Business of the Year - Manufacturing/Technology: Mainstay Technologies

In the world of information security, where the stakes are high, Mainstay Technologies takes a proactive and personal approach.

Mainstay President Jason Golden says a business should be judged by its total impact on the lives of people it touches in the community and in the broader environment. “Our commitment to and focus on technology is our [way] to serve people.  It’s our vehicle. We’re people serving people,” he says. “Culture is what happens as [we] engage on this mission together. We believe culture is the fabric crafted out of what is expected, what is normal, and what is tolerated—ultimately out of how we treat each other.”

To create this culture, Mainstay’s hiring team focuses attention on finding the right people (Mainstay has nearly 100 employees). Some of the qualities they’re looking for include the right attitude, kindness, and intellect, Golden says, adding while skills are important, it is “the essence of the person that is most important.”

That in turn allows the company to keep its commitment to “conscious capitalism” and to being “a self-sustaining force for good and to help bring human flourishing.” In 2018, Mainstay created the Mainstay Technologies Fund, a donor-advised fund at the NH Charitable Foundation that is directed by Mainstay’s charity team, to invest a “significant portion” of the profits to philanthropic work. Through Mainstay’s profit-sharing program, team members can also elect to donate their earnings to the fund.

In 2023, Mainstay team members volunteered with the Society for the Protection of NH Forests to plant 4,500 trees at the Society’s Christmas tree farm at The Rocks in Bethlehem. Mainstay employees also volunteered at Live and Let Live Farm Rehabilitation Rescue and Sanctuary in Chichester during the Granite United Way’s annual Day of Caring. And Mainstay’s team also fully outfitted the Wolfeboro Camp School with 36 tents, including furniture and beds in each tent.

Golden says the “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” of the company, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, is to be a 100-year-old, privately held, NH organization. “We can only achieve these goals by hiring the very best human beings we can find,” he says. “We want our clients to walk away feeling amazing with each interaction. We look for creative thinkers and problem solvers that are also incredibly kind and pleasant to be around.”