When the board of LightSail Energy of San Francisco raised $37.3 million in venture capital funding last year, the press release said the round “was led by Peter Thiel, with participation from Khosla Ventures, which incubated the company, Bill Gates, Innovacorp, and other investors.”

That’s right—Nova Scotia’s innovation agency appeared next to the founder of Microsoft in the list of investors.

Based in the Bay area, LightSail is dedicated to using thermal dynamics to solve a key problem with electrical grids— providing green power to the grid when it’s most needed rather than when it’s

When Sir Terence Matthews, the founder of Mitel and Newbridge Networks, came to McInnes Cooper’s Halifax office last year for a Manning Innovation Awards reception, I noticed he took the time to ask each startup he met one question.

“Do you have a board of directors?” he asked repeatedly throughout the evening.

This giant of Canadian entrepreneurship was driving home an important point to the founders in attendance. The wisdom and determination of good directors can to help drive the business forward and avoid the pitfalls that could sink your start-up. But there are a few key things to

Reducing emissions from industrial processes sounds like a great idea, but does anyone know for sure that industry is actually producing fewer emissions?

Dan Brake does.

What’s more, he’s also working on a system that can soon accurately predict in the future where, how and why contaminants might seep into the environment from industrial projects.

Brake is CEO of EMSAT Corp., a St. John’s startup that has developed software to analyze in real time environmental data picked up by sensors placed near industrial sites, pipelines, and the like. By placing sensors in and around a site just

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency has awarded a total of $11.3 million from the Atlantic Innovation Fund to five companies or organizations in Nova Scotia to finance the development and commercialization of new technology.

The loans are part of a total AIF award this year of $39.9 million, which is being channeled into projects that – including funding from other sources – are worth a total of $71.1 million.

“Our Government is committed to helping Atlantic Canada’s businesses to move innovative ideas from the lab to the marketplace,” said Defence Minister Peter MacKay in a

The first Atlantic Venture Forum takes place Wednesday and Thursday this week at the Westin Nova Scotian in Halifax, offering a rare opportunity for meetings between local founders and come-from-away funders.

Critical Path Group, which organizes other conferences such as the Banff Venture Forum and the Canadian Financing Forum in Vancouver, has selected 22 Atlantic Canadian startups to present at the event. I’ve spoken to a few impressive companies that didn’t make the cut, and several plan to attend the conference regardless.

Launched with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency as a

I usually cite 10 recommendations to improve the start-up ecosystem in Atlantic Canada, but there are four that I feel passionately about. My comments refer largely to the technology sector, but I think they apply to the entire start-up community.

Mentorship. The key ingredient in developing start-ups is having enough good mentors. Yes, capital is important, but the do-or-die element in the

After three years of work, SimplyCast has launched its 360 Automation Manager, the flagship product of the Dartmouth multi-channel marketing company.

President and CEO Saeed El-Darahali unveiled the product last night at a reception in the company’s new office off Main Street in Dartmouth. In the interests of transparency, I must declare that I have been working with SimplyCast on promoting the launch. But this news is big enough that I want to describe the product and make a few observations.

There’s a lot of buzz about the 360 Automation Manager because it can do what no marketing

People visiting downtown Fredericton and Saint John this summer will be given the opportunity to pay parking meters with their smartphones, thanks to a startup generating a lot of buzz in New Brunswick.

HotSpot Parking is developing cellphone apps that will allow people to pay their parking meter charges electronically. CEO and founder Phillip Curley said the company has been developing relationships with the two New Brunswick cities and is planning a pilot project for its hometown of Fredericton on Aug. 1 and for Saint John later that month. He plans to spend about six weeks monitoring

This is an Atlantic Canadian story of rugged people braving northern oceans and hauling in huge catches of fish.

But unlike so many business stories about the fishery, this one is set in an elegant office with exposed brick and movie posters on Barrington Street in downtown Halifax.

The office is the home of Raised Media, the Halifax digital media company that has masterminded the Deadliest

Heimdall Networks CEO Jim DeLeskie declined to be interviewed about his company until January of 2013, preferring to quietly develop his software for about a year without any publicity. Sydney, N.S.-based Heimdall is developing a product that protects corporations and governments against distributed denial-of-service attacks, the type of stuff that the Anonymous group does to shut down websites. Heimdall’s market is a high-growth, high-interest sector with a lot of players and rapid advances in technology. DeLeskie didn’t want to tip his hand to competitors by going public too soon.

But