Robertson Developing Talent Pipeline

It’s well known that North America suffers from a shortage of tech talent and skills. It’s a problem that Doug Robertson, president and CEO of Moncton’s Venn Centre, is addressing through targeted programming and partnerships.

Venn’s own programs are aimed at young entrepreneurs and those building a company gaining traction. Initiatives include InspireNB, an online platform that connects

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Crowdfunding Event at Summer St.

PropelICT’s information session on equity crowdfunding and related issues on Monday is now taking place at the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre at 1344 Summer Street.

The organization had planned another venue but had to make the change yesterday. An early post by Entrevestor on Thursday contained the previous address. 

Crowdfunding is the process of raising money online from a broad range of people. Although it has been used for charitable fundraising and early sales of products, regulators in six provinces (including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) recently approved the practice for

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Bitness Lands First Customers

A 15-year-old who creates a device that can track customer traffic is impressive, but it’s nothing compared with a 16-year-old who turns that device into a bona fide business.

Alex Gillis, the 16-year-old founder of Bitness, did just that. After a year of work, his customer traffic device found its first client, the Fickle Frog, a Halifax pub. This week, Be Your Own Bartender, a provider of

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Correction: Crowdfunding Event Monday

[Note: We have received new information from the organizers and the venue has been changed to the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre.]

 

PropelICT has organized an information session on equity crowdfunding and related issues in Halifax on Monday.

Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ying Tam said the meeting, which is open to anyone who wants to attend, takes place at the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre at 1344 Summer Street starting at 5 pm.

“I initially targeted this for the PropelICT cohort in Halifax, but realized this has broad interest across the entrepreneur community,” said Tam in an email. 

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BYOB To Launch in 4 PEI Liquor Stores

Four Prince Edward Island liquor stores will soon contain a Be Your Own Bartender (BYOB) kiosk, a touch screen with more 6000 cocktail recipes to help customers learn about cocktails.

BYOB is the brainchild of company President Matt Sullivan, and it allows liquor store customers to browse for cocktail recipes by name, ingredient or type of drink. Once the customer selects the recipe, the

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Biopolynet Wins Statoil, GE Award

Fredericton’s BioPolynet, whose nanotechnology helps to bind or stabilize solids, has won a technology competition with a prize worth as much as US$400,000 from Statoil and GE Oil & Gas.

Last week, the Norwegian state oil company and the oil and gas unit of the conglomerate General Electric Co. announced BioPolynet was one of five winners of the Open Innovation Challenge.

The competition asked entrants — and there were about 100 from more than 30 countries — to submit technologies that can improve the use of sand in the hydraulic fracturing process. Each of the five winners received

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Campbell: Medtech Mentor & Founder

Barbara Campbell finds it interesting that when she worked in Vancouver, she was often flown to Halifax to talk about commercializing medical technology. Now that she lives in Halifax, she is rarely asked to speak.

The medical technologies entrepreneur is CEO of Hammock Facilitation and co-founder of two medical device startups, OrthoMX, of which she is CEO, and EnginuityMed, of which she’s

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Javorek Prepares for PetKonekt Launch

Three years after injuries ended his sports career, athlete-turned-entrepreneur Justin Javorek is preparing for a fourth-quarter launch of PetKonekt, an app that links pet owners and pet-care professionals. 

PetKonekt is a customer relationship management tool that benefits both the pet owners and the people who help them care for animals. The owners can find veterinarians and other service

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Recognizing Persistence and Creativity

A well-deserved award caught up with Costa Zafiris last week, validation for his dogged pursuit of the entrepreneurial dream.

Zafiris, 24, graduated from Dalhousie University in May with a commerce degree and a major in entrepreneurship.

During his time at Dal, he was a common sight at the various startup initiatives and he is a founder of three budding startups — Date Caddie, Unify and

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