The UIT program at Cape Breton University reached a milestone Monday when its dozen students were to present their best ideas to the members of the One Nova Scotia Coalition.

UIT is a new technology and entrepreneurship program championed by Gavin Uhma, the CBU graduate who went on to co-found GoInstant, one of Nova Scotia’s most successful startups. The program offers free tuition to 12 students, divided evenly between men and women.

While two or three students are focusing on developing real companies, most are being encouraged to come up with ideas in various forms of technology and

Since we reported on the federal government’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development program two months ago, we’ve heard a strong message from several Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs. They’re angry at that their claims under the program are either being denied or held up in an appeal process that is taking too long to settle. The word “anger” may understate the sentiment. There’s a certain fury around this issue that is unlike anything I’ve witnessed in the three-and-a-half years I’ve been covering Atlantic Canadian startups.

To recap, we reported on Nov. 27 that several

Libbe Englander’s voice mail was a sign that fresh opportunities are brewing in the tech segment in Atlantic Canada.

On Tuesday, Englander called Entrevestor and left a message asking if we have a job board. She wanted to know because her company, Pharm3r (pronounced farmer) is hiring developers in the Halifax area.

Nothing unusual in that. Most companies I speak to are looking for programmers. What caught my interest is the fact that Pharm3r is based in New York City.

The company, which conducts data analysis in the pharmaceutical industry, will remain headquartered in Manhattan. But

After the sale of one of his companies, Dartmouth entrepreneur Keith Gallant is focusing on the growth of his startup, Email Opened,  by bringing in more capital and a new CEO.

Gallant recently sold his website hosting service, JustHosting.ca, for more than $100,000 to VivosWeb Inc. of Hamilton, Ont. The sale will allow Gallant to focus more on Email Opened, which helps organizations analyze and improve their email campaigns.

With 1,500 customers, Email Opened is bringing on Rob Gowans as CEO, allowing Gallant to return to his first love of product development. Gowans has worked with

Planet Hatch, the Fredericton-based startup hub, is hosting a three-day “pre-accelerator” to give novice entrepreneurs an introduction to the field.

The Startup Crash Course will take place on Jan. 31, Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 at Planet Hatch in Knowledge Park in Fredericton. Applications, which must be submitted by Jan. 20, are available here.

“The Startup Crash Course is an intense 3 day program that will give a select group of committed founders a unique opportunity to take their startup the next level,” said a notice from the organizers. “It is designed to give teams valuable training,

Entrevestor today is launching its second annual campaign to collect data from startups across Atlantic Canada, with the goal of again publishing metrics that are vital to the development of the startup community.

Last year, Entrevestor surveyed about 300 startups, promising confidentiality to all the respondents. We published the aggregated data free for everyone in our Entrevestor

Smartpods has raised $750,000 in equity financing to help it battle one of society’s great health problems: sitting.

The Dieppe, N.B., company makes tables that have work areas that automatically rise, fall and move from side to side to get users off their butts.

Its technology controls the movement of the working space, and it is finding customers among corporations and government.

Having graduated in November from the Launch36 tech accelerator, the company late last month closed $250,000 in funding from BDC Venture Capital, part of the Business Development Bank of Canada, and

Continuing to gain momentum, Fundmetric of Halifax last week received a $150,000 convertible note from BDC Venture Capital.

The startup actually became the 100^th startup in Canada to receive convertible notes from the VC arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada after graduating from a Canadian accelerator. Fundmetric, which helps charities to organize and carry out their fundraising

To understand what to watch in the Atlantic Canadian startup community in 2015, take a look at Avigilon Corp.

It’s not an Atlantic Canadian company. It’s a maker of high-resolution surveillance systems based in Vancouver. But Avigilon is the type of company that the startup cognoscenti are trying to develop on the East Coast, which makes it an interesting starting point for our outlook for 2015.

Basically, the regional startup community will grow in 2015 as it has in recent years – with startup weekends, competitions, conferences, new student entrepreneurs and seed funding. There will

Happy 2015 to the Atlantic Canadian startup community. 

We hope all of you have had a relaxing and happy holiday season and are ready to do and witness incredible things in 2015. 

We're pumped about what lies ahead of us in 2015. Entrevestor will continue to chronicle the development of the East Coast startup community, starting with our outlook for 2015 today. While it focuses on a single Atlantic Canadian issue, the big change for Entrevestor in the next few months will be a broadening of our focus. We're going to start covering a few deals from across the country. We'll still be an