Sometime in the new year, at a cattle farm in Port Hood, Cape Breton, Chris van den Heuvel will launch a software product that could save thousands of dollars each for hundreds of thousands of North American farmers.

Van den Heuvel is a software developer and the founder and sole proprietor of Fireblade Software, which monitors real-time data on cattle farms. By identifying areas of weak performance, Fireblade can help a farm save an estimated $7,500 per year, which goes directly to the operation’s bottom line.

“We’ve been using it on our own place and are just tweaking it before we do

GoVenture World, the Sydney company developing a massively multi-player online game to train budding entrepreneurs on what it’s really like to start and grow a business, has been named to a list of the 50 brightest startups in the world.

The company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of eLearning company MediaSpark of Sydney, is nearing the alpha-testing phase as its developers continue to refine the game and work out kinks.

In the meantime, the company has been named one of 50 companies around the world to compete in the Startup Open, which selects a list of the leading startups in

If you think your startup idea is too early-stage for the Breakthru competition, Calvin Milbury would respectfully like to set you straight.

Breakthru, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s biennial business plan competition, is essentially designed to guide novice entrepreneurs from the back-of-an-envelope stage to the early phases of incorporation.

“We’re actually looking for someone with an innovative idea who sees a commercial market,” said Milbury, the President and CEO of NBIF, in an interview during a break in the National Angel Capital Organization Summit in Halifax last

A dozen companies from across the Maritimes will gather in Saint John on Saturday to vie for a coveted spot in the second cohort of the Launch36 Accelerator, organized by PropelICT.

Speaking during a break at the National Angel Capital Organization Summit in Halifax yesterday, Propel Executive Director Trevor MacAusland said the finalists for the Autumn 2012 cohort comprise five teams from New Brunswick, five from Nova Scotia and two from P.E.I.

“The quality of the teams has made this a very, very difficult process,” said MacAusland. “And their ideas range from aerial drones to

IPSNP Computing Inc., a Saint John-based startup developing advanced software for searching online databanks, has received $200,000 in funding to advance its lead product, HYDRA.

The company said in a press release that it has secured $150,000 in equity funding from private investors in the region and a $50,000 grant from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program.

"The new investments provide us with a solid foundation to expand our team, drive development of HYDRA, and bring new expertise to the board,” said CEO Chris Baker.

The company is

News reports say Salesforce.com is laying off employees at Radian6, which it aquired for about last year. With other commitments, we haven't had time to look into the story so here are a few links to reports from other profiders.

TechCrunch: Salesforce.com Laying Off Radian6 Employees As Buddy Media Shows $20 Million Net Loss.

Financial Post: Salesforce.com lays off Radian6 employees.

CBC: NDP leader calls for Radian6 funding to be cancelled.

When I ran into Patrick Keefe, the new head of the regional venture capital fund, during Atlantic Innovation Week, the one thing he wanted to talk about was the book he’d just finished, Startup Communities by Brad Feld.

Feld is a serial entrepreneur and a pillar of the startup community in Boulder, Colorado. The recently published book is intended to be a roadmap for the development of entrepreneurial communities – such as the one now developing in Atlantic Canada. It’s been featured widely in tech blogs the past few weeks. Even though Keefe was more impressed with it than I was, it’s

ABK Biomedical of Halifax aims to have its treatment for uterine fibroids ready to roll out in Canada within 18 months with the help of a $1.25 million fundraising round announced yesterday.

The company, which was developed by researchers at Dalhousie University, has received a $500,000 equity investment from a group of Atlantic Canadian angels, $250,000 in venture capital from Innovacorp and a $500,000 loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

ABK Biomedical also announced that it has hired a chief executive, Pat O’Connor, a former executive with Boston Scientific, one of the

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and Cox & Palmer yesterday launched the province’s fourth Breakthru competition, which tests entrants’ ability to write business plans and awards winners a total of $250,000 in cash and professional services.

The winner will receive a $100,000 cash investment from NBIF, along with professional services from such firms as Cox & Palmer. The two runners-up will each receive $50,000 plus legal, marketing, and accounting services.

Applications for the biennial contest must be received by NBIF by Dec. 20. The winners will be announced at the Breakthru

As it achieves a preliminary close on its first round of funding, LeadSift has signed a deal to market its lead-generation product through Salesforce.com – a deal that came together because of an article on Entrevestor.com in May.

Halifax-based LeadSift is announcing as early as today a $500,000 preliminary close on its first round of funding, which includes a $250,000 investment from Nova Scotia’s innovation agency, Innovacorp. 

That announcement is coming just four days after San Francisco-based Salesforce, the social media company that bought Radian6 of Fredericton and GoInstant of