Feature

5 minutes with Jason Cianchette

Entrpreneur: Jason Cianchette
Business: Liquid Wireless
Liquid Wireless is a mobile lead generation company that creates data and voice leads for our advertisers using mobile marketing techniques. Our system has generated over 50,000 customer leads and helps advertisers reach the 60 million Americans who surf the web from mobile devices.

• What belief did you hold at the beginning of your career that has changed?
I originally thought that success was the result of individual efforts and now I realize that any large accomplishment requires a great team of people working together.

• What is the best advice that has been given to you?
Do everything as if it will be reported on the cover of the New York Times. I was given this advice in Boston and it is even more relevant here in Maine where everyone knows each other.

• What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
In 2000, I joined a startup called Upromise, which had a great team, lots of resources and a mission to become the largest non-governmental source of college funding in the country. I learned a great deal working for some of the best marketers in the world and the company has now helped over 1.4 million people save for college

• What was your biggest opportunity?
Three years ago the two founders of MocoSpace hired me as their first employee. Together we created the third most popular mobile website in North America, which gave me a big head start in understanding this new industry

• What was your biggest ah-ha moment?
In 2008 I was trying to decide what exactly my new startup should do. At a conference in New York, I learned about the growing demand for performance based advertising on the PC web. I then realized that there was an opportunity to jump ahead of the competition by taking this new pricing model to the mobile web.

• How did you finance your business?
I financed my business through personal savings and consulting work. Liquid Wireless is now profitable and we're growing by reinvesting our profits.

Other stories

Client Happenings

Top Gun Entrepreneur, William Ashland makes gamesmanship news in Feb 8 Mainebiz. Click Here for Article

Stillwater Metalworks in Bangor has teamed up with MCED graduate client, Ocean Renewable Power Co. of Portland to deploy a turbine unit off the coast of Eastport that will be the largest ocean energy device ever submerged in U.S. waters. The  demonstration project will confirm ORPC's ability to reliably generate grid-compatible tidal energy on a commercial scale with its proprietary technology. It will also allow for collection of important data on TGU performance and itsinteraction with the marine environment. ORPC expects to install the first full-scale, grid connected tidal TGU in Maine in early 2011.

ORPC has received a development award  to accelerate production of OCGen™ model for tidal energy from a pre-commercial phase to commercial production, in the process boosting Maine’s traditional industries as well as its emerging technologies.
Award: $285,000 Match: $1,784,535
To read more about ORPC, check out the  front page of the Maine Sunday Telegram Click here to read full article.
 
Graduate Client, Becky Stockbridge of iBec Creative garnered some good exposure during National Entrepreneurship Week and her involvement in the CreateMaine event. Click here for video coverage and article
 
Top Gun graduate company, Pondera Pharmaceuticals, Inc, located in Pownal, will use its Development Award to complete the trial design and to secure University of New England School of Pharmacy (UNE-COP) Institution Review Board (IRB) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of their patent-pending combination of ultra-low-dose drugs to enhance the pain relieving qualities of the body’s own pain relievers, known as endorphins. With these drugs, moderate to severe pain can be treated from within the patient’s own body rather than by flooding it with narcotic opioid drugs that have notorious side effects and risks of abuse.
Award: $50,000 Match: $50,000 - Biotechnology sector
 
Top Gun graduate Catherine Bickford and Artascope have been very busy. With two new hires , they are gearing up to launch their direct to consumer line on May 1st via Amazon.com. Check out their products and keep updated by visiting their website!

MCED Board Member, Corky Ellis and his company, Kepware Technologies, located in Portland, will use their Development Award to expand their market to other major hardware manufacturers with the design of their first non-Windows OPC (OLE for Process Control) product. With this Award, Kepware will hire six students from the University of Maine’s Electrical Engineering program.
Award: $500,000 Match: $525,000

MCED is happy to announce 2 new clients!

VFG Wind Turbine – Scott Moffat of Kittery (with partners Ben Brickett & Greg Govoni)
Introduces a new patent pending generator for direct drive wind turbines based on the Variable Force Generator (VFG). Their windmill is modular and scalable, and can be customized . They have a prototype, and project applications from small scale residential to multi-megawatt commercial.

New Hope Products Company, Inc – Paul Joseph Shumaker Jr of Biddeford
The MOSTLIKE project is a technology that creates a new option for TV and digital device advertising. The system combines and crosses over the advertising, entertainment, on-line social networking and market data collection and sales industries. Several system innovations are going through the patenting process now.  

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