Biddeford's Pepperell Mill

Today, the students started their day with a guest speaker, Gabrielle Melchionda, who is the CEO and founder of Mad Gabs. Mad Gabs is a local company here in Maine that creates all-natural and organic body and lip products. The students had the privilege of hearing Gabrielle’s inspiring journey to becoming an entrepreneur almost 27 years ago at the young age of 19. After her presentation, the students had the chance to ask Gabrielle questions about her business in addition to running some of their current project ideas by her for some feedback. After a successful Q&A session with Gabrielle, the students spent some time completing their surveys for their current project before heading out to lunch.

After lunch, the students visited the town of Biddeford, formerly a mill town about 40 minutes away from South Portland. While at Biddeford, the students visited three different businesses that had varying stories about how they came into existence and what they mean to the community they serve.

The first company the students visited was Engine. Engine is a company that started out as an art gallery but has overtime grown into a business that houses and aides up and coming entrepreneurs with their ideas. Engine also have an educational and community service component of their company that focuses on contributing to the creative economy of Biddeford, which they stressed to the students, reminding them that entrepreneurial ventures that seek to revitalize a community come with great responsibility. In addition, the students got the chance to play with some 3D printed objects, learnt about how 3D printing works and some of the problems that Engine encounters when it comes to 3D printing prototypes.

The second company that the students visited was called Think Tank, a coworking space located in the now revitalized Pepperell Mill. Think Tank is similar to Coworkhers, another coworking space the students got to visit during their first week here. As a coworking space, Think Tank allows for working people to have a quiet office-like space that does not require them to commute to a traditional office, giving them the freedom to work anywhere they desire if their job allows for it. Whereas Coworkhers is an all-female coworking space, Think Tank welcomes both men and women in their space. Some of the questions the students asked the workers ranged from how the space was decorated to what kind of work people do in the space. One student even jokingly asked about the bottles of wine found in the kitchen with the manager responding that the space was also a social space for its members.

Lastly, the students visited Hyperlite Mountain Gear, an outdoor gear company that focuses on creating ultra-light gear for outdoor sports including mountain climbing and backpacking for long periods of time. The students toured the facility where they saw how the backpacks are made. They even got to touch the samples of the fibers used to make the backpacks. Lastly, they had the opportunity to visit the office space of the company to ask questions. Some of the questions asked about their target market, how they deal with product complaints, and about their current competitors.

Finally, the students returned back to campus to enjoy some fun and games before heading to bed.