About four years ago, a trio of game developers came together to form a Bedford-based gaming studio called Alpha Dog Games, and quietly began to grow.

The team started with three founders – two of whom, Jeff Cameron and Shawn Woods, are still with the company – and it took on staff as its production increased. In fact, Alpha Dog recently added its 17th employee.

“We have a few big games that we’re working on, including a title called MonstroCity that’s now being beta tested in the Philippines,” said CEO Cameron in an interview. “We’re planning on a worldwide release for it hopefully later this year. We have other high-level ideas in the pipeline, but all 17 people are working on that game.”

The fact that this one company has almost sextupled its staff in three years tells you something about the startup community in Atlantic Canada. Some of these tiny young companies are turning into mid-sized ventures, and they’re hiring in increasingly large numbers. And most of the people they’re hiring are young -- Cameron said his youngest staff member is about 20.

They are attracting and retaining young people. Alpha Dog is a prime example for another reason – it is a scaling company rather than a brand spanking new startup. The group of companies that call themselves “startups” include many outfits that are several years old.

And the ones that are really adding jobs are the ones that are scaling – they are growing beyond 10 employees because they have a product in the market or soon will. Fredericton-based Resson, for example, plans to double its staff to about 45 by early 2017.

The company that collects and analyzes agricultural data raised about $14 million in new capital this spring, but it also is rapidly growing revenues. The day after its funding announcement, Resson posted four jobs on the Entrevestor Job Board – for two developers, an optical engineer and an agronomist.

The posting for an agronomist is interesting because it shows that startups are hiring people from a diverse range of disciplines.

In Halifax, the data analytics company Affinio had nine people in November 2015. That increased to 38 by the spring and it plans to increase its staff to 60 by year end. CEO Tim Burke said its rapid expansion will likely continue in 2017 and is generated by strong revenue growth.

Another Halifax startup, sports medicine technology company Kinduct Technologies had 48 employees in May and expects to increase the number to 65 by the end of the year.

We’re seeing this pattern across the startup community of medium-sized companies adding employees at ferocious pace.

When Entrevestor surveyed startups this year, 152 companies provided us with employment data. Collectively, these companies employed 792.5 people in Atlantic Canada as of Dec. 31, 2015 – up 160.5 positions or 25 percent from a year earlier. What was really interesting is that three-quarters of the hiring came at companies with more than 10 employees. These companies added 120.5 full-time-equivalent positions, representing a growth rate of 36 percent.

This trend will likely continue as the number of innovative companies hitting the 10-plus staff levels is increasing each year. And many current mid-sized companies are growing into bona fide corporations. They are providing challenging, well-paid jobs to young people. These employees get to live the East Coast lifestyle and have the thrill of working for growing companies.

Alpha Dogs, for example, has already produced the game Wraithborne and has partnered with a German partner to put out MonstroCity. And Cameron notes the reason the company is based in the Halifax area is the quality of life in the region – for the founders as well as the hires. Woods, 38, was working in Vancouver before co-founding Alpha Dog and Cameron, 41, was in New York.

“We take quality of life seriously and we’ve been taking on people who feel the same way,” he said. “We came back here to make sure we were able to raise our families and really enjoy life.”