At the Entrevestor Luncheon in Sydney in the spring, it didn’t take long for the 100-plus attendees to zero in on one essential thing missing in the local ecosystem – an incubator.

The event, which was sponsored by BDO Canada, asked the diners to discuss how the ecosystem could be improved. And while most people enthusiastically applauded the mentors in the Cape Breton city, they thought Sydney needed a physical space where companies could work, where entrepreneurs could learn from one another, and where events could be held.

It turns out they didn’t have to wait long.

The Navigate Startup House announced in September that it would open in October in the New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation. Founded by startup evangelists Ardelle Reynolds and Lindsay Uhma, it has offices for four startups and enough co-working space for about 20 other teams. And – as the people at the luncheon envisioned – it is a meeting place that the community can call home.

“People who are interested in starting a startup but are at an earlier phase will be able to become members of our network,” said Reynolds in an interview. “It means you can have access to our events, mentors, and other resources. The idea is to build the startup community.”

Another facet of Navigate is that it is the latest piece in a network of tech incubators that spans the Atlantic Provinces. Call them co-working spaces, incubators, startup houses or whatever, they are offering a physical space in the major centres in the region. Just as the British Empire had outposts and the Hudson’s Bay Company had factories, the Atlantic Canadian startup community has incubators.

Two Teens Develop their Startup at Venn

There are three things to keep in mind about this network of tech-focused spaces – it’s young, it’s expanding and it’s integral to the particular challenges facing the Atlantic Canadian startup community.

You can appreciate the youth of this group when you consider that only one dates back more than three years. Volta in Halifax and Planet Hatch in Fredericton both celebrated second birthdays this autumn.

Eighteen-year-old Genesis Centre in St. John’s is undoubtedly the elder statesman in the bunch. Now located on the Memorial University campus, Genesis will relocate in 2016-17 to the Battery complex on the side of Signal Hill.

It’s one of several facilities that is expanding. Volta this year doubled its size when it moved to two floors in the Maritime Centre on Barrington Street in Halifax. And Venn Innovation of Moncton opened its second Vennture Garage – this one in Saint John.

The reason these facilities are so important is the vast geographic distances involved in the Atlantic Canadian startup community. The regional accelerator Propel ICT has no headquarters and it needs meeting places for its events and classroom sessions. These incubators are community partners for Propel, which held cohorts at the Venn Centre, Planet Hatch, Volta and Common Ground this past summer.

Reynolds and others have been in touch with Propel and look forward to the day when the accelerator holds sessions in its space.

“We’re planning to take our first Propel ICT cohort early in the New Year,” she said. *