FAIRFIELD -- A 26-year-old consultant who grew up in Harpswell, went to college out of state, then returned to Maine to start his own business, is the newest tenant at the Thomas M. Teague Technology Center.

David Gulak, doing business as Frequency Consulting Group, is in the process of moving into 600 square feet of office space in the center off Western Avenue.

"It's only six months old, the business," Gulak said. "I want to hire more people. This year I want to take on two or three new people to help with graphic design and getting materials out and to help with market research.

"I call it commercialization planning."

Gulak said his business can help people who have a product, a new technology -- even an invention -- and want assistance getting funding for development and research or finding customers and the quickest way to reach them.

"There's a lot of great resources in the state and the federal government that can help companies with small- and large-scale grant funding to figure out what the market is and who I am selling to," he said.

Gulak said he already works with state organizations and non-profits to help them to research and identify market trends, including the Maine Technology Institute and the Maine Small Business Alliance.

Now, he said, he wants to focus more on private companies.

"If you have a business and you need to sell (the product), those are the kinds of people I am targeting," he said. "A lot of people are doing work part-time and they think resources are not available or assume that they don't have what it takes to find customers."

He said his fees are reasonable at $40 per hour.

A consultant is someone a business hires to make their business run more efficiently, Gulak said.

"A consultant that's helpful can walk into a business and assess what the business is doing and where they want to be," he said.

Gulag is just the newest tenant in the technology park, which officials hope will be a destination for new businesses.

Kennebec Valley Community College is using space for bioscience training, professional development and for its Quality Center programs in rooms paid for by Jackson Laboratories of Bar Harbor, the center's first tenant.

Two medical research companies and a biodiesel manufacturing company have either signed agreements or are in the process of doing so.

A financing agreement through the town's revolving loan fund is keeping the center solvent until it can pay its own way.

Taxpayers have an interest in the success of the center, too, having financed the building with a $2 million bond backed by the town in 2001, and for the security of having a revenue-generating employer in town.

Opened as a biotechnology park at its 1998 groundbreaking, the park's designation now is simply "technology center." The new designation is intended to open doors to other researchers and business entrepreneurs, such as Gulak.

Gulak, who bought a house on Main Street in Fairfield, is a graduate of George Washington University in Washington D.C., but Maine is where he chooses to live.

"I really like this area," he said. "Fairfield is conveniently inconvenient from everywhere -- it's an hour from Bangor, it's an hour from Portland. It's the kind of place I like and it's affordable, more than southern Maine."

Gulak said he is a Maine kid who got his education and came back home to use it.

"The buzz in Maine is always keeping young people here and finding them work," he said. "I'm 26. I'm from Maine. I wanted to come back to Maine. I moved to central Maine because I like it here. There's fishing, there's hunting, there's hiking -- there's everything."

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com