Click2Order is a clear demonstration of what’s special about the Cape Breton startup community.

Founded by Matt Stewart and Rob Myers, Sydney-based Click2Order has developed an app that lets people order from a restaurant online. It allows the restaurant to display the app on its own site, along with the menu, payment system and other features.

With restaurants able to put their own branding on the product, Click2Order has been able to snare about 30 clients in Atlantic Canada, and recently signed with an Ontario distributor that services about 1,000 outlets in the Greater Toronto Area.

The fact that it’s gaining traction is not what makes Click2Order a typical Cape Breton startup. What’s important about this company is how the community has rallied behind it, and how much Stewart and Myers have done with a little bit of capital.

They won $10,000 in Innovacorp’s Spark Cape Breton program three years ago, and borrowed from New Dawn Enterprises, a Community Economic Development Investment Fund that supports Cape Breton enterprises. Click2Go has received other grants and loans, bringing the total capital raised to about $150,000. Many startups would struggle to build a product with so little money, but Click2Order brought a product to market with that amount.

“The thing that really strikes you about the Cape Breton startup community is how united it is and how everyone is leveraging each other's resources,” said Permjot Valia, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Island Sandbox, which develops startups at Cape Breton University and the Nova Scotia Community College. “A manifestation of that was Super August. Everyone came together to create something incredible. It's just not possible for one organization to have done all of that by itself.”

Super August was a month-long celebration of the startup community on the island, ranging from a MentorCamp to a growth-stage pitching competition to a lunch ‘n’ learn series. Above all else, it highlighted the community spirit ingrained in the local grouping.

Another company that exemplifies the Caper spirit is Docmaster, which has developed a cloud-based repository for corporate clients’ digital documents. Founded by husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Mark and Danielle Patterson, Docmaster has raised about $70,000 in equity financing, which it supplemented with grants and loans to bring in a total of about $300,000.

Still, the team felt the need for more money as it developed the product. When the Pattersons brought their Chief Technical Officer, James MacKinnon on board in the spring, they decided to make money by opening Devantec, a tech consultancy specializing in IT security. In the first three weeks, the new company made $100,000. In its first five months, Devantec took on 25 clients.

The Pattersons then had an enviable kind of problem – they had to develop their service company Devantec as they launched the Docmaster product. But like Click2Go, they were able to get the product into the market, tapping several clients who had participated in the company’s beta-test.

These companies are members of the latest generation of entrepreneurs in the Sydney startup grouping. The community boasts experienced ventures like Marcato Digital, Mimir Networks and Health Outcomes Worldwide, and now there’s a movement to get these young companies into the marketplace.

Click2Order has been working out of the Navigate Startup House, the local co-working space in downtown Sydney. While the Docmaster team has been operating out of the basement of the local law firm, Sampson McPhee. It’s a startup grouping that isn’t long on capital, but is long on neighbours helping neighbours. 

“Investments in the startup ecosystem are investments in the future of our community,” said Ardelle Reynolds, the co-founder of the Navigate Startup House. “It’s about looking not just to the companies in front of us but the companies that will be formed later down the road.”