The rest of Atlantic Canada has a lot to learn from New Brunswick about developing startups.

That’s the conclusion that I came to after a quick visit to Fredericton this week. It’s an impression that’s been percolating for several years. All four Atlantic provinces can point to successful innovators and support organizations. But here are five features that make New Brunswick special:

HotSpot Parking in Fredericton

1. Public-Sector Early Adopters. Finding early customers is utterly critical for young businesses and New Brunswick – Fredericton in particular – does a better job of helping than any other province. The region has too few established businesses to serve as early adopters, and most governments are resistant to new technology and can’t be bothered to assist local innovators. The New Brunswick government and City of Fredericton have been early supporters of such companies as HotSpot Parking, TotalPave and AppDigenous Development. I hear far more praise among New Brunswick entrepreneurs about working with the public sector than any other province.

Melvin Nash and Melissa Lunney at the JEDI offices.

2. Support for Indigenous Entrepreneurs. Fredericton is home to the Joint Economic Development Initiative, or Jedi, which runs the only tech accelerator for native entrepreneurs that I know of. It’s about to launch a new cohort in January, focusing more on scalable businesses than before. Plato Testing is employing First Nations people from across the country in its software testing business. Trevor Bernard, Fredericton-based CTO of blockchain company Braveno, was a finalist this year for the Startup Canada Indigenous Entrepreneur Award.

Lisa Pfister, centre, won the 2017 Breakthru competition

3. Support for Women Entrepreneurs. The province’s Breakthru competition this year had four winners, each receiving more than $200,000 to develop their companies. Three of these four were companies headed by women. Five of the 10 Breakthru semifinalists were female-led companies. A new wave of female entrepreneurs, like Lisa Pfister of Pfera, Bethany Deshpande of SomaDetect and Natasha Dhayagude of Chinova Bioworks, is joining a group of business veterans like Andrea Feunekes of Remsoft and Jill Green of Green Imaging Technologies.

Members of the UNB TME Summer Institute

4. University of New Brunswick’s TME program. There are some good university entrepreneurship programs in several universities in the region. What’s special about the Technology Management and Entrepreneurship program is that it is positioned in the heart of the engineering school. It means UNB doesn’t have to work hard to link researchers to business development people — they come together in TME.

5. The N.B. Small Business Investor Tax Credit. There is a problem with funding for new businesses in Atlantic Canada — the region’s angel investors are tapped out. There have been few exits in the past five years so individual investors don’t have money to invest. New Brunswick responded to this problem three years ago by improving its tax credit for investments in small businesses. New Brunswick investors get a tax credit of 50 per cent on investments of up to $250,000 — the most attractive investment tax credit in the country. Among the other Atlantic provinces the highest rate is 35 per cent, and maximum allowable investments are $100,000 in P.E.I. and Labrador and $50,000 in Nova Scotia.

So is New Brunswick a startup Valhalla? Not quite. It suffers like the rest of the region with a small economy and expensive air travel. And the rivalry between its cities can grow tiresome. But in these five areas, New Brunswick is an example of how to get things done.

Disclosure: UNB is a client of Entrevestor.