It’s been two years since Jason Janes and Roger Power began Startup St. John’s as an opportunity for isolated entrepreneurs to network and gain mutual support. Meeting in borrowed boardrooms and local restaurants, those first get-togethers attracted around 40.

Today, over 200 members meet to find mentors, space and funding. For Janes, who self-identifies as “a typical IT geek who likes to

SageCrowd, a Halifax startup that develops online networks for personal improvement authors, announced Wednesday it has closed its first round of financing, valued at $850,000.

In a statement, the company said the investors were the Ogden Pond Group, the Halifax-based First Angel Network, and various angel investors. The Ogden Pond Group is a Halifax incubator and merchant bank in which sageCrowd Co-Founder and Chair Sean Sears is involved.

SageCrowd is an online learning network that will deepen the relationship between some of the world’s leading personal improvement authors and their

Maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t learn how much the shareholders pocketed when UserEvents Inc. of Fredericton was bought this week.

It would be nice to know how much Redwood City, Calif.-based LiveOps Inc. paid in the acquisition announced Monday. But without a number, we’re forced to examine the deal’s other aspects, and realize it will help to build stronger institutions, mentors and links with global tech companies.

LiveOps, which offers cloud-based products to improve customer service and call centres, would only say it paid an undisclosed amount for UserEvents.

It’s a natural

We’re overwhelmed by the response we’re getting when we notify people about the Entrevestor Survey, which we will send out to about 300 Atlantic Canadian startups one week from today – Thursday, February 6.

What’s really heartening is the response from entrepreneurs – the people who are being asked to fill out the form, which is just over two pages long. When I tweeted about it last week, I tried to thank the people who were retweeting it. But there were simply too many of them.

This week, I’ve been contacting everyone on the list to let them know the survey is coming. (We’ll finish

Three of the region’s leading ITC companies – LeadSift, RtTech and TitanFile – announced partnerships with blue chip international corporations on Tuesday, which will help develop their sales around the world.

Moncton-based RtTech, whose products use large companies’ operational data to make the manufacturing processes more efficient, has teamed up with Emerson, the St. Louis-based engineering team whose sales hit $25 billion last year. LeadSift of Halifax has announced a partnership with Publicis Modem, a global digital agency network that operates in more than 40 countries and has more

Aside from the financial considerations, the founders of Fredericton-based UserEvents decided to sell out to LiveOps, Inc. this week because they discovered an alignment of ambition and vision for the two companies.

UserEvents, a Fredericton startup whose technology alerts corporations when customers are having trouble with online transactions, announced Tuesday that it would be bought for an undisclosed sum by the Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of cloud contact center and customer service solutions. Though financial details were not released, LiveOps did say earlier the move comes

There’s been a subtle change on the podium of Innovacorp’s I-3 competition, and it’s a change for the better.

The provincial innovation agency released on Monday the regional winners and runners-up of the biennial competition, which aims to find the top new knowledge-based companies in the province. And what leaps out is that the winning company in each of the five zones is more steeped in proprietary technology than in previous years and is farther down the entrepreneurial path than past winners.

What’s significant is that the benefits of the innovation boom are spreading throughout

UserEvents, a Fredericton startup whose technology alerts corporations when customers are having trouble with online transactions, has sold out to LiveOps, Inc., a global leader in cloud contact center and customer service solutions.

The Redwood City, Calif., buyer released a statement this morning announcing the deal, though it did not release the price. The company did say the move comes after it completed a US$30 million debt financing – or C$33.3 million at the current exchange rates.

This marks the second exit for CEO and Co-Founder Jeff Thompson, who five years ago sold his

Matthew Fanning reveals his background in sales as he begins to tell the story of Presenter’s Podium, the eLearing platform he has developed and is beginning to sell to universities in the region.

The former medical device salesman delivers a compelling pitch for his product, which grew out of his time taking a Bachelor of Commerce at St. Mary’s University’s Sobey School of Business. At the time, he noticed that professors had problems teaching oral communications skills – one of the key talents demanded by employers. With large class sizes, profs can’t listen to presentations from every

Eradicating illiteracy is a lofty goal, some might say an unrealistic one, but for Joelle MacPhee the fight against illiteracy is a family tradition, a business, and a battle she intends to win.

MacPhee, 25, is director of reading partnerships at Charlottetown-based Ooka Island, a company that develops software that teaches children ages three to seven to read. Ooka was conceptualized by