LeadSift Sales Rise After Pivot

When Tukan Das asked at a 2015 board meeting how he could improve staff morale, he didn’t think the answer would lead to the complete reboot of his company.

But the CEO of Halifax-based data analytics company LeadSift was soon leading his team through a pivot that resulted in a new business model. LeadSift is now focused on helping small and medium-sized technology companies in the

Continue Reading

McIntosh Recognized for Plato

Keith McIntosh has been an entrepreneur for as long as he can remember. Now, he’s won national recognition for using his skills to help Indigenous people find work.

Growing up on a farm, meant McIntosh used the same valuable business skills that he uses today as CEO and founder of Professional Quality Assurance (PQA), and PLATO Testing. Arguably, one of the best skills McIntosh has developed

Continue Reading

Launch of The Haight Set for Nov. 21

If you’re not doing anything next Wednesday evening, please come out and join us for the Halifax launch of The Haight at the Dalhousie University Faculty Club.

As many of you may know, Poplar Press of New Jersey recently published my first crime novel, which I plan to turn into a series of murder mysteries set in the 1960s. I’ve been meaning to hold a celebration to introduce it in Halifax, and

Continue Reading

Amplify Reveals Best Sales Practices

Entrepreneurs and mentors from across Atlantic Canada came together Tuesday to learn winning methods to ramp up their sales from global (and local) leaders in the field.

They were in Halifax to attend the second annual Amplify event, organized by Propel, the regional IT accelerator.

The highlight was undoubtedly the international experts brought in to explain best practices in sales and growth

Continue Reading

Volta Cohort To Hold Pitches Nov. 28

Fifteen Atlantic Canadian startups will pitch at Volta Cohort’s fall pitch event on Nov. 28 in Halifax, and as many as five of them will receive $25,000 each in investment, mentorship and resources.

The event at Pier 21 marks the third intake to Volta Cohort, which is a funding and mentorship program that provides investment and resources for early-stage Atlantic Canadian technology startups. In

Continue Reading

First Mobile Teams Up with Binogi

Educational groups First Mobile Education of Fredericton and Binogi of Stockholm have announced the signing of an international partnership.

In a statement, the companies said the partnership will help create a multi-linguistic, multi-year, educational curriculum delivered via 2D animated digital video, to be offered across Canada and world-wide.

Gary Stairs, First Mobile’s CEO, said the

Continue Reading

DeCell’s Deal To Produce DermGen

After a few years of ups and downs, Halifax-based DeCell Technologies Inc. has struck an agreement that should result in its natural skin grafts reaching the Canadian market in April or May.

Last week, the company struck a deal with RegenMed of Thunder Bay to manufacture and distribute the DeCell product DermGen. RegenMed is the largest tissue bank in Ontario and has deals with other tissue

Continue Reading

3 Takeaways from Trip to St. John’s

I had a whirlwind visit to St. John’s last week, touring the new Genesis facility and delivering my presentation on Entrevestor’s 2017 startup data. Here are three things I observed during the trip:

1. There are a LOT of new companies.

The St. John’s ecosystem is accelerating its production of new companies. The Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship, or MCE, has now been going for a couple of

Continue Reading

FDA Clears HBI Tool Used by GE

Halifax Biomedical Inc. has received U.S. regulatory clearance to use its latest advanced imaging technology with x-ray equipment produced by GE Healthcare.

HBI, which is based in Mabou, Cape Breton, issued a press release Friday saying it has been granted 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Halifax Radiostereometry Upgrade.

Hospitals add this technology to GE

Continue Reading

Remembering Cousins I Never Met

I’m thinking today of two distant cousins I never met because they sacrificed their lives in battle more than 40 years before I was born.

William and Nigel Boyd grew up Edinburgh, the only sons of William Boyd and Pictou, NS-native Laura (Crerar) Boyd. She was the sister of my great-grandmother, Jane (Crerar) MacKeen.My own link to them was a battered footlocker that was in our house until last

Continue Reading