Innovative Enterprise Program

Legal services for promising Maine ventures

Program Overview

Purpose

IEP embraces the entrepreneurial vision of start-up and emerging growth companies with high growth potential and combines it with the provision of legal services in a novel and innovative way. IEP is premised upon the reality that most early-stage businesses have difficulty raising the capital needed to succeed in today’s world of business. Legal expenses are often one of the most significant costs incurred by a start-up or emerging company. Promising ventures can falter for lack of access to affordable legal expertise that could otherwise help to allow them to realize their full potential.

Our goal is to help meet this need by providing the type of core legal and business development services that are crucial to the success of early-stage and emerging companies with significant expansion potential. We offer these services to qualified program participants on a reduced fee basis and defer ultimate payment of fees until the occurrence of certain designated events, such as a significant debt or equity financing or a time certain. In addition to legal services, we seek to join with other partners who share our commitment to providing these businesses the tools they need to move forward in today’s marketplace.

While the concept of flexible or contingent fee arrangements is not revolutionary, we aim to combine this flexibility with our genuine concern for the success of these innovative ventures in our Maine communities. A central purpose of IEP is to lower the overall cost of services, not to defer our fees until they become prohibitively expensive. We plan to offer most deferred fee arrangements on an interest-free basis and to lower the overall cost to the participant. We realize that early-stage companies already face daunting challenges, and we do not want to simply be one more burden. We care about the success of these businesses, which are a vital and growing segment of the Maine economy, and we want our program to reflect this concern.

Program Participants

Business Qualifications

The Program is open to Maine-based businesses that can demonstrate significant expansion potential. Applicants must qualify in order to be eligible to participate in IEP. IEP participation is competitive and applicants are evaluated based on an analysis of risk-based factors in the applicant’s venture, growth-stage, and marketplace. We select applicants with an expectation that they will utilize our services to develop into successful later-stage growth companies, with an ultimate ability to pay program fees on a deferred basis.

We focus on early-stage companies that have the type of cash flow needs that the IEP is intended to address. While we expect to work with companies in various phases of early-stage development, the heightened risks attendant to start-up ventures require more stringent requirements for participation. Pre-revenue start-ups should be able to demonstrate significant market potential for their product or proprietary technology. Later-phase emerging growth companies with a committed customer base, established revenues, and a promising market will receive preferential consideration.

While we anticipate that the range of participants will be drawn from diverse sectors of the Maine economy, applicants in traditionally high-growth sectors, such as information technology, biotechnology, energy, and green/clean technology are favored. Similarly, dynamic Maine growth sectors such as biotechnology, innovative wood products, composites, precision manufacturing, and aquaculture will also be preferred.

Application Process

An application process has been established in order to evaluate applicants seeking to participate in IEP. Interested applicants should submit a Preliminary Conflict Application to Jeffrey W. Spaulding by email at jspaulding@eatonpeabody.com or by mail to the Eaton Peabody Innovative Enterprise Program, Attn: Jeffrey W. Spaulding, P.O. Box 1210, Bangor, Maine 04402-1210. Preliminary Conflict Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed periodically by the IEP Steering Committee. The Preliminary Conflict Application will contain information necessary for us to determine whether a conflict of interest could arise if we were to represent your venture. Unless a conflict arises, applicants will be notified directly and asked to submit a Supplemental Program Application containing detailed business information. Applicants that show promise for significant expansion potential will be interviewed directly by the IEP Steering Committee and if approved will be accepted into IEP by receiving and signing a formal engagement letter from Eaton Peabody.

Full Brochure

Download the IEP application

Affiliates

We are seeking to collaborate with organizations which share a similar vision for the emergence of the innovative growth economy in Maine. Our goal is to affiliate with organizations that allow the businesses we all work with to be successful. IEP is intended to complement, not displace, the services that these organizations provide. Where possible, we will seek to partner with organizations that are flexible enough to address the unique needs of early-stage business by providing cost-effective or reduced cost services.

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