The value of the McKenzie Accelerator – which is now accepting applications to its second cohort – was driven home to me when I watched Guyverson Vernous present his company iCubemedia at the accelerator’s Demo Day in April.

Vernous is a native of Haiti, and he enrolled in the Moncton accelerator affiliated with McKenzie College earlier this year to help structure iCubemedia into a more dynamic business. The young company’s product, App-Lingua, allows smartphone app developers to translate their apps into foreign languages. He had already booked some sales, and his two hottest markets were the Middle East and South America.

Watching the pitch, I was impressed by this young man who was presenting his company for the first time in his second language and in his adopted country.

Vernous’ pitch to me exemplifies the work McKenzie President Dale Ritchie is doing with these fledgling companies. While PropelICT has garnered the most attention for its Launch36 accelerator, Ritchie so far has done a great job of working with pre-seed ventures. With funding from the New Brunswick government, he is now assembling a cohort of five more companies at his Moncton college in the hopes of moving them to a level where they could be candidates for seed funding.

Ritchie told me that anyone interested should send a two-page summary on themselves and their business idea. They must be a New Brunswick and knowledge-based business with export/ growth potential.

Apply to Ritchie at drtitchie@mckenzie.edu or call 506 384-6460 for more information by Sept. 15.

One final thought: entry into New Brunswick accelerators is going to be tougher now than it was a year ago. The Launch36 accelerator took in 11 companies in its first cohort, but Executive Director Trevor MacAusland is hoping to limit the number to six for the coming cohort. And he is drawing from a more regional pool than last time, with more participation likely from Nova Scotia and P.E.I.

So, pre-revenue or young companies in New Brunswick may want to look seriously at the McKenzie Accelerator as an entry-point into accelerators.