Real Estate & Elegant Maine Living - The Way Life Should Be

Maine at the Ground Floor: Angel Investing and Emerging Industries

• Elise Kiely • Season 1 • Episode 42

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In the second half of this conversation on Elegant Maine Living, Elise Kiely continues her discussion with Sandra Stone—former chair of Maine Angels, founder of C Cove Solutions, and a long-time advocate for entrepreneurship and women in investing.

This episode offers a clear, accessible look at how angel investing fits into the life cycle of a company—after friends-and-family funding and before traditional venture capital—and why early-stage capital is so critical for founders trying to scale responsibly. Sandra explains how individual investors, pooled funds, and Maine-based institutions work together to support innovation across the state.

Elise and Sandra explore:

  • Where angel investing sits in the startup funding journey and how it differs from venture capital
  • Why Maine’s geography, coastline, and natural resources have fueled innovation—particularly in aquaculture
  • Emerging investment areas including sustainable products, packaging, and building materials
  • How programs like the Maine Seed Tax Credit can meaningfully support Maine-based companies and investors
  • The opportunity for investors to mentor founders through board service, advisory roles, and shared expertise
  • The founding of the Northern New England Women’s Investor Network and how education and community have helped more women step into angel investing with confidence

The conversation also touches on the evolution of deal flow at Maine Angels, the shift toward supporting more Maine-based companies, and how angel investing can offer intellectual engagement, community, and purpose—especially for those looking to contribute beyond financial returns.

Sandra closes by reflecting on Maine’s pace of life, its culture of stewardship, and her optimism for the future of Maine’s startup and investment ecosystem.

Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode

Elegant Maine Living explores Maine’s homes, communities, and people—through the lens of lifestyle, values, and thoughtful living. I host conversations with leaders, creators, and advisors who help illuminate what it truly means to live well in Maine.

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Elise Kiely: [00:00:00] Have you ever wondered where Maine's most promising new companies are emerging, and how investors decide which ideas are ready to grow, and whether there's a place for you in that conversation? Hi friends. This is Elise Kiely, and your listening to Elegant Living. As a real estate advisor with Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty, I don't just help people buy and sell homes. I help them create a lifestyle. And if you're listening, chances are you love Maine the way I do: for its natural beauty, its values driven communities, and for the people who live here with intention, purpose, and elegance. 

In this second half of my conversation with Sandra Stone, former Chair of Maine Angels, we go deeper into the industries attracting investment across Maine and New England. From aquaculture to sustainable products like innovative packaging and building materials. We also explore the opportunity to mentor early stage companies and the growing number of women who are stepping forward, competently and collaboratively to participate in angel investing. If you've been curious about where Maine Startup Energy is headed, this conversation is for you.

Elise Kiely: [00:00:00] Sandra, before we keep going on our conversation, can you give a brief, informal explanation of where a company is in angel investing? Is this before venture? Is this after friends and family investing? 

Sandra Stone: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: Just for people who are just wrapping their head around what angel investing is. 

Sandra Stone: Okay.

Angel investing is usually that next stage, as you mentioned, after you've tapped out all your friends, all your credit cards, your mortgages 

Elise Kiely: the cap tables hopefully pretty small, 

Sandra Stone: but angel investing is people investing their own personal money. The next stage up might be approaching some of our operations in Maine with MTI, Maine Technology Institute, Maine Venture Fund.

We have some bigger funds that do that as well as I'm on the board of CVI and CVI is Coastal Ventures Inc. For Coastal Enterprises. 

Elise Kiely: And so we have several funds in Maine that will invest in, and these are privately held companies, 

Sandra Stone: [00:01:00] right? That take money in from other people and pull that together and then use that larger resource to make investments.

CVI is making in the neighborhood of 500,000 to a million plus. 

Elise Kiely: Of investments in companies. 

Sandra Stone: In one company. 

Elise Kiely: Yeah. In one company. That's one, one company. And then the company will use that to expand their sales team or their growth or their marketing higher talent for expansion. So, Sandra, one of the things I've really enjoyed about Maine Angels are hearing the pitches.

I love the idea of hearing from someone like the young man that for whom you, with whom you invested your $10,000 way back when. I love hearing the energy, the spark of Yes. A founder who has an idea and they're so passionate and disciplined on the idea that they will max out their credit cards, go to their friends and family, and they have significant skin in the game.

And I think there's so many creative people that, that see problems and then create solutions to solve those [00:02:00] problems. And you get to learn the background of some of these founders. And it's in frankly, inspiring. And there've been some companies that I've been impressed by their mission, what they're doing.

And I have to admit, that's very attractive to be to be part of that and to help support that. And not all are successful. You hope they are, but you learn from every investment. What have been some of the industries that you have found to be the most exciting that have come to pitch before Maine Angels?

Sandra Stone: I find that where Maine has 3000 miles of coastline, that I've been very involved in the aquaculture space. It also is one that is new enough that we find a lot of female entrepreneurs are able to 

Elise Kiely: in that aquaculture space. 

Sandra Stone: Yes, yes. I've evolved to the point. At this point, I pretty much only involve in female founders.

They only get something like 2% of the funding 

Elise Kiely: on a national level. I think that's right. 

Sandra Stone: Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: And it's incredible. 

Sandra Stone: It's just harder for them to raise the funds and particularly [00:03:00] to raise that next round of funds. Is just what we're really finding now is that, we can get them started, but trying to figure out how to tap them into some of those larger dollars that will get them funding in the next phase that they need. 

Elise Kiely: So, aquaculture has been one that, that you've really been Yeah. You've been impressed by. And have you seen different different products? Is, or is it all mostly food or is it other products as well through some of these companies?

Sandra Stone: There's been multiple other projects. I just think that the ones that have. That I've personally invested in have been like seaweed, eels. I think that it's a, I don't have really a thesis up by which I have to invest in. I literally had the President of FAME contact me and say, I have this female entrepreneur, she's already cleared for the Maine State Seed Capital tax credit, and I know that you like to invest in female founders, and I want, I think you ought to take a look at her.

And that was Tanbark. I'm thinking, I don't know anything about pulp and paper, but [00:04:00] I sure know people in my organization who do. And that was one that was really exciting to see as it's growing and getting some real state, support. 

Elise Kiely: And a lot of exposure. Yes. And some looks like some really good opportunities down the road.

Sandra, with some of the companies that you have been most interested in, have you had an opportunity through your investments to take either a board position or an advisory role or a mentor role with some of the entrepreneurs? 

Sandra Stone: Yes. I am on the board of one of I was on the board. I've stepped back from that.

Elise Kiely: Or is that a benefit that you see for people that want to invest, who want to play that mentor leadership role? 

Sandra Stone: I think that's why a lot of people do get involved in angel investing is because they have been in a particular space, have developed some professional contact skills, knowledge that they don't really want to work the 80 hours a week that often the entrepreneur has to or have retired from their job. But they want to they feel like they have something still to give and it. I [00:05:00] know it jazzes me up when I get involved with the company and I think that I'm offering and learning and engaged with it. I think that it's harder to, completely be fully engaged.

But there have been some that, they join the boards, they become the president of the board. They, start doing this as almost like a full-time job. I've got way too many investments to have my fingers to every single one of 'em. After the number of years I've been an angel. 

Elise Kiely: I, I think you're right.

I think that is a very attractive to a lot of, new members and 

Sandra Stone: Oh yes.

Elise Kiely: Existing members of Maine Angels. The idea that you can be really engaged and add value. That's, I think that's what we all want to do. Life is to add value wherever we can. And that just feels good. Yeah. It feels good internally and you hope that you add value and it helps your investment as well too.

Sandra, let's turn the page a little bit. Let's talk about the Northern New England Women Investor Network. 

Sandra Stone: Sure. 

Elise Kiely: And can you give us a little background of what that is? Because I think that's [00:06:00] very in line with your whole career history of supporting women in the investment community? 

Sandra Stone: I first found out about the fact that there were these organizations that might help women learn about angel investing.

One of them was Pipeline Angels, and I was like, oh, all you need to do is find two other people that want to do this with you, and they'll bring their learning opportunity to your city and help you host your first pitch competition and invest in one of those businesses. And so I could not find one other woman to do this with me and I had to go to New York.

Elise Kiely: And what year was this roughly? 

Sandra Stone: Oh gosh probably. Maybe 2010 or so. Yeah. 

Elise Kiely: That's amazing. 

Sandra Stone: So I'd only been at Maine Angels for a couple years and it was before I was the chair. Yeah. And so I went to New York and it was like drink [00:07:00] from a fire hose for two and a half days. But they gave for everything from terms to this is like how you would go out and do some diligence and financial statements and it was overload. I couldn't take it all in 

Elise Kiely: just a deep dive in how to do angel investing. 

Sandra Stone: And there were women there that were like, had masters in finance, and I'm like, oh my God, I'm just overwhelmed with the whole thing. But it was really a great opportunity to connect with some people and go through a diligence process with some women, and it was all women and it was an opportunity to try and have reached out to other people across New England because I reached out to somebody down in New Hampshire and was saying, maybe we could combine together. And try and bring up some of these speakers from Boston who might be able to present to some of the women who want to learn about it and it would be more accessible for everyone.

And she says I had this colleague in Vermont who was also trying to do something with getting it started in Vermont. And that was really how we [00:08:00] started this. 

Elise Kiely: So you were a founder. 

Sandra Stone: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: Of the Northern New England Women's Yes. Investment Network. And so that is a group of women in the Northern New England area who get together for training, education networking, sharing ideas and thoughts.

Sandra Stone: It's pretty much was virtual once we hit COVID, but before COVID. We did some really cool things here in Maine, which is actually how I built a lot of the female membership at Maine Angels. We did a. I think it was about six hour program where we would have women come in and we would start with three entrepreneurs and they would do a pitch and we would do mock questions and they were all women who were not in active raises.

So that this was something that we could do. And then we did like a brief diligence. And then we would have a learning session of talking about how do you read a high level finance, financial statement. This is the revenue and this is the, you don't have to know all the details.

Just like how do I even approach it? And then at the end of the [00:09:00] sessions, we would vote on who would be the winning one that we thought the most people would invest in, and we had a small sponsor pool that allowed us to give each of the entrepreneurs like $2,000 each for coming in and having spent that day with us.

Elise Kiely: What a great opportunity for people who understandably could be intimidated Yes. To enter this this community from the terms and the cap table and the financial statements and what you know, what do you do in due diligence and how do you execute it, and what is the convertible note versus equity series A or SAFE or whatever it is to provide a safe space for people to, to get up to speed, to feel comfortable that they can actually engage in this.

Sandra Stone: I remember the the very first one that we did I ended up getting three people that came up to me with inside of an hour and saying, this is really interesting to me. What do I do next? And and decided to join Maine Angels. 

Elise Kiely: That's, so you really grew the number of women in Maine Angels through vehicles like the Northern New England Women's Investor Network?

Sandra Stone: I think so, yeah. [00:10:00] Yeah. because I was out, once I got comfortable that I was, once your chair. You can't pretend that you're not an angel investor. 

Elise Kiely: You're pretty public about it. 

Sandra Stone: People always said I don't really want anyone to know. I said, oh, I did that for three years.

Elise Kiely: But I will say I was pretty private about my membership and now I don't lead with it, but I don't hide it.

Sandra Stone: Exactly. 

Elise Kiely: And I think some of the, there's concern about being public about it. Will people start approaching you Yes. For pitches? What is the perception of what this means and I haven't experienced any of that. I haven't had any negative, not that I'm aware of anyway, impact of people trying to approach me individually or any.

Any, I haven't felt differently since I've been public about it. 

Sandra Stone: Yeah, I think that was one of my biggest concerns when I was first asked to be chairs, that I would be the person that would have to pick which entrepreneurs were coming in, and that was what was great, is that I built a. Executive team, and it was like I worked with Don Gooding who had run the M-M-C-E-D.

It was [00:11:00] then called and did like all sorts of training of entrepreneurs. So he was my vice chair. So it was like I was the one who had gone out and met the other angel groups down in Boston and was the outward facing person. And then he was the one that was bringing in a lot of the resources here in, in Maine and it, we made a great combination.

And then I think Sam Lad, who. President of the People's United Bank was my treasurer. We had this, 

Elise Kiely: you had some good talent. 

Sandra Stone: It was we were a strong group. Yeah. And then I had a guy when I was saying, look, I can't pick who's coming in. He goes, oh, I'm really strong at that. I'm going to take that on.

That's what sort of started this whole committee that now we have as a structure in our organization to decide who's going to come in and pitch the two pitchers. 

Elise Kiely: The screening committee. Yes. To come in and how many pitches Maine Angels meets monthly. Except for two, 

Sandra Stone: 10 times a year, so that we usually get 20 pitches.

Elise Kiely: So you have two, a two a month. When you're meeting, and have you noticed an increase or a decrease, or has it been pretty steady? The deal flow the amount [00:12:00] of companies that want to try to get through screening? 

Sandra Stone: It's interesting. I always feel like around February and March it's really slows down.

I I think that it, it's not been consistently like always growing. I think that we do find that as Maine Angels, we're more interested now in probably finding Maine deals. We do get some referred in from our partners that are in the A CA, the Angel Capital Association. And as long as that comes with their own diligence package. We will look at them.

Back when I was chair, I'd say we were 50 50. I'd say probably now we only do about 10 or 20% from out of state first, 

Elise Kiely: which I think is really attractive to a lot of investors in Maine. Part of the reason I know some of the other members of Maine Angels are involved is that they really want to support Maine businesses.

Yeah. And there's some some structural benefits to investing in main companies that qualify, for example, for the Maine [00:13:00] Seed Tax Credit. 

Sandra Stone: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: And that can be a huge advantage. And I'll, I'm going to put links in the show notes to FAME and the Maine Seed Tax Credit and to Maine Angels and so forth.

But I have found that this Maine Angels and the sidecar funds and their. The current sidecar fund is being treated a little differently, is going to be more directly part of Maine Angels, 

Sandra Stone: right? And it also will be professionally managed, whereas all the first five funds have been member voting, right?

Elise Kiely: And so now this will be professionally managed, which has some other benefits to it. And I think that for a lot of people who are moving to Maine, and we've had a lot of people move to Maine during COVID, looking for an opportunity to meet like-minded people, to have the intellectual activity of looking at new businesses, being involved in new businesses, Maine Angels provides a great opportunity for people to get involved. 

Sandra Stone: Assuming that they are [00:14:00] accredited investors, so they have to meet what the Security Exchange Commission has defined, who's allowed to invest in these companies. Because if it allows the entrepreneur to not have to go through the filings of huge legal bills and being on the New York Stock Exchange, so to speak. 

Elise Kiely: Right? And the other idea behind accredit investors are that people are sophisticated, educated in this activity. So they realize the risk,

Sandra Stone: right? 

Elise Kiely: Because you, you risk your entire principle, 

Sandra Stone: right

Elise Kiely: there is no guaranteed return.

Sandra Stone: You don't want to have somebody putting in their life savings because it's just too risky. I always used to say that in baseball, 300 is a great batting average, and really and truly, you're not going to have multiple home runs every single time that you invest. 

Elise Kiely: That's right. 

Sandra Stone: So you have to really be prepared for the fact that you can lose the entire amount.

Elise Kiely: Yeah. But one of the things, and we're going to, we're going to turn quickly to my signature questions. I always [00:15:00] ask everybody about Maine. One of the things I love about Maine is we are small. So you can engage in community, you can find your people, right? You can find your passion without too much effort.

It's little bit low barriers to entry accredited investor issue aside for a second. We are, we're small, but we're surprisingly to outsiders sophisticated. The amount of talent that we have here in Maine is, I think, surprising to people when they move here and the opportunity to have an impact on young companies who have grit and passion and a great ideas and can add services or products to make the community better.

I think a lot of us want to be involved in that. 

Sandra Stone: Yes. It's exciting and it's a lot of fun. 

Elise Kiely: Yeah. And very rewarding on many levels. Yes. Yes. On many levels. Sandra, thank you so much for coming in today. I always ask people some signature questions at the end. Okay. So here you go. Okay. And you have a, a [00:16:00] wonderful, I wouldn't say unique story of coming here to Boden, falling in love with the state and the lifestyle and ending up, staying here and have had an incredible impact on not only companies, but the Maine investment community through all of your different activities.

Oh, thank you. If I asked you. What do you find elegant about Maine and I by elegant, I don't mean formal linen, napkins, forks, that kind of thing. 

Sandra Stone: That's not me. 

Elise Kiely: What do you find elegant about Maine that was part of the reason you decided to stay? 

Sandra Stone: I think I just really like the pace of life is what is less frantic than I found when I was like out in the Chicago area, just everything's hustle bustle. I love the energy when I go out to visit and I can't wait to come back to Maine after about five days. Yeah. So it's a home base that just feels really right. I love being near the ocean. I love the outdoors. I love that you have [00:17:00] space where you can just go into the woods not very far from your house.

You don't have to, fly to Colorado in order to get out there. 

Elise Kiely: Things aren't a big commitment if you decide to go on a hike. You go to a trailhead probably within a mile of your home. 

Sandra Stone: Exactly, yeah. 

Elise Kiely: And you go on a hike, and I know you're a big skier. Yeah. And a really good and enthusiastic tennis player.

Sandra Stone: Pickleball now.

Elise Kiely: Oh, pickleball. What are your what, where's your favorite place to ski in Maine? 

Sandra Stone: I have a condo at Sunday River so that would be it. Yeah. Yeah. I've had that for over 20 years yeah. And are you going to ski this season? Oh, absolutely. 

Elise Kiely: You wouldn't, not

Sandra Stone: if I can no longer ski, that may change the way I feel about being here in the winter, but I, I. I enjoy the skiing and I can still do it, so That's great. 

Elise Kiely: Okay, so two more questions. Thank you. That's, Sunday River is excellent. It's accessible, it's close, it has lots of different trails. 

Sandra Stone: I know it so and I have my favorite trails and I know how to do that.

Sugar loaf's a great trail and it's a lot, there's a lot more steeps to it. But it's an [00:18:00] extra 45 minutes and I my age, I'm not doing that. 

Elise Kiely: So Sandra, one final question for you. When you picture Maine in the future, let's say 10 years out, 2035, what do you see in Maine's investment community and startup companies?

Sandra Stone: I would imagine that Maine being so outdoor focused will continue to want to husband those resources well, so I think that ecology will probably be really strong. I would say that because of our 3000 miles of coastline, that will probably be very, ocean focused and again, hopefully a good steward.

I also think because of the, just vastness of the state, that probably AI and communications and the ways that people connect with each other will continue to be something that will be strong. 

Elise Kiely: I I agree. I think that those are our hidden, not really hidden. Those are our assets and they're very special [00:19:00] and they make Maine unique.

And I am very optimistic for Maine. I think that we have a great community and I think people feel a sense of stewardship about Maine. We're very welcoming to people to come into Maine, and we also insist everybody respect our our resources. 

Sandra Stone: Yes. 

Elise Kiely: Our lands, our ocean, our trees, our mountains.

And I think that's, I think that's so important because that is what makes us so unique and so special. Sandra, thank you for coming in today. I really appreciate it. 

Thank you for joining us on Elegant Main Living, and please remember this podcast is for entertainment and educational purposes only, and should not be considered real estate investment or legal advice.

If I can help in any way with your real estate journey, please reach out via email at elise@elisekiely.com. And if you're dreaming of life in Maine, or perhaps you're already living it, this podcast is for you. I invite you to explore or reimagine Maine. Elegance is not just an aesthetic, it's a way of life.[00:23:00] 

Until next time, keep living with elegance.

 

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Elise Kiely

Host
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Sandra Stone

Guest