Join guest host Samantha Marinko of The Boulos Company on the Boulos Beat as she interviews Jen Millard, CEO and Co-Founder of Mainelove. In this episode, Samantha and Jen explore Jen’s journey from Colby College to establishing a company that provides sustainably packaged water sourced from Sebago Lake. Jen underscores the pivotal role of relationships and mentorship, reflecting on her experiences at Colby and Sears. Mainelove strategically utilizes existing brewery infrastructure to produce water in aluminum cans, effectively reducing single-use plastic waste. Their conversation highlights Mainelove’s mission to create diversified revenue streams for brewers while promoting Maine’s natural resources. Jen discusses the essential qualities for entrepreneurial success—fearlessness, collaboration, and adaptability—as she works toward positioning Mainelove as a prominent regional beverage brand, all while staying true to its commitment to sustainability and community impact.
Join guest host Samantha Marinko of The Boulos Company on the Boulos Beat as she interviews Jen Millard, CEO and Co-Founder of Mainelove.
In this episode, Samantha and Jen explore Jen’s journey from Colby College to establishing a company that provides sustainably packaged water sourced from Sebago Lake. Jen underscores the pivotal role of relationships and mentorship, reflecting on her experiences at Colby and Sears. Mainelove strategically utilizes existing brewery infrastructure to produce water in aluminum cans, effectively reducing single-use plastic waste.
Their conversation highlights Mainelove’s mission to create diversified revenue streams for brewers while promoting Maine’s natural resources. Jen discusses the essential qualities for entrepreneurial success—fearlessness, collaboration, and adaptability—as she works toward positioning Mainelove as a prominent regional beverage brand, all while staying true to its commitment to sustainability and community impact.
EVS 25-0154 Jen Millard
Wed, May 28, 2025 9:58AM • 54:39
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Mainelove, sustainably packaged water, Sebago Lake, entrepreneurship, Colby College, distributed manufacturing, aluminum cans, brewers, water economy, single-use plastic, economic thesis, consumer behavior, innovation, community collaboration, agile business.
SPEAKERS
Jen Millard, Samantha Marinko, Speaker 1
Samantha Marinko 00:00
Sam I'd like to welcome our listeners to the Boulos Beat Podcast. I'm Samantha Marinko, guest hosting for Greg Boulos. Boulos company is northern New England's largest commercial real estate services firm with offices in Portland, Maine as well as Manchester and Portsmouth New Hampshire. We've been selling and leasing real estate in Maine and New Hampshire since 1975 This podcast is designed to provide insight into Maine's leaders, movers and shakers. And speaking of movers and shakers, I'd like to introduce Jen Millard. Jen is the CEO and co founder of Mainelove, a company offering sustainably packaged water sourced from Sebago Lake. A 12th generation Mainer. She is passionate about supporting local businesses and promoting environmental sustainability. Jen also serves as a trustee at Colby College, her alma mater, with over 25 years of experience in consumer, retail and technology sectors, she brings a deep commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship and strengthening Maine's local economy. Jen, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so you are a 12th generational generation. Mainer returned to the Motherland recently, and as somebody that is from away, tell me a bit about what it was like growing up in Maine. Well,
Jen Millard 01:07
I grew up in Windham, Maine, surrounded by I would call my cousins more siblings than my kind of grew up in a pack mentality with my aunts and my cousins most of the male figures in my family were Merchant Marines, aquaculture excavation and, you know, I managed to get to Colby. I was the first person in my family to go to college. I'm very grateful to Colby to this day, for enabling that experience. And I believe that really motivated me to find a job outside of Maine. You know, when I graduated in 1990 there were not a lot of jobs for women who wanted to not do aquaculture excavation or physical labor. And so I joined the Sears management training program and started my career at Sears.
Samantha Marinko 02:06
Well, so that's interesting. You say school in Maine prepared you to leave Maine? Yes, because
Jen Millard 02:12
you know, the networks you create in college are really what enable your success. Specifically, I would say, in relationships and selling. And so I may not have had that network in Windham Maine growing up, but I certainly have leaned on that community to this day. You know, mentor a lot of students there participate at the Halloran lab. You know, is my joy to come back to Maine with intention and to build a product in Maine for Mainers, built by Mainers for people from away to experience, really the love and harmony of Maine, the aspirations of Maine.
Samantha Marinko 02:52
That's beautiful. So, and you mentioned you're still involved with Colby now in a couple different capacities. Yeah, part of the motivation
Jen Millard 02:59
to come home was honestly a call from David Green, who's president of Colby, to join the board of trustees, and with great privilege and honor, you know, a humbling, humbling letter. And if I'm going to come home, we might, might as well come home with intention. And so really wanted to show students you can make a difference at any age and at any point in your career. A lot of times, students get a lot of anxiety that you know, Mark Zuckerberg was 25 you know, when he did Facebook. They all want they all think they have to do these amazing accomplishments, and many do. But there's you have a lifetime to work, and there's many, many ways to come home, make a significant investment to provide jobs in Maine. And I consider this my third
Samantha Marinko 03:51
career. I was just gonna say your first career doesn't have to be your last. So that's, yeah, great perspective. So we're talking about school. I know you're a big reader, best book you've read in the last year, the alchemist?
Jen Millard 04:02
Oh, wow. Actually, a reread of the alchemist. Interestingly enough, my co founder and I have been running a little book club of our of our own as we've built the company. And so actually, our current book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, because it's about the journey the alchemist, though, is one of my classic favorites. Yeah, an
Samantha Marinko 04:27
oldie, but a goodie. All right, so you've made your way around the country. You've worked in multiple industries over multiple states. Tell us a bit about your journey and what ultimately led you to entrepreneurship for yourself.
Speaker 1 04:41
Yeah, I think
Jen Millard 04:43
entrepreneurship is often glamorized as a hustle culture and often with a young thesis or a disruptive thesis. And I've certainly worked in and created software companies that were considered disruptive at the time. Time, I would say that all of my experiences have been around consumer behavior, whether that's in financial services, using your transaction pattern as the best indicator of where you would spend your money in the future, or whether you're selling glass containers to help people get plastic out of their life. I was the CEO of a glass container company like 10 years ago, called Life Factory. And as I reflect on that experience, we had a respectable outcome. Was certainly not an outsized outcome. We sold that company in 2017 is still alive today, but was a very early learning that I think it was just too early, actually, in the consumer cycle. So while we made beautiful glass, food containers, water bottles, glassware, baby bottles, there was a certain population that was attracted to that, that vessel, I would call it. But I think it was too early in the journey of people actually understanding the impact of single use plastic on their health and wellness, and at a time where alcohol consumption was also still raging, honestly, and where we sit today, there aren't a lot of choices of water in aluminum. There's one brand liquid death on the West Coast that's doing an amazing job, but it's a rebel persona. Not everybody wants to hold a skull and be associated as a rebel. You can be a rebel at any age. You can be two. You could be 200 but we also see this opportunity as helping to define an aluminum category on shelf. So if you walk into your average convenience or grocery store and you're looking for water in a non plastic vessel, it will be nearly impossible to find. They are few and nascent, especially here in Maine, liquid death is yielded on the west coast. So to get distributed all the way in Maine takes a lot of effort. Water is very heavy. It is not economically reasonable to distribute water outside of 450 miles. So our focus here for Mainelove is to enable diversified manufacturing in Maine to enable brewers who can meet an FDA standard, water is a food product. If a brewer can make an FDA standard, we will yield, take their take their water, similar to a lobster Co Op, actually. So I send the vessel, aluminum vessel to the brewer. They put the water in the can. Can the water, produce the water, put it in a tray, and then ship it back to me. So I'm paying sort of a boat price for commodity per can, and then we're responsible for all the wholesale and marketing of that product. And the brewer can go back to making fantastic beer. So really trying to use the existing capacity that brewers have today, there are 65 brewers that pull water from Sebago Lake Maine, the Portland Water District has been an amazing partner in this journey. All the water in this economic thesis is paid for. So there's a big difference between coming to Maine and drilling a well and taking all that water, or participating in a water economy where brewers are enabling the existing infrastructure. They have to really produce water in off periods to keep their employees working, to provide diversified revenue and then let them go back to making great beer. And the recipient of this is all those brewers pay the water district for the water that they use. So you're
Samantha Marinko 08:49
really filling a lot of gaps here. And it's interesting, you say, with with the glass container company, maybe there was a little bit too much foresight, almost. You were, you were too far, too early. Yeah,
Jen Millard 09:00
if I look, if I look back, I think we sit at a beautiful moment in time. First of all, it's a chaotic time in the world. There's no greater time that people are seeking love and harmony than right now, and whatever chaos is happening in the world. You know, we can only control our own light that we choose to shine. I'm choosing to shine a love and harmony light from Maine with intention, so that we can share our great state with people from away who have an aspiration to come to Maine, whether for summer camp, for college, a vacation, we do active relaxing in Maine. We're boaters, we're hikers, we're cyclists. That concept of sort of actively relaxing, being on a ski mountain, being part of a bicycle journey, being part of a sailing community. We we are active people. And so we've built a brand that's very proud and humble from Maine, because Mainers are humble. Do what you. Say, say, what you do. And so I'm really proud to be here nine months later with water from multiple brewers being yielded in aluminum, and we are the official water of the hearts of pines soccer team I saw. That's very exciting. So we're very excited to also swing in locally with also initiative to come home to Maine and build a soccer
Samantha Marinko 10:22
team here. And from a timing perspective, the alcohol consumption beer specifically, I think, is down a bit. So you're really doing a service to a lot of these breweries as well that would have some downtime in their facility, trying
Jen Millard 10:37
to focus water is a food product actually actively applying for a USDA grant right now, that is a diversification business model grant to really show brewers that water is food and the standards to upgrade their facilities are are really hygiene level qualifications. So if they can meet what's called a GMP Good Manufacturing Practices standard, we will take their water. And then we have tried to utilize, I don't even own a truck. Sam, tried to utilize everyone in this ecosystem has capacity, every delivery truck, every line that has already been created and underwritten by banks and brewers. So what we're really using is a diversified manufacturing thesis to yield into a common brand and to enable brewers to retain their employees is ultimately the goal here. My company may not drive significant employment in Maine, but I am driving employment down through distribution distributors and down to brewers with the intention of re of retaining those employees. There's a lot of layoff and rehire. That happens consistently, I would say, between the fall and this period of time every spring, brewers are starting to now be worried about making capacity for beer. I had brewers yielding water all winter.
Samantha Marinko 12:16
So is that? Is that a conflict at all? Do they need their time back? Do they need their facilities back in the summer? Or is there still an interesting anomaly?
Jen Millard 12:24
All breweries in Maine so far that I have discovered are really working on one shift? Wow. Okay, so there's lots of capacity in lots of ways. It might require a different way of thinking about how you're yielding beer. So we're really helping brewers think through a diversified revenue strategy. This is ultimately the impact of the business is diversified revenue for brewers, and so we will work with them to work around their yields. You know, fortunately or unfortunately, it takes a couple days to brew a great beer, so while that beer is fermenting, oftentimes their lines are not working. So while you are making great beer, there's an opportunity, if they have a separate line, if they have a way to enable the canning of water, to use their same canning line while the beer is fermenting. So we're really trying to help in a way that's enabling brewers to remain consistently part of the economy, whether that is yielding great beer or because all beer and the common denominator of beer is water. And the reason why Maine has one of the top craft beer industries is because of the quality of the water, and the Brewers will actually share that with you. And if you go to a brewery in Colorado and look at their little water machine, the water calculator, the water computer, there's a setting for Sebago Lake may Wow. That is the common denominator and considered the gold standard of water to make beer. So they will even make the water profile in other states to match Sebago Lake Maine as the gold standard of water for beer. So really, what we're enabling is, let's take that great water we have a lot to share. Sebago Lake is considered infinitely replenishable as long as it rains. Maine consistently receives more rain and warmer temperatures over the last 10 years, making our growing season longer, making our summers longer. But also, there's an argument that we have water in abundance, that we take for granted, and so really trying to enable both an economic swing here, but also a great love for Maine, no water that is sold in the US is proud of where it is made. I'm very proud to have Maine be a component of our brand, because ultimately we are sitting here so. Selling what Maine means to us in a beautiful beverage. Yeah,
Samantha Marinko 15:03
that makes perfect sense. So I want to bring it back a little bit to you. Mentioned your time with Sears after Colby, and you took on some significant roles at a pretty young age. So can you tell us a bit about the opportunities, how that all shaped you, and
Jen Millard 15:21
so I I probably didn't answer your entrepreneurship question directly. I think, I think one of the intrinsic skills that an entrepreneur needs to find is the ability to be fearless. And what I really had as a great foundation in my career, I'm so grateful for working for some of the best operators at that time in retail. Arthur Martinez was the former chairman of sacs who came to save Sears at the era that I was there. I'm very grateful to Arthur for showing me the way that if you were able to focus on results, able to connect with human beings as people. Remember an average Sears store at the time had 400 employees. So I was one of my first store managers experiences in Detroit, Michigan. I was 26 years old. I had no business running a store with 400 employees, all the other store managers were my father's age. And, you know, I decided at an early time that if I was going to if I was going to win, it was going to have to be on results, and I would have to show the way that I could do as good a job as anyone else. So maybe a little to prove in the early days, but people who took great risk and great care of really mentoring me through some of those roles. So Storrs, district, regions, Sears, was also an experience that is missing in the world today, where, if you were aggressive, were goal oriented, were driven, were not tied by location, you could have a new experience every two years. And for an entrepreneurial mind with a very short attention span, that was foundational experience for me, that do not be afraid. My last job as Sears, I ran 800 million in non selling payroll. Oh, wow. I had no business at 29 years old, running 800 million in non selling payroll. And in hindsight, I realized that I got most of those jobs because other people had been fired and people didn't want those jobs. They were highly difficult jobs, very politicized. I honestly didn't know better at the time, but I think that that fearless component really comes from the experiences that I had early in my career, that did I make mistakes? Absolutely? Were there some really big ones, absolutely, but great mentors in my life that enable things Janet will be okay.
Samantha Marinko 18:07
So I heard you say the word fearless a couple of times. Do you think that that was something that was learned through your experiences, or is it part of you were born this way? Is it
Jen Millard 18:18
I had to be fearless to go to college. I had to be fearless to take on new experiences, and I share this with students all the time, that especially post COVID, I think students really are struggling to kind of find their their posse, their tribe, their place in the world, but they're fearful. And I think at that COVID era has made a generation of of young people to be fearful, and adults as well. And I see, I see, really coming back to Maine, doing this effort as a way to show students you can make a difference at any age. It takes great capacity and vision to convince brewers that they should make something other than beer. And so most of the early journey here was being brave enough to meet lots of brewers. And how do you have a conversation with just epic brewers like Rob Todd at Allagash, you know, the James Beard Award winner of craft beer, who makes an incredible beer and has had an incredible impact on the beer industry. How do you how do you get their attention that they, too, have capacity and to be taken seriously? So I sit here nine months later with amazing Brewer partners in mass landing at Gary's 1812 at brickyard hollow and others that are in the process of joining the family, so to speak. We work hard to give a lot of time to brewers to enable them to see this thesis, not only brewers, but. The owners of the facilities. Often, brewers are artists, and they want to make the best beer possible. We don't want them to see this as a distraction to that effort. We want to see this as foundational revenue when you're not making great beer, we'd love this to enable you to continue to make great beer. We just sense that your infrastructure is underutilized and that you have a way to generate a consumable, beautiful product from Maine in a diversified manufacturing opportunity. How
Samantha Marinko 20:34
did you how did you learn of this gap, of this availability of the facilities?
Jen Millard 20:41
Well, interestingly, I was the revenue officer at a company called upside. Most of my career in financial services was really built around driving consumer behavior based on past transaction history. So upside you would hear on television or on the radio where they'll give you a few pennies a gallon to get fuel outside of your normal course of habit. Most people get fuel near their home or near where they work. People are very structured, so for a little bit of cash savings, people will do remarkably, remarkable behaviors. And so that company was focused on moving consumers to available your most expensive gas pump is an empty gas pump would be to move a car to provide a little incentive to use that gas pump to keep the commodity flowing. And that company, we moved hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel between Exxon to mobile, to Valero, to all the fuel companies, hundreds of millions of gallons. It's really based on an economic thesis from Hal Varian, who's the lead economist at Google and wrote probably every micro economics textbook that any student has used. It's really rising tides rise, sell ships, and that economic theory is what we're applying here. So that was distributed consumers. I took that distributed consumers opposite to distributed manufacturing. So it's still using Hal varian's economic thesis. I'm really proud to say that. I don't say that. Maine, very often, no one really knows how variant, nor should we be positioning this as a economic you know, solution, it is an economic thesis that has been proven. We're just applying it to distributed manufacturing, to a commodity of water.
Samantha Marinko 22:41
Yeah. Yeah, it does make perfect sense. One of the things you were talking about your work with the kids at Colby and the students and their their mindset right now, thinking back to your time there, do you think your definition of success has evolved over time from when you were absolutely
Jen Millard 22:57
every student all the time? I always say, you know, come, come To Colby for four years and free your mind. You know, it's the only time in your life you get to learn. For learning's sake, take advantage of it. It's such an experience and such a learning community. And I think the community follows you through your life. You might go to Colby for four but you actually go be go to Colby for life. And so that community has really come through and enabled me to be fearless that community. You can call anyone in that community, and someone will call you back. So if you need help, or you needed guidance. So I really encourage students, specifically at this moment in time. You know, we have 300 students that of their own power, join our innovation club. That's an incredible, powerful group that didn't that club didn't exist at Colby when I was there. Colby obviously launches a lot of entrepreneurs, and it has been my joy to bring that entrepreneurship values back to a liberal arts institution. And I'm very grateful to Todd Halloran, who gave a very large, or a significant, I should say, financial gift to enable the Halloran lab for entrepreneurship at Colby, which is modeled after the d school at Stanford and is open to any student of any any background. No one gets a degree from the Halloran lab. It's a, it's a, it's a place of students of like minds, and I'm super proud of those students, and I speak a lot at other schools and other graduate programs, I would put our students up against those programs every day.
Samantha Marinko 24:45
Oh, I'm sure they'll be very happy to hear you say that. So you've talked a couple of times about about your connections, your personal connections and relationships and your network. So when it comes to building a team for your own business. What do you look for in people?
Jen Millard 25:01
I sit at a great place of privilege today to have everyone on my team and everyone around me I've worked or touched them in some way over my lifetime. So my co founder and I, Kaylin Gutierrez and I Kailyn is all things brand here. He and I have built multiple companies together that is such a privilege to have repeat founders coming together again, and then my advisory board are all people that I've worked with throughout my career. So it is a luxury to have people you know, the former head of strategy at MasterCard, for example, my former CPG lawyer from the west coast, the former general counsel of the Bruins. These are all people that are of importance to me, that I know and love. So I build this company with people that I have a connection with, that they have a connection to Maine. Kaylin lives in the Marin County, California, but he spent many, many summers in Maine with his family with me. And so I think having this opportunity to bring the best of the people that I love together is actually the greatest love of seeing this product on shelf right now. It's with beautiful it's at the Falmouth town landing. That's my that's my hometown store. I've kept my family's kept our boats at the Falmouth town landing for generations. So to see it in places where I grew up, and to see it with people that throughout my career of varying skill sets. You know, the head of M and A of MasterCard does not join a water starter. You know, I'm grateful to kush sexina, because Kush is the best strategic mind I know, former McKinsey mind. It doesn't matter what I'm making. His mind is important to me. His thinking is important to me. And this is a complex business model and so surrounding myself with people who have skills smarter than myself, in finance, in computation, in supply chain, in reasoning, in design, that is my job as a founder is to get out of everybody else's way.
Samantha Marinko 27:24
I like, I like the way you're saying. I mean, it seems like really one of the key points, what I'm hearing from you is these relationships are invaluable.
Jen Millard 27:33
Invaluable. Could not build this company today if I had not had the relationships, and I would say, retain those relationships. Really encourage young people to work, even in high school, on socializing. How do you meet people? How do you shake hands? How do you look someone in the eye and appear interested and inviting on what they're sharing with you? How do you have empathy towards different types of consumer profiles. I think one of my superpowers is understanding consumers, because I spoke to consumers for 20 years every day. We've spent a lot of time standing in stores. I've spent a lot of time standing talking to customers about Mainelove over the last six to eight months, handing out water, understanding why people choose carbonation over standing flat water. You know? Why? Why do you like light carbonation? Why do you like heavier carbonation? Why did you choose this? Can you know what draws you to the brand? Is it one of the many pillars, what thesis is important to you? Most people really just want to feel that they are making a difference, even if it's one. Can at a time that their personal choices make a difference in our world, in our environment, because the world is very chaotic, but people can control their choices right now. So we hope that people choose love and harmony at a time when love and harmony for Maine is a brilliant feeling. Yeah, control what you can.
Samantha Marinko 29:09
So I read one of the interviews that you did, and there was a quote that stood out to me that I wanted to ask you about, when you said, Everybody's trying to find the balance and nobody is winning. I think this was as it relates to, you know, work life balance in general. So if you're not seeking balance, per se, like, what, what is the goal? What are you looking for to balance? What you do with it's a very good
Jen Millard 29:29
question, and often is posed by young women and, you know, Sheryl Sandberg and the Lean In moment, and and all those components. I always said I needed to lean lay down. Not lean in. I needed to lay down. So I'm a big believer, you know, I think a lot of pressure is placed on female executives and male executives, but primarily the burden, I believe, is carried by. Women. I don't talk about work life balance with a lot of my male counterparts. It doesn't come up as a dialog. But I've had a lot of women, specifically early in career. You know, how do you do it? I am not a poster child for work life balance, period. And you know, some days work is going to get 80% and your family's going to get 20 some days like yesterday, my family needed 100% and I had to give 100% to my family yesterday. So I always try to enable a culture that is with great grace. Everyone is trying to make their life the best that they can, especially if they have family. And so if you want to prioritize your daughter's recital, do it. Do it. Don't ask permission. Do it. And so one of my goals as a founder here is to enable that type of culture at Mainelove. I want people to prioritize for themselves. I think oftentimes work life balance, people are looking for some sort of algorithm of tell me how much to put in each bucket. There's no magic algorithm, and unfortunately, it's a challenge for everyone.
Samantha Marinko 31:19
Yep, I think you're, you're like, hitting the nail on the head as somebody with young kids at home, it's not going to be 5050, every day, and
Jen Millard 31:29
it's too much pressure to absolutely it puts it puts too much pressure on, first of all, there's enough mom shaming for all of us, but it puts too much pressure on what's right. You know, everyone's looking for what's perfect, what's right, what's how much, and I don't think you can really measure that in a algorithmic way, yep.
Samantha Marinko 31:54
So you did, on that note, you did spend some time with MasterCard, and I think you were basically sent to every continent. It sounded like you, you really made your way around the globe to
Jen Millard 32:06
see how money moved around the world. Very amazing experience. Well, you know, only by the love of MasterCard. You know, I sold my, one of my first companies, to MasterCard. It is unusual for the business person. It was a it was a technology acquisition. It was unusual for the business person to go along with the transaction. You won't find a more brilliant group of individuals than that. At the time, I was at MasterCard, Ajay Banga was the CEO. Ajay Banga sits as the head of the World Bank today, and it was a time of money movement to enable globalization of payments. Interestingly, we sit at a moment in time where we're more inward focused, I think, right now. But during that era at MasterCard, it was around acceptance and the power of acceptance around the world, so enabling giant jurisdictions of Africa to who would be eight hours by a walk to a banking institution, and these are micro transactions in Africa, just seeing the ability of commerce to come alive between two parties using a mobile device in continents that really they would not have been able to enable commerce, was an incredible experience, and to see that with banks and different cultures around the world. Was an experience that I will value forever. Yeah.
Samantha Marinko 33:46
And you were there, you were there for a couple of years, a couple of very three years in one day, three years in one day. Wow. And then when you when you left there, I mean, it sounds like it was very inspiring. You learned a lot, but also it sounds like it was, it was a, it was a lot of work. It was exhausting.
Jen Millard 34:03
I was a, I was a single mother. My children were in high school. It was a, it was a lot, it was a lot of travel. And so after that time, I actually went to be an EIR, an entrepreneur, in residence at Sutter Hill, primarily because a colleague of mine knew that I was very tired. I built a company, sold a company, stayed three years, was doing all this work for MasterCard. I wanted to, I wanted to spend some time at home and so an EIR role is think of all your great ideas. My job at Sutter Hill was to think of a new company every two weeks and to pitch a business model every two weeks to the partner meeting 24 sessions a year. And so you got really good at rejection. You got really good at feedback. That is. The point you might rework a concept that you had taken forward two months ago, but you can't put it down for some reason. So an incredible, again, just an incredible group of people who were building incredible things, and it's hard not to be inspired when you're with people who are doing incredible things.
Samantha Marinko 35:21
It's interesting to me to hear that that was your your recovery from a tiring job, because that sounds exhausting to me. Personally,
Jen Millard 35:33
I'm always swirling in projects in my brain. I don't think I can shut it off. So it actually felt rather natural to have multiple experiences at the same time. You know, in consulting, I often had multiple projects at the same time. I would often challenge that tend to be smarter and better if you are little diversified, if you're working on a couple different types of concepts. Typical companies have the same problems in the same stage of company. It really doesn't matter what you're doing.
Samantha Marinko 36:09
So in all of these experiences, you've had, all of these people that you've met, all of these brilliant people, what's the best piece of advice that you've gotten?
Jen Millard 36:21
Always be a stronger listener. And I would say I'm a sales oriented person, so it is difficult for me to be an active listener, because I'm usually the one doing the talking. So I have taken that feedback over maybe the last decade really to heart to ensure that let's make sure we have all the information before we submit an opinion.
Samantha Marinko 36:50
And so you've been back in Maine for how long now.
Jen Millard 36:53
So my husband and I have been spending summers here for about 10 years. Our our technology jobs enabled us to have that privilege. But my husband did drive to Boston every day last, last summer and commuted back. And then I've been in Maine. Actually. We started the company on May 4 and registered in the state of Maine on June 4, and I'm proud to be a Maine resident in 2025
Samantha Marinko 37:20
oh, exciting. Well, welcome back. Thank you. So did you do you move back to Maine and say, I'm going to move back and I'm going to start a business? Or did you have this idea and say, you know, now is the time to go back, because I've got this great idea. I've been located, you
Jen Millard 37:35
know, you know, I've I've given time to the main venture fund and to MTI and to CEI, and, you know, part of the main MCD programming and part of the Diego programming. And so I've been looking for an entrepreneur, really, in the blue economy to support for multiple years, and then finally got to a place a couple summers ago, that if I was going to do something in Maine, I was going to have to do it myself. And then it became around what and then with the call, kind of back to Colby, call, come back to Maine, I had, I had been working on a little bit of an alcohol project for an actress. And in that research, you quickly realized now is not the time to create an alcohol brand. No one is consuming alcohol under the age of 25 the drop off is dramatic and consistent. You have a lot of sustainability anxiety around single use plastic. All the health and wellness around single use plastic, and I feel that the water in Maine is under underappreciated, and so kind of putting all those things together. We didn't have the brand the vessel or water in a can on June 4, but we've had a little California hustle to get to where we are here in Maine. So I'm moving faster than most entrepreneurs in Maine, for sure, but I also want to show others that it can be done absolutely and you can this product would be I don't. I would not be able to build this product in any of the states that I've built other businesses, the brewing industry in Maine and Maine in general is so collaborative that does not happen in other states. Other states, you can't call the head of the water department at Portland Water District and get someone to answer the phone. You can't and so to get to water in an aluminum vessel in Maine has taken multiple chemists, multiple regulators, multiple brewers, but everyone has been doing it out of love for Maine. Even my investors that have invested in the company are all lovers of Maine. So I feel like the economic pillars here. Really aligned to create a really a win, win win, business that enables Maine to have another pillar of the economy that is not recognized today, and to own that economy and to be proud of that. We protect it. And the protection is not really around the water. The protection is around the forest, because without the trees that surround Sebago Lake, the Portland water district would have to build a billion dollar ish water facility, because the trees are our purification plant. You're walking on the water treatment plant up by Bethel around the crooked River as the water comes down to Sebago Lake, it is it contains enough water, as we sit today, for every person in the world to have 100 gallons, if it does not rain. So it is of abundance. It is of incredible, epic quality, the second most pure body of water in the 48 The first is in Alaska and is not transportable. So we sit with an epic opportunity as a state to think about economics in a different manner and to consider water as food. And being Maine is a provider of an amazing amount of food, and water is a food product. You're really
Samantha Marinko 41:32
hitting a lot of big pain points for, for the state, for for people in general right now. I mean sustainability, and you know, water in general, and the economy like you're, you're, you're taking a lot of boxes and trying, yeah,
Speaker 1 41:46
if you're going to come home, you should do it right?
Jen Millard 41:49
You know, I've learned enough lessons from the other businesses. Let's not, let's not take two by fours to the head on previous known problems. Let's try to take all that learning. Let's not make those same mistakes again. We won't be perfect, but we want to make sure that we're building the best company possible with the best people, with the best love for Maine, right, and
Samantha Marinko 42:08
a common goal so everybody, yeah, it it all works. So there's been so many benefits. Clearly, as you've been saying to being in Maine and building your business here, have you had any challenges.
Jen Millard 42:21
I would say fundraising in Maine is a consistent challenge. And I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs and participate in a lot of the programming. Part of it is our state is so large that the programming is split over very large jurisdiction. So there isn't one center of excellence. You know, if you go to Austin, Texas, and you are even thinking of doing an idea, you are getting a desk at the Capital Factory that's the Center of Excellence for entrepreneurship, regardless of what you're building, and on any set day, there's probably two to 300 people working in that environment, renting a desk, showing up, being around other entrepreneurs, they do some programming, they do some structured kind of assist, but for the most part, it's a co working space. There doesn't, there isn't a center of excellence for entrepreneurs in Maine, and I think part of that is hindered by the size of the state. It is also very clear that there's not a lot of seed capital in Maine. There's a lot of beautiful grants and enablement. But we've moved to commercialization here very quickly. So I've moved from ideation to business model to concept to to MVP to commercialization in a very fast fashion, most of those support networks in Maine are not used to that speed. They're not used to my type of pace in this type of product. So the fundraising aspect has been challenging inside Maine. I'd also say Mainers are risk averse by statute, like by stature. We're humble, we're proud. We're hard working. Interestingly, one of our advisors use is a former FEMA executive, and we are working on a discussion with the Red Cross. Red Cross is one of the largest purchasers of emergency water in the world. And my friend from FEMA said that by the time somebody from Maine even makes a call to FEMA, Mainers have already cleaned up themselves. Mainers have already put away all the downed trees. Have helped their neighbors. FEMA does not come to Maine to help us in natural emergencies, because we we help, we help each other. And I think that's the feeling that you really get with brewers and with our communities, is that we're not waiting for somebody to come and save us. We want to create ways to save ourselves and to help our neighbors. Yes. So my goal in doing this company in Maine is truly to do it for Maine. If it's great for Maine, it will be great for everybody else.
Samantha Marinko 45:09
And part of your your turnaround time and your pace, as you put it, is, you've already opened a distribution facility too.
Speaker 1 45:18
Correct,
Jen Millard 45:19
correct. I'm thrilled to say we're moving on shelf with pine state beverage. I signed the contract this morning. And you know, it's a beautiful family held main business, you know, multiple generations of Mainers, 110 salespeople, 70 plus trucks that will be moving my water to market, and I'm very proud to sit here with family business in Maine, in Gardner, Maine that will be doing the distribution.
Samantha Marinko 45:49
And your brewers are all in Maine. Your your facility in Westbrook is Yeah, so
Jen Millard 45:54
we took a warehouse facility a little earlier than I was expecting, but we have a beautiful facility off of 95 that has enabled us to actually move at this pace, yeah, be able to receive, test the water, create testing processes. How are we planning on distributing the water, trying to not use plastic tops to hold the water. How are we delivering the water? You know, so we've been doing all that work ourselves, and I'm a big believer in what's called dog fooding. In the software business, you everyone better have your app on their phone, and it better be ugly and you're trying to find everything that you can find wrong with it. So that's what we've been working similar to a software startup, we work in two week sprints with goals and accomplishments on each of those sprints, and I'm really thrilled to be here today with an application at Massachusetts and moving to shelf
Samantha Marinko 46:48
with a distributor. Wow, it's interesting how you you are able to incorporate all of your old learnings from, you know, software and retail and all of these other things into a water business, because from somebody that doesn't have that entrepreneurial mindset, I would never have seen the connection if I didn't hear specifically how these things all tied together. The
Jen Millard 47:10
only thing I'm missing was the chemistry. I was not a chemistry major. I would say that my sidebar chemistry today is pretty good, but you know, I have two science PhDs on my team. You know you must surround yourself with people who have superpowers greater than your own. So I'm I can, I can handle the science now, but I have some brilliant water scientists that have not only helped brewers to advise, because obviously I can't consult here there are experts to help brewers meet an FDA standard. So to have chemists to be available to brewers, to even have the conversation about, what would it require to to join the Mainelove family? What would you have to upgrade? What would be the with your equipment, and so having a group of practical tactical advisors has really enabled our success. Yeah,
Samantha Marinko 48:09
yeah. All these good people. It seems like it's the, you know, the core of a lot of what you've said is, is finding those people and holding on to them. Every
Jen Millard 48:18
business is a people business. It doesn't matter if you're making water, you're making software or you're delivering dirt, every business is a relationship.
Samantha Marinko 48:30
So you've talked a little bit about what's in your immediate future. What do you see a few years out? What do you see for Mainelove in a couple of years and yourself too. Where do you see this all going? My
Jen Millard 48:43
goal is to run a brilliant beverage company in Maine for a very long time. I think we sit at the cusp of we're about to launch three flavors. The opening day of the hearts of pine will be the launch of the three flavors. They will move to distribution. Ahead of that time, you're going to have to repeat the question, Sam,
Samantha Marinko 49:04
that's okay. No, just what's next? What's in? So
Jen Millard 49:10
I've always thought of this as a regional expression, okay, water is too expensive to sustainably ship from a supply chain perspective, outside of 450 miles. So our activation is around sports colleges and then the retail around them. So this summer, starting in Portland, we're doing a variety of amazing events all over the summer, sailing, cycling. You'll see us at a lot of lot of places, and then we are in conversations to move down 95 My goal is to do the head of the Charles for college students in October, which would take an epic swing, but let's see if we can do it, and to be the water at TD Garden and the Red Sox very shortly. Wow, because I really believe. That stadiums are people need aluminum choices in stadiums, and also, with the decline of beer revenue in stadiums, consumers are looking for choices that are not plastic, and we've had amazing stadium event yields that are really leaning into no single use plastic, which is a bold statement for a facility that, you know, houses 20,000 you know, consumers. So I'm thrilled with the the impact here is eliminating single use plastic. We've seen an amazing response from hotels, from hospitality. About Jen, I've never had a choice. I've never had an option to serve my guests, which has led us to create hospitality colors white and black for weddings and for bars. So we're very fast learners. I consider us agile, and if, if there's feedback that we we see that is validated, we try to respond to that feedback as quickly as possible. So in three years, I don't know what that looks like, but I hope it includes New York. Wow, wow, because that would be my goal in three years would be, we're already getting calls from bars in New York, because if you're the only liquor that's being purchased right now is expensive whiskeys. And most people don't want a Hudson river water back. They would like a premium water back. And so hence the applications to other states, because I'm already getting calls they'd like to place orders.
Samantha Marinko 51:38
Wow. So lots of very exciting things on the lots of exciting
Jen Millard 51:42
things. So I can't predict year three Sam, but my goal is to run an incredibly agile beverage business in Maine with distributed manufacturing that enables job creation and retention in
Samantha Marinko 51:56
Maine. Whatever it is, it looks good, yeah. And it might not
Jen Millard 51:59
be beverages. There are lots of products in Maine that are amazing but are poorly marketed. And so the Mainelove Halo, while it starts with beverages, does not need to only be beverages. It could be any other agriculture product that might fit our thesis of distributed manufacturing. So we are open minded and how we think about the future?
Samantha Marinko 52:23
Wow. All right, so there, there, there may be some, some big things to come in the future. Gotta
Speaker 1 52:29
be open minded. You don't know what it can you don't know what opportunities might come. Know that
Samantha Marinko 52:34
I like it. Okay, well, I'm gonna wrap it up. I have a question about if you could do one thing over, if you could start again. Is there anything that you would do, anything that stands out to you as like a pivotal time where you would change something? Or, you know,
Jen Millard 52:51
I've enjoyed all the experiences in my career, for good or bad, oftentimes you learn more from the more challenging experiences. I
Samantha Marinko 52:59
had a feeling you were gonna say that
Jen Millard 53:02
like I, I don't, I don't think I could have could do this company had I not done all my other experiences. So I would say the only thing that I might change was would probably be give myself greater grace
Samantha Marinko 53:16
to fail. Well, great answer. And
Jen Millard 53:19
you know, if you're not willing to take great risk, you will not have great opportunity. And so as I sit here today, moving to distribution, I am terrified as a founder, but I'm also trying to be very brave. It's a very important time in our business. It is and it's a very exciting time. It's amazing. It is amazing to see it come to life. It is amazing to see events where people are just holding cans around you, naturally, without a lot of force. And it's been an amazing brand to bring alive
Speaker 1 53:53
this summer. Yeah,
Samantha Marinko 53:54
well, in the midst of all of the ongoings, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to Oh, anything for boulis,
Speaker 1 54:00
of course, anything for the Bucha says, of course. Well, thank
Samantha Marinko 54:05
you very much for your time, for your insight, and we appreciate having
Speaker 1 54:08
you anytime, anytime. Thank you,
Samantha Marinko 54:11
Jen, thank you for being our guest today on the Boulos beat. We appreciate your time to learn more about Mainelove. Check out their website, Mainelove.com or you can find Mainelove on Facebook or Tiktok or on Instagram at Mainelove life. And if you'd like to learn more about the Boulos company, please be sure to visit us@www.Boulos.com you can also find the Boulos company on Facebook and LinkedIn and at the Boulos CO on Instagram and X you.