I moved to Portland.

[00:20:50] She just moved to Portland just like that and that's when she got involved with Startup Maine startup Maine is a five a one c 3 organization that's focused on helping entrepreneurs take it to the next level and to really inspire them to think bigger and better than what than what they're currently currently doing.

[00:21:13] And so we have an annual conference every year that focuses on inspirational keynotes and top notch content be it panels or workshops and a lot of networking and intentional collisions for people to really like make meaningful connections.

[00:21:29] I had never heard the term intentional collisions before so I asked for a bit more clarification about what startup Maine does we are what I would call a convener.

[00:21:40] There are so many organizations in Maine that really help entrepreneurs get funding or get mentors for example Maine Center for Entrepreneurs score SBA.

[00:21:51] They have workshops and and mentorship programs MCP has the top gun program. And then there are organizations like Maine Technology Institute CEI ventures Maine angels Maine P TAC DCD all Department of Economic and Community Development. They have grants and loans available for entrepreneurs that need money it could be two hundred fifty thousand dollar development loan from Maine technology institute or it could be just a small twenty five hundred dollar grant from DCD to try to try something new. So we are very fortunate that we have great relationships with all of these organizations and also the service providers like the law firms the accounting firms the banks they all can convene at one time of the year to really showcase what their offerings are what their expertise is and then to say like hey if you need if you need this like we are the we are the partner for you.

[00:22:53] So I organized this event during the conference. We have a happy hour with a good main beer food and then we have exhibitors around around the room so people can walk around and this year our theme is going to be very straightforward. It's going to be money mentors jobs because before we often have like a job fair or we had a research and development showcase or we just had only capital resources but people are at different stages like you might need funding. So we want to showcase a bunch of those. But for you right now it might be really important for you to have a mentor and to have somebody that navigated this or somebody that worked at Google and figured out how to get this type of like product or technology off the ground like that is more relevant to you. And then there's other people who are more startup curious and they want to know like what kind of jobs are out there and what's available.

[00:23:44] And so we want to highlight and showcase some of the people that are hiring like crazy right now.

[00:23:49] And with that it is time to wrap up. So I asked my final question I asked what about Main makes her feel hopeful at the moment and what is it that she's hoping for.

[00:24:00] So for me I'm really excited about what Janet Mills and her team is is is gonna do. I mean I know politics can be so divisive but she is appointing some really smart individuals to be commissioners of her different initiatives and now she has Hannah Pingree as the Office of Innovation in the future. So just the fact that she's thinking a little bit more broadly and forward thinking I'm really excited about that. And I just I want to follow what they're doing and I think that they'll hopefully hone in on some of the challenges that that everyone talks about from affordable housing to transportation to getting talent here. I was I was reading an article about how Standish Maine had some very successful home buying numbers this year and Standish is like 20 miles out. It's on its way toward toward western Maine where I grew up and it's near so big lake. But it's it could be like 45. It's a 45 minute drive into into downtown Portland from from from Standish so it's like why know why are people living there. There must be something about that.

[00:25:05] So I really hope that there's this resurgence of of those rural rural towns because Sweden where I grew up was 400 people and we we didn't even have a store let alone a stoplight.

[00:25:20] But we are part of this for it for Freiburg Academy we are part of this like eight town collective that all uses 1 1 high school.

[00:25:29] So I remember the glory days and everyone seemed you know employed and whatnot but there was definitely a period of time where like people were leaving or like businesses were closing. And if we can have better broadband or if we can really embrace like remote work and people can do more from home. I think that will be a huge success for the state. And I know that there are initiatives pushing that right now from Waterville Tim to Melinda Duckett and the like architect and region like there are people that are saying like you know come here move here live here you can do like work remotely and have a great life here so I'll be really interested to see how how that unfolds.

[00:26:11] I'd like to thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Portland speaks podcast and to invite you to both subscribe and leave a review on high iTunes or on whatever platform you're using to listen to this program reviews help others get a sense for the quality of the podcast and whether or not they'd like to give us a try. So it's a great free way to support our growth the Portland speaks Podcast is produced and written by Tanner Campbell and recorded at The Portland Pod Maine's first commercial podcasting studio. If you're a podcast her looking to improve the sound quality of your program and gain back a little bit of your time by outsourcing your editing to a trustworthy and talented podcast engineer. Consider the Portland pod. Find out more at Portland podcasts or by following them on Instagram at the Portland pod. Thanks again for listening. See you next time. Take care.