Daniel Silver held up a printout of about 15 possible names, bearing varying combinations that featured such words as “Acadia”, “Data”, “Analytics” and “Institute.”

Silver, the Director of the Jodrey School of Computer Science at Acadia University, and several colleagues are at work this summer putting together plans for a data analytics institute. As the list shows, they have yet to agree on such minutiae as the name, but they already know what will separate this from other academic Big Data bodies in the region.

“Our data institute will have a rural and agricultural focus,” said

The reception wasn’t great on Atlee Clark’s call from San Francisco, but what came through loud and clear was that C100 is more than ever a vibrant part of the Canadian start-up ecosystem.

The executive director of C100 had no trouble getting across the message that the organization for Canadian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley is shifting emphasis slightly to represent that it’s no longer a fledgling organization. “In the last three years, the focus has been on taking 100 people in the Valley and figuring out who’s best to help certain entrepreneurs,” said Clark in a

BDC Venture Capital said today it is investing $150,000 each in RUMAnalytics of New Brunswick and Analyze Re of Nova Scotia as part of an agreement with the Launch36 accelerator program.

The venture capital arm of Business Development Bank of Canada said it is extending convertible notes of $150,000 each to 10 recent graduates of Canadian accelerators, including the two from Moncton-based Launch36.

The accelerator, which has prepared 18 companies for investment and the market in 15 months, said that it will work with BDC in the future to assess “venture ready” graduates from the

When about 50 East Coast founders, entrepreneurs and partners rolled en masse into the Montreal International Startup Festival’s opening night barbeque in matching “Startup East” blue t-shirts, it made a statement.

“It shows that we are presenting ourselves as a community,” said Milan Vrekic, Executive Director of Halifax’s Volta Labs. “More importantly, it shows we are maturing as a community compared to where we were five years ago.”

And while today no one is going to confuse the “Silicon Coast” with Silicon Valley, it does show that something real is taking root in Atlantic Canada’s

Dozens of East Coast startup attending the Montreal International Startup Festival are hustling hard to find partners, employees and, of course, investors.

Companies like TitanFile, Modest Tree Media, topLog, Interview Rocket and Wicked Ideas took turns holding court in the Atlantic Canada tent, pitching their ideas to the wandering crowd, alongside startups from Ottawa, New York and Toronto. People from other East Coast startups like RUM Analytics, One Lobby, 26ones, AnalyzeRe and Fund Metric, took in the sessions and roamed the scene.

East Coast entrepreneurs – many arriving on one

ChemGreen Innovations Inc. reminds Nauman Farooqi of a line he once heard a comedian deliver: it faces more opportunities than a mosquito in a nudist colony.

In fact, the ChemGreen president and chief executive officer said one of the challenges for the four-year-old Sackville, N.B., maker of cost-effective and environmentally friendly polymers has been to choose which opportunities it wants to pursue.

The company grew out of research by Khashayar Ghandi, a professor of green chemistry at Mount Allison University who discovered a cost-effective means of producing polymers, or

Praxes Medical Group, a Halifax company that provides medical advice to teams in remote locations, is marketing its software to clients across the country as part of its expansion program.

 

Siance 1997, Praxes has provided emergency medical advice to corporate and government clients with remote operations and teams, such as those aboard ships, in the Arctic or in mines.

 

The company uses software called EMwerx, which it developed and is now selling to emergency search teams, fire departments and others across the country.

 

EMwerx helps to manage people and assets in an

The Next 36, an academic/mentoring program for undergraduate entrepreneurs, is planning a conference and introductory event in Moncton in September as part of its effort to lure more Atlantic Canadians.

The Next 36 is an annual, three-month summer program based in Toronto that mentors undergraduate university students who have shown a flair for entrepreneurship. It is highly competitive, drawing applications from students across the country.  It will accept applications for the summer 2014 program until Oct. 7.

In contrast to the dozens of other mentoring and incubating groups, the Next

[Editor’s Note: Allan Gates of Bonfire has kindly offered to cover the East Coast Startup Community’s pilgrimage to the Montreal International Startup Festival for us. Here is his first report.]

As dawn breaks over the University of New Brunswick Fredericton campus tomorrow, 50 bleary-eyed East Coast entrepreneurs representing a number of new and established startups will roll out by bus to the Montreal International Startup Festival. The Festival brings together early-stage founders with successful innovators and investors looking for the next big thing.

The bus trip to the Festival,

Alastair Jarvis proudly says that he was tenant No. 1 at the Hub South Shore, the new co-working space in Mahone Bay.

In fact, he is so enthusiastic about the new facility that he doesn’t like the term “co-working space.” He feels it understates what the Hub South Shore is and does, and what it means to a rural community.

The new facility, which has 13 tenants or members, is part of an international organization that for almost a decade has been establishing casual office space in major centres around the world.

The goal is not just to provide a desk, chair and Wi-Fi but to bring