Two noted Halifax startups – topLog and Swapskis -- launched their products last week, moving into the phase of their development in which gaining customers becomes ever more important.

Both IT companies have female CEOs and are tenants of Volta Labs, the Halifax startup incubation centre. And both have an association with the Propel accelerator – topLog as a successful graduate and Swapskis as a current participant.

And there the similarities end.

TopLog helps companies or other organizations to prevent network failures – a problem that can cost (and has) cost large businesses tens

When Bruce Balcom gives advice on the strategies to follow when publishing academic papers, history suggests it’s worth listening.

Balcom is the Canada Research Chair and the Director of the University of New Brunswick’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging Centre, and he’s been the author or co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications.

And he is a strong advocate of employing strategy when

Trevor Bernard has a habit of joining companies that make successful exits, and his most recent venture may be his greatest success so far.

Bernard was the chief technology officer of Fredericton-based UserEvents, which sold out to LiveOps of Redwood City, Calif., earlier this year for an undisclosed sum. Though he’d been with two other companies that exited, it was the first time Bernard

Entrepreneurship -- with a special emphasis on funding – will be the focus of the 2014 Fullsail Conference, which takes place Tuesday afternoon at the Delta Beausejour Hotel, Moncton.

Titled "Capital Connections, the half-day conference is being organized by the New Brunswick Financial and Consumer Services Commission (which now has the duties of the New Brunswick Securities Commission) and Venn (formerly Tech Southeast), the organization that promotes technology in southeastern New Brunswick.

The get-together begins with a discussion of new programs, followed by two panel discussions,

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation announced this week that it made $2.8 million in venture capital investments in its fiscal year to March 31, 2014, following through on its promise to accelerate its funding of innovation in the province.

The Fredericton-based innovation agency – which is a sponsor of and advertiser in Entrevestor – said in its annual report that it recorded a total of 17 transactions in the 2014 fiscal year. Two companies – AraLabs Security Solutions and Populus Global Solutions, both of Fredericton – received funding in two transactions, so in all there were 15

There is a singular reminder of the Atlantic Canadian startup community in the reception area of the Communitech hub in Kitchener, Ont. In the dim, atmospheric space lit mainly by mechanics lamps hanging from the ceiling, there are digital art installations and notices of peer-to-peer learning meetings, and there is a huge video monitor broadcasting goings-on at Communitech.

The video display runs off software provided by Charlottetown-based ScreenScape Networks, whose technology is powering such devices across the continent.

Sitting in the reception room of the famed accelerator on

Phil Romkey can stand in the sun-lit top floor of Halifax’s new library without leaving his workplace at St. Mary’s University.

Well, he can virtually stand in the new library in the Data Cave he oversees at the ACEnet headquarters at the Halifax university.

Positioned in the darkened Data Cave, wearing sophisticated 3-D glasses, Romkey can tour all of the new building, get a keen

When he pitches Help Method Inc., James Drage opens by contrasting the derision showered on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford over his addiction problems with the outpouring of compassion that resulted from the news he has cancer.

In fact, said Drage, addicts have as little control over their addiction as cancer patients have over their disease. And Lawrencetown, N.S.-based Help Method is working to personalize treatment of the disease.

“Addiction is a disease of the brain and only recently has technology allowed us to treat the gaps in the connectivity of the brain,” Drage said at the

The Nova Scotia government and GE Venture have issued the following press release:

GE to Share Intellectual Property with Nova Scotia Innovative Small Businesses

Imagine having access to the intellectual property of one of the world’s largest, most innovative and most admired companies.

What would your company do with that technical know-how to improve your products and services, grow your company, or change the world?

The Government of Nova Scotia and GE Ventures Licensing want to know.

We are collaborating to connect Nova Scotia entrepreneurs to GE-developed IP as well as the

Concussion is a global health problem. For Ying Tam, CEO of Halifax-based Mindful Scientific, this means an opportunity to be part of a solution that positively impacts millions of lives.

Tam is rejoicing in achieving a milestone with St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, where his company’s concussion detector has been used to test athletes on several of the university’s varsity