As the startup community strives to become a truly regional presence, one thing becomes increasingly clear and problematic: it’s difficult to follow what’s going on in provinces other than your own.

This is a problem for two reasons. First, startups in the region need to get their message out to international markets, and the factors preventing news from travelling between provinces also prevent it from travelling around the world. And second, there are provincial policy decisions that affect startups around the region, and it’s often difficult to follow the debate on these policies in

During his career as an architect on Prince Edward Island, David Lopes has discovered one part of the job he really doesn’t like: paperwork. And he’s learned that other architects dislike it as passionately as he does.

“Most architects get into architecture to design and build things, but they have to wade through contract administration,” said Lopes. “And most use paper for their contract administration.”

Lopes is out to change that.  

Two years ago, he founded Rform, which is developing a software-as-a-solution product to simplify the administrative burden that comes with

B4Checkin, the Halifax company offering SaaS hotel reservation systems, has received certification from leading hotel booking website TripAdvisor, greatly improving flexibility and efficiency for the startup’s clients.

The company issued a press release Tuesday saying the partnership with TripAdvisor, which has more traffic than any other hotel review site, will let hotels using the B4Checkin system route prospective guests directly to their own websites from listings on TripAdvisor.  These hotels will benefit from an increase in direct bookings without having to pay the additional fees

Eigen Innovations Inc. is a New Brunswick company that ticks a lot of boxes on investors’ checklists.

The Fredericton startup has a strong industrial partner, patented software and an early adopter that will pay for its product. What’s more, it’s working in one of the sexiest segments of the technology sector, the industrial Internet.

The industrial Internet refers to the integration of complex physical machinery with networked sensors and software. It encompasses such fields as machine learning, big data, and machine-to-machine communication to gather data from machines, analyze it

In the latest edition of Progress magazine, I take a look at the challenges facing startups when trying to attract talented people.

One thing that surprised me as I researched the story was that it is easier in some respects to staff a brand new company than one that’s been around for a few years. People like the idea of joining startups, but they prefer to be in on the ground floor and receive a founder’s slice of the pie.

Yet startups continue to attract great people. In the past month, Innovacorp has lost two investment managers to young companies – Thomas Rankin to his own company

Tiffany James broke into a broad grin when her company Halifax Hair Extensions won the Pitch101 event at Acadia University on Friday. But she wasn’t through: an hour or two later, she also won the university’s Wes Nicol competition for business plans.

James’ double-win highlighted an afternoon of entrepreneurship in Acadia’s magnificent K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre. Acadia is too often overlooked in the startup universe in Atlantic Canada. The university’s Entrepreneurship Centre and its Data Centre for Rural Issues are developing some interesting young businesses.

One thing

I was really lucky recently to interview Ryan Holmes, the CEO of HootSuite, for an article in USA Today. The story ran late last week.

The Vancouver social media management company this summer raised $165 million in VC funding, the largest raise ever in Canada. The article looks at how the four-year-old company now plans to continue its spectacular growth.

What I found interesting about HootSuite is that it is developing the discipline needed to become a publicly traded company. It reports quarterly financial statements. All its statements have the rigors of a public company’s releases.

While Nicole LeBlanc’s main job is finance director at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, the accountant does not limit herself to counting beans.

LeBlanc’s other duties range from providing financial and business advice to the region’s startups to volunteering on a pilot program that is introducing coding to young children.

Countries such as China and Estonia are making it a priority

For the past few years, Andre Pellerin and Andre LeBlanc have watched their friends in the restaurant industry get squeezed by rising food costs. This year, they started a business to help out restaurant owners.

The two Moncton food services execs have started FoodTender Solutions, an online marketplace on which restaurateurs can buy food supplies. The two Andres launched the company in August in New Brunswick and P.E.I. and have about 75 customers, comprising restaurants and suppliers.

“Thirty-five or 40 cents out of every dollar that restaurants spend is on food costs, and those costs

Nautel Ltd., the Hackett’s Cove, N.S., maker of radio and television transmitters, agreed Wednesday to buy the business and assets of Marport C-tech Ltd., a Cornwall, Ont.-based maker of engineered sonar solutions.

The buyer said in a statement that the terms of the deal, which is subject to court approval, would not be released.

Opened in 1969 as a maker of radio transmitters, Nautel has been on a roll lately. The company has branched into television transmitters, and won its first orders in September. It also won a transformative contract for digital AM radio transmitters with All