Mission Statement

The mission of Gorham Savings Bank’s LaunchPad is to help fund the growth of Maine small businesses by providing the resources needed for them to reach the next level.

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST.

Contest Application Period

Monday, July 15, 2024 at 8:00 AM EST – Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 5:00 PM EST

Eligibility

Contest is open to:

• Legally registered Maine based businesses and/or businesses with their primary operations in Maine; or
• Legal residents of the United States and the State of Maine who are 18 years of age or older with a proposed idea or product.

Entities that are tax-exempt organizations, non-profits or charitable trusts are not eligible to participate. Employees, officers, and directors of Gorham Savings Bank and their respective subsidiaries, affiliates, promotion or advertising agencies, and members of their immediate family are not eligible to participate. Gorham Savings Bank reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify a finalist.

How to Apply

During the Contest Application Period, visit gorhamsavings.bank/launchpad and follow the directions provided to complete the application. All applications must be received by 5:00 PM EST on Thursday, August 15, 2024 to be considered. All applicants are considered for both the LaunchPad Award and the Emerging Business Award. No separate application is required.

Additional Application Restrictions

• Application must be the original work of the applicant.
• Must not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity, or other rights of any person or entity.

LaunchPad Award

A $50,000 grant will be awarded to the finalist who best meets the judging criteria.

Emerging Business Award

A $10,000 grant plus an additional $10,000 of in-kind business and marketing-related services will be awarded to the Emerging Business Award finalist who best meets the judging criteria.

Winner Determination

The Contest will consist of five (5) phases to determine the two (2) winners:

1. Vetting. A select group of Commercial and Small Business Banking executives from Gorham Savings Bank will review all eligible applications received and will determine which applications will be forwarded to the preliminary judging team using the following judging criteria: viability, scalability, uniqueness, management, and impact. All submissions will remain confidential throughout the vetting phase.

2. Preliminary Judging. An independent panel of preliminary judges will review all applications deemed eligible by the vetting team. They will select up to five (5) LaunchPad finalists and up to five (5) Emerging Business Award finalists. They will judge how the ideas presented address the Mission Statement, and the following criteria: viability, scalability, uniqueness, management, and impact. Learn more about what the LaunchPad Judges look for in an application by watching the “Before You Apply” video. All submissions will remain confidential through the preliminary judging phase.

3. Notification of Finalists. By Friday, September 27, 2024, the five (5) LaunchPad and five (5) Emerging Business Award finalists will be contacted at the telephone number listed on their Application.

• The five (5) LaunchPad finalists must confirm their availability to attend a Virtual Finalist Orientation on Tuesday, October 15, 2024 and to compete in-person at the LaunchPad live event on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 in compliance with the State and event venue’s COVID protocols. If unable to participate, they will be disqualified and another finalist may be chosen.
• The five (5) Emerging Business Award finalists must confirm their ability to submit a 60-second pitch video by Friday, October 11, 2024. If unable to, they will be disqualified and another finalist may be chosen.

4. Emerging Business Award. The five (5) Emerging Business Award finalists will submit a 60-second pitch video to be played at the live LaunchPad event. They must confirm their ability to submit a video by Friday, October 11, 2024. If unable to, they will be disqualified, and another finalist may be chosen. An independent panel of judges will score the videos on the following criteria: viability, scalability, uniqueness, management, and impact, as well as the video pitch. The panel of judges will select one (1) Emerging Business Award finalist as the winner.

Emerging Business Award finalists will be videotaped for promotional use by Gorham Savings Bank.

5. LaunchPad Event – Tuesday, October 22, 2024. The five (5) finalists will have up to three (3) minutes to present their case, and up to seven (7) minutes of Q&A from the event judges live in-person at the event venue. An independent panel of qualified event judges will score the presentations on the following criteria: viability, scalability, uniqueness, management, and impact, as well as the overall presentation. The panel of event judges will select one (1) finalist, who will be deemed the LaunchPad winner.

LaunchPad finalists will be videotaped for promotional use by Gorham Savings Bank.

Other Fine Print

• • Void Where Prohibited or Restricted by Law: All federal, state and local regulations apply to the Contest. The Contest is void in any Country, or Federal or State jurisdiction where it is prohibited by law or regulation.
  • Contest and Official Rules Subject to Modification by Gorham Savings Bank: The Contest and these Official Rules are subject to modification, cancellation, or limitation at Gorham Savings Bank’s sole discretion, with or without notice, including to persons who have already entered the Contest. All changes or modification of the Contest or these Official Rules will be posted on this Website.
  • General Conditions of Participation in This Contest: Except where prohibited by law, all entries that are selected as one of the finalists permit Gorham Savings Bank and its affiliates to use, without notice or further compensation, worldwide and in perpetuity in any and all forms of media, now known and hereafter devised, such winner’s name, likeness, pictures, photographs, voice, biographical information, and statements for purposes of advertising, trade, promotion, and publicity. Once submitted, all entries, not just those of the finalists, will not be returned.
  • Disqualification: Gorham Savings Bank reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it (or its authorized designee hosting the Website) finds to be: (i) tampering with the entry process or otherwise tampering with the operation of the Contest, the Website, or any web page or web banner ad related to the Contest; (ii) acting in violation of the Official Rules; (iii) acting in a non-sportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, harass, harm, mislead, or defraud any other individual or entity; or (iv) otherwise in violation of law as solely determined by Gorham Savings Bank. Any person attempting to defraud Gorham Savings Bank or the other contestants or in any way tamper with the Contest will be ineligible to compete in the Contest or win the contest and Gorham Savings Bank may seek any and all remedies available to it, including, if appropriate, filing complaints with legal authorities.
  • Website or Contest Corruption: If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned or if in the sole discretion of Gorham Savings Bank, the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Contest is corrupted or adversely affected, Gorham Savings Bank reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the contest.
  • Limitation of Liability: Gorham Savings Bank is not responsible or liable for entries that are illegible, late, forged, destroyed, lost, misplaced, stolen, misdirected, tampered with, incomplete, deleted, damaged, garbled, altered, or otherwise not in compliance with these Official Rules, whether caused by Gorham Savings Bank, the entrant, or anyone else.
  • Entrants’ Own Work: Your submission must be entirely your (or in the case of a team effort, your team’s) own original creation and must not infringe upon or violate any laws or any rights of third parties, including, but not limited to, such violations as infringement of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary or property right, libel, defamation, violation of rights of privacy, publicity, personality or celebrity, or any contract right, or any other right of any individual, corporation or entity. Entrants must obtain all necessary permissions, licenses, clearances, releases, waivers of moral rights and other approvals from third parties (including but not limited to all copyright holders and all individuals appearing in a video submission), necessary to use the submission, in whole or in part, in any way, including without limitation, to reproduce, make derivatives, edit, modify, translate, distribute, transmit, publish, license and broadcast worldwide, by any means. Any and all such permission, licenses, clearances, releases, waivers of moral rights and approvals must be provided to Gorham Savings Bank upon its request. Gorham Savings Bank shall not be responsible to a third-party for any entrant’s failure to comply with this provision, and each entrant agrees to indemnify Gorham Savings Bank for any such claim.
  • Affidavit & Release: As a condition of winning you may be required to execute and deliver to Gorham Savings Bank a signed Affidavit of Eligibility, which includes an acceptance of these Official Rules and a release of liability.
  • Notice to Winners: As a condition of winning, you will be asked to use the funds solely to fund the business described in your Entry Form. Gorham Savings Bank reserves the right to contact the winner on a regular basis for a period of one year to check on status, and will ask for a summary at the end of the year as to how well the funding met the expectations of the application. Items within this summary may be published by Gorham Savings Bank.
  • Release and Waiver: By entering the Contest, each entrant irrevocably agrees and acknowledges to be bound by the Official Rules and all applicable laws and decisions of Gorham Savings Bank which are final and binding in all respects; to forever and irrevocably waive all of his/her rights to claim ambiguity with respect to the Official Rules and to waive all of his/her rights to bring any claim, action, or proceeding against Gorham Savings Bank in connection with the Contest; and to forever and irrevocably release, indemnify, and hold harmless Gorham Savings Bank and its respective officers, directors, employees, or agents including outside attorneys, shareholders, representatives, successors, and assigns (collectively the “Releasees”) from any liability (including, but not limited to, liability for defamation, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, infringement of publicity or any intellectual property rights, any property loss, damage, personal injury, bodily injury, death, expense, accident, delay, inconvenience or irregularity, and any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive or exemplary damages of any kind, even if the Releasees have been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages), costs and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable outside attorneys’ fees) that may arise from, result from, or are in connection with: (a) the Contest including, but not limited to, any Contest-related activity or element thereof and the entrant’s entry, participation, or inability to participate in the Contest (b) the violation of any privacy, personal, publicity or proprietary rights; (c) typographical errors in these Official Rules or any Contest promotional materials; (d) any change in the prizing (or any components thereof) due to unavailability, business or creative considerations, or due to reasons beyond Gorham Savings Bank’s control or as otherwise permitted in these Official Rules; (e) any interruptions in or postponement, cancellation, or modification of the Contest; (f) human error; (g) incorrect or inaccurate transcription, receipt, or transmission of any part of the Contest entry; (h) any system, computer timing and/or dating mechanism, computer equipment, software, or Internet service provider utilized by Gorham Savings Bank or by an entrant; (i) interruption or inability to access the Contest, the Website, or any other Contest-related web pages or any online service via the internet due to hardware or software compatibility problems; (j) any damage to entrant’s (or any third person’s) computer and/or its contents related to or resulting from any part of the Contest; (k) any lost/delayed data transmissions, omissions, interruptions, defects, and/or any other destroyed, incomplete, undeliverable or damaged Contest Entries; (l) any wrongful, negligent, or unauthorized act or omission on the part of Gorham Savings Bank, or any of its agents or employees; or (m) the selection by Gorham Savings Bank or its advisors of the finalists.