Propel Names Demo Day Presenters

Propel ICT has announced the 14 companies that will present at its Demo Day in Halifax on June 21, including eight from the Launch program for younger startups.

The companies are:

Launch Program

Halifax

SHED -- Shed has created a platform to help homeowners quickly and easily hire a service provider to carry out chores around the home.

Swell Advantage – AirBnB for docks and moorings.  Swell helps the boaters find short-term docking space and the owners of wharves and moorings to make money from their waterfrontage.

Charlottetown

Airbly – Airbly has developed hardware and software that

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Briefs: Shad, FAN, BioNova, Grind

BioNova Launches BioInnovation Challenge

BioNova is now accepting applications for the 2016 BioInnovation Challenge, a $50,000 pitching competition for early-stage life sciences companies or researchers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

BioNova, Nova Scotia’s life sciences industry association, created the BIC to help ease the transition from research laboratory to

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Sentinel Alert Spends Week with d{}

Sentinel Alert, the St. John’s company developing worker safety products, spent last week delving into product development in Waterloo Region in a unique form of company retreat.

The week of working with d{} – the Deloitte outpost in the Communitech innovation hub – gave the members of the far-flung company a chance to come together to work on product and business models. With three pilots in

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Job of the Week: Smartpods

Today in Job of the Week, we’re presenting an opening for two software programmers with Smartpods of Moncton.

Smartpods has developed an automated, adjustable desk, which helps the user avoid the adverse health effects of sitting all day. The Smartpod desk automatically moves so that throughout the day the worker may be sitting or standing.

The Jobs of the Week article features openings posted

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Propel’s Local Demo Day in Halifax

The Propel ICT finished off its local Demo Days on Thursday with presentations in Halifax and St. John’s.

Twelve of the companies in the current cohort, including seven from the advanced Build program, will present at the regional Demo Day on June 21.

We were unable to be at the event in St. John’s, but here are the companies that pitched in Halifax:

WoodsCamp

This member of the Build program has developed an online marketplace to help woodlot owners bring their timber to market at the best price possible. CEO Alastair Jarvis explained that 65 percent of the woodlots in Nova Scotia are

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Button Prepares to Launch Ignite

Following the successful launch of his virtual Spark accelerator for fledgling rural entrepreneurs, Andrew Button, CEO and Founder of Mashup Lab, is preparing to launch Ignite, a virtual program for more advanced rural startups.

Button, who is based in Wileville on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, began the Spark program, part of the Mashup Lab Virtual Incubation Program, in September last year to

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Xona Launches Game on PlayStation

Xona Games, the Yarmouth, N.S.-based independent game studio, has released its latest title on Sony’s PlayStation 4, marking its first move on to the top tier of console games.

The studio founded seven years ago by twin brothers Matthew and Jason Doucette has released Score Rush Extended, an enhanced version of the studio’s Score Rush game. It was released in North America on Tuesday and is

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Briefs: Make-A-Wish, Copps, Simms

Jones Needs Support for Make-A-Wish Foundation

Stephen Jones will rappel from the roof of the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel in just over two weeks with the hopes of helping children with severe medical difficulties realize their dreams.

Jones, the CEO of 4Deep Inwater Imaging of Halifax, needs people’s help in raising at least the $1,500 minimum to allow him to proceed with the Make-A-Wish Rope for

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PEI Hosts First Propel Demo Day

Propel ICT held its first local demo day in Charlottetown on Tuesday, an event significant because it symbolized the growth in IT in a market traditionally known for life sciences.

The regional tech accelerator is now wrapping up its first cohort of 2016, and this week it’s holding four local demo days -- in Charlottetown and Fredericton on Tuesday, and in Halifax and St. John’s tomorrow. These

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Lucey Warns of Pitfalls of Taking VC

Ian Lucey’s favourite company is Drummohr Software, which makes tax software for the British tax system. The company, founded in 1996, made $2 million per year, and eventually sold out for $20 million.

Not bad for a company run by two guys, and then later with the help of one man’s wife and son. The company’s costs were $30,000 a year to cover the expense of producing and delivering CDs with the

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