Atlantic Innovation Week will be something of an old home week for the companies that went through Propel ICT’s Launch36 accelerator. It will also be a chance for them to learn how they’ve progressed since their term ended in June. In fact we’ll discover that they’ve progressed quite a bit, and the words “early” and “adopter” will feature prominently in their presentations. The term “funding” might creep into the discussion as well.
First, a bit of background: Launch36 is the accelerator operated by Moncton-based Propel ICT; it put 11 companies through its program last winter. Three of the companies (CyberPsyc, ClearMeter, and Xiplinx) will present at DemoCamp Halifax on Sept. 23, and two (JumpStart 720 and LeadSift) will appear in the Pitching Den at Invest Atlantic on Sept. 26. Some of these start-ups, or other Launch36ers, could end up in MentorCamp on Sept. 24. (Full disclosure: I’m doing PR work for Invest Atlantic and MentorCamp.)
Brent MacDonald, the CEO of Xiplinx, could have spoken for all these companies when I asked him recently what had happened since June. “It might be easier to list what hasn’t happened since June,” he deadpanned. Moncton-based Xiplinx provides cost-effective technology that allows workers on the factory floor to input information using mobile devices, then tabulates and analyzes the information to ensure that everything is operating properly. Then it shares the data throughout the organization, optimizing the plant’s efficiency.
When MacDonald presented at Launch36’s Demo Day in June, Xiplinx had secured as early adopters a major soft-drink company and a major brewery; he has since added a smaller brewery and an aquaculture company. Xiplinx wanted to add another vertical—in other words, to bring in customers from a new sector—so the addition of aquaculture was a welcome challenge. “Right now we’re knee-deep into product and customer development, which is right where we should be,” says MacDonald.
He and co-founder Derek Roche are spending time with the work teams in these industries to learn the nuts and bolts. Case in point: A few weeks ago they met with 50 technicians at a beverage plant, both the day and night shifts. They learned that the day shift had seniority, and its members were closer to retirement and less tech-savvy than the night shift. What’s more, the older plant workers have large hands, which is a factor to consider when you’re planning to arm them with sleek, small, mobile devices. “I’m a huge fan of being embedded with people as we do product development, and right now it’s paying big dividends,” says MacDonald. Xiplinx plans to beta-test the product with early adopters early in the new year and hopes to be close to a commercial project in March.
In Fredericton, Darren Piercey and his team at CyberPsyc are getting ready to beta-test two products using the company’s 3-D animated virtual-reality system that helps cure phobias and anxiety. CyberPsyc exposes people to the things they fear gradually in a virtual world to help cure the condition. The company’s first product helps treat a fear of public speaking; early adopters include Aids New Brunswick, which has to teach its workers to speak publicly about living with HIV and about safe sex. The second cures a fear of dentists; three dentists, including one in Ontario who specializes in this type of fear, will beta-test the system.
CyberPsyc has hired two animators who are working on adding features to these two products, as well as a sales-and-marketing executive. CyberPsych and Xiplinx have one big thing in common: They have both received funding from East Valley Ventures, the group of investors surrounding Mariner chair Gerry Pond.
East Valley and New Brunswick Innovation Foundation led a $250,000 round of funding for CyberPsyc. The company hopes to raise a follow-on round in the first quarter of 2013 with a target of $600,000. Meanwhile Xiplinx is midway through a $500,000 round of seed funding but has already secured East Valley as a leader for the round.
