A few hundred startup enthusiasts gathered at Pier 21 in Halifax on Monday evening to graduate the fourth cohort of tech companies from Launch36, the regional startup accelerator.

While the headline story is five more tech companies progressing into the real economy, the deeper story is about the quality of great mentorship growing out of New Brunswick and spreading through the region.

Dealing with the headline first, the graduating companies include:

• Adeptio, Charlottetown, which offers software and programs for personal coaches;

• HotSpot Parking, Fredericton, which allows for remote payment of parking meters and helps small businesses manage customer relationships;

• KinderGuardian, Moncton, which is developing a game monetization platform;

• Qimple, Moncton, which helps companies to manage and analyze applications when hiring people;

• And Resson Aerospace, Fredericton, whose aerial surveillance system helps farmers detect crop diseases.

What was impressive about the pitches was the emphasis on revenue. KinderGuardian was only devised in January, and is therefore pre-revenue, but the other four companies are already drawing clients. Resson has signed a $1.48 million first contract. Qimple raked in $200,000 last year and is on track for $400,000 in revenue next year; its target for 2015 is $1.2 million. Hotspot has 3,000 users and has programs operating in Fredericton and Saint John. It will soon add Halifax. It’s expecting sales of $600,000 this year. Adeptio has doubled its customer base just in the 12 weeks it was in the Launch36 program and is forecasting $400,000 in revenues in 2015.

With this graduation in the books, Launch36 now has 29 alumni companies. That means that with one more seven-member cohort, executive director Trevor MacAusland will have achieved the goal he established two and a half years ago — to launch 36 companies in 36 months.

These graduates should be ready to attract investment and take their products to market. BDC Ventures has an agreement with Launch36 (and other accelerators) to assess their graduating companies, and grant a $150,000 convertible note to those it deems “investment ready.” Three of the six companies in the last cohort received these notes. The assessment of the fourth cohort will be completed in the next few weeks.

Launch36 is operated by PropelICT, a startup support group that started in New Brunswick 10 years ago and is determined to spread its work across the region. It has graduated companies from the three Maritime provinces and is working to bring in its first Newfoundland and Labrador startup. And the fact its latest graduation ceremony was held in Halifax shows its regional ambitions.

The reason this is important is New Brunswick is ground zero for mentorship in the region, and mentorship is absolutely essential in developing great companies. While more companies have formed in Nova Scotia in the past two years than in the other provinces, New Brunswick has a stronger record for whipping companies into shape.

When we surveyed Atlantic Canadian startups this year, 76 Nova Scotian companies shared their revenue data with us, while the number was 41 in New Brunswick. Those 76 Nova Scotia companies recorded sales of $35.8 million in 2013, whereas the figure for those 41 New Brunswick companies was $33.2 million.

We’ve dug down into the data and can find no single reason that New Brunswick is generating more revenue on a per-company basis than Nova Scotia. But a huge factor is that the province has a stronger, more established and co-ordinated network of mentors. It recently launched The Mentra Co-operative, which will co-ordinate and promote mentorship in the region.

Monday night’s celebration — and the Atlantic Venture Forum, which begins today — are showing the products of that wave of mentorship. It’s already spreading through the region and will continue to do so.