There was something interesting on display at DemoCamp Halifax on Thursday night: Four of the 10 presenters were serial entrepreneurs who are back in the arena with new ventures.

It’s a trend in the East Coast startup hub, and is especially pronounced in Halifax.

We’re seeing entrepreneurs who have put a notch in the win column with one venture, and a few years later get back at it with a completely new business.

This is more than just an interesting thing to mention. It’s an important development in the fastest-growing segment of the region’s economy.

Experienced entrepreneurs have proven they can succeed, have learned some pitfalls of entrepreneurship (no one knows all of them) and have international networks that can help them grow their companies.

They also have greater credibility than novices, which means they can often attract more capital, increasing their chances of success.

One of the speakers at DemoCamp, Sam Haffar, a principal at Real Ventures of Montreal, highlighted that when his investment board considers investments in companies, it places a high premium on having a team of founders who have previously succeeded.

“We look for that legendary team,” said Haffar. “Serial entrepreneurs take precedence over first-time entrepreneurs because they’ve been there and done that . . . They have the credibility to do what they say they’ll do.”

Harbr Brings Big Data to Construction

Two of the companies demonstrating new companies on Thursday night were founded by members of the team behind GoInstant, a Halifax startup that sold out to Salesforce.com in 2012 for more than $70 million.

Gavin Uhma is now the CEO of SideStory, a social network app that allows users to create a story with text, pictures and/or videos and share it with specific contacts. He said it offers more privacy and discretion than Facebook.

Another GoInstant veteran, Dave Kim, presented his new company, Harbr, which provides data analytics for big construction companies.

Alastair Jarvis, whose last startup was the game developer Orpheus Interactive, was also at DemoCamp to present his latest venture, WoodsCamp, which is an online broker for the timber industry. And David Howe, who formerly co-founded two startups, ToothbrushSubscriptions.com (now Boka.com) and Retailkit (now Tend.ag), appeared to present his new business, Cribcut.

The two GoInstant vets are worth noting because both are now resident in the Volta Startup house, which is home to a little hub of these serial entrepreneurs. Patrick Hankinson, who sold his previous company, Compilr, in 2014 for upward of $20 million, is also a tenant at Volta, where he’s working on his new company, Hello Focus.

The former CEO of GoInstant and founder of Volta, Jevon MacDonald, is also working away on a new venture, though he has yet to go public with it.

Away from Volta, Tim Burke and Stephen Hankinson, who in 2010 won the I-3 Technology Startup Competition with Tether, are already gaining traction with their latest venture, Affinio, which went through the Microsoft Seattle Accelerator earlier this year.

Kim said working in Volta has been a great experience for these repeat entrepreneurs because they offer one another a range of experience and connections and can help each other.

“It’s been great working at Volta,” he said. “There is just so much support and encouragement among the whole group.”