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

In this time of rising social concerns, social entrepreneurs – those who want to found a business that meets a social, economic or environmental need and turns a profit – are growing in number. To help them, New Brunswick’s Pond-Deshpande Centre (PDC) has launched a social enterprise accelerator program called B 4 Change.

Starting today, B 4 Change is taking eight companies – six from New Brunswick and two from Nova Scotia – and giving them the kind of training and mentoring usually available to companies that focus primarily on profitability.

“We’re trying to foster the development of

To put it mildly, Atlantic Canada has never been known as a hotbed of men’s fashion. But that’s not stopping Thomas Rankin and Tomek Niewiarowski from developing a tech company that will help men to effortlessly improve their wardrobe.

The two Halifax entrepreneurs will soon launch private trials of Dash Hudson, an online marketplace in which men can not only buy clothes but also consult with stylists on the best possible look.

Sitting in a coffee shop on Friday, they burst out laughing when it was mentioned that they’ve based their business in a sartorial no man’s land.

“I grew up on

As the startups formed in the past few years begin to mature, it’s reassuring to know there are still events, competitions and other institutions that are bringing new companies into existence.

The Launch36 DemoDay in Saint John last week demonstrated clearly that the bar is rising for Atlantic Canadian startups. What was impressive two years ago is now commonplace, and that means it’s sometimes difficult for newer or weaker participants to get notice.

Fortunately, events like Pitch101 and Startup Weekend are encouraging new entrepreneurs to step forward, pitch an idea and receive

It seemed counterintuitive to start his own Internet venture when the dotcom business he’d been working for collapsed in the crash of 2000, but Mark Kennedy has always followed his passions.

The St. John’s entrepreneur had already co-founded a legal practice, worked as a high school chemistry teacher and laboured in the oil field service industry when he decided his future lay with the