Entrepreneurship
Lisa Liberatore
Upstart Maine
A tea company, a burrito shop, and Bangor’s first coworking space — each built to be handed off. Upstart Maine’s connector on why your business can’t live only in your head.
Maine Thrive Insights — Regional Hub
A local storytelling and interview series highlighting the people, businesses, nonprofits, and organizations helping the Greater Bangor region thrive.
Thirteen conversations and counting • Bangor · Brewer · Hampden · Old Town · Orono
The Conversations
Every Insight begins as a conversation on the Maine Thrive Voices podcast — local owners and leaders talking about the work of building something that lasts in the Penobscot Valley.
Entrepreneurship
Upstart Maine
A tea company, a burrito shop, and Bangor’s first coworking space — each built to be handed off. Upstart Maine’s connector on why your business can’t live only in your head.
Health & Wellness
Refine Physical Therapy
From athlete and physical therapy patient to practice owner — Dr. Meaghan Staples shares the unexpected path that brought her to Maine and led Refine Physical Therapy to specialize in women’s pelvic floor care.
Home Services
MAC Heat Pumps
From mathematics instructor to one of Maine’s most trusted heat pump contractors — Adam Barker-Hoyt shares the growth, hard lessons, and values behind building MAC Heat Pumps.
Nonprofits & Animal Welfare
Bangor Humane Society
Eighteen years leading the shelter that serves thirty-five towns — and why she’d love a community that no longer needed it.
Home & Appliance Services
The Appliance Doctor
A hand-written letter from his grandfather brought him from Long Island to Bangor — and put a decades-old family business in its next generation of trusted hands.
Nonprofits & Animal Welfare
The Animal Orphanage
Inside one of the region’s most trusted rescue organizations, and the work of caring for animals and community at once.
Home & Property Services
North Star Property Solutions
Preparing properties — and a business — for long-term success in the Penobscot Valley.
Pet Care
Woof LLC
Dog daycare, boarding, and grooming in Glenburn — building a business where trust is the whole product.
Sports & Community
MESA — Maine Endurance Sports Alliance
Building a statewide endurance sports community from the ground up, one race and one runner at a time.
Real Estate
NextHome Experience
The discipline of endurance sport meets the discipline of building a real estate business — lessons from a course-record marathoner.
Health & Wellness
207 Wellness
Real, grounded wellness support close to home — and what it means to run a business that is also a place of trust.
Food & Community
Dreamer Food
Building a food business rooted in flavor, culture, and community in downtown Bangor — and why a small city is the right place to dream big.
Health & Wellness
Performance Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab, Inc.
Movement, recovery, and injury prevention — how individualized physical therapy keeps Mainers active and pain-free.
New conversations are always in production. This page grows as the region’s stories do.
Weekly community stories, local events, business highlights, and regional updates — delivered directly to your inbox.
Discover local businesses, organizations, and services helping communities across the region thrive.