Once again, we are launching our annual survey of Atlantic Canadian startups.

We can’t overstate the importance of this survey to our business. This survey helps to demonstrate to decision-makers the importance of the startup community in the economy. And it helps Entrevestor to continue providing news on the East Coast startup community.

We're asking each Atlantic Canadian startup that was active in December 2016 to complete this confidential survey. If you believe, as we do, that Entrevestor helps in the development of the Atlantic Canadian startup community, this is your chance to support us. Think of it as our equivalent of a PBS funding drive.

You can fill out the survey here.

We have kept the survey short and believe it can be completed in about three minutes. Your investment of three minutes will help us analyze what is going on in the community.

The result is a 40- to 50-page report that we sell to interested parties. These include government departments, accelerators, venture capital funds and regulators. Last year, for the first time, we found major corporations were interested in our data. This report gives decision-makers an understanding of the community, which leads to better programs, investment and partnerships.

The second reason to participate is our databank allows us to continue reporting on what you do. Monetizing news is difficult. When you complete our survey, you're helping us to stick around. It's like a crowdfunding campaign -- only it costs you no money and helps us to improve our product.

We are looking for submissions from companies that meet three criteria:

- They must be locally owned (no subsidiaries or divisions of companies based elsewhere);

- They must be commercializing proprietary technology (no web developers or service companies);

- And they must be producing at least one product for the global market.

Age is insignificant. We have a couple of companies that date back to the 1990s. We're interested in new companies, but we want active teams that are actually developing their product and business. It's got to be beyond the idea stage.

We'll be contacting companies by email in the coming weeks. It would be great if you could complete the survey now and save us the trouble of bothering you. Remember, everything you tell us will be absolutely confidential. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Peter at 902 401 2048 or peter@entrevestor.com.

Many thanks in advance,

Peter and Carol Moreira