When Calvin Milbury arrived at the Breakthru Bootcamp at 7:30 Saturday morning in Fredericton, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation
He was already impressed that the number of teams entering the biennial business plan competition had risen more than 50 percent from the last contest. But the enthusiasm of the young companies had the habitually cheerful chief executive beaming like a kid at Christmas.
“Everyone was really eager to learn, not just from the speakers but also from each other,” said Milbury at the end of the one-day bootcamp.
The fourth Breakthru competition assesses viable business ideas and teams’ ability to plot and execute on their business plan. NBIF and other sponsors have contributed a total of $406,000 in prizes for the top three entrants, making it the largest competition of its kind in Canada. The grand prize is cash and services worth a total of $192,000.
The cash prize is nice but the broader significance of these competitions is that they bring new entrepreneurs into the community, give a candid assessment of their prospects, and mentor them on the basics of the trade.
The first event in the competition was the Bootcamp, sponsored by the New Brunswick Securities Commission, and it gave organizers a first glimpse of the enthusiasm and business savvy of the young companies. Most of the day was given to a superb presentation on lean canvasses and financial statements by Barry Bisson, Presidnet of Shad Valley. But there was lots of time to meet a few of the contestants.
Like Milbury, I found them a fascinating bunch, and Entrevestor will feature several of these companies in the coming weeks and months. There is no common theme to all these companies, but this is one quirky fact worth noting: the contest this year features three groups of brothers.
- Nathan and Gregory Armstrong, both studying at University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, have formed Cetex, which captures the methane gas released by waste water and uses it as fuel.
- Two other UNB students Drew and Coady Cameron of Fredericton have formed TotalPave, which has developed software that reduces the cost of assessing when a road needs maintenance. (More on them in the next week or two.)
- And brothers Stephen and Matthew Banks of Fredericton as actually on different teams. Stephen, a young banker, is working on a project of biometric finger scans for padlocks. Matthew, who already has two businesses, is working on an electricity-based system to replace petroleum-based products in long-haul trucking.
A few of the other entrepreneurs were Stephen Likely, Greg Bailey and Garrett Nelson, three UNB chemical engineering students who were wandering through the crowd spray-painting people’s hands. Seriously. It was their demonstration. They have developed a two-stage hand-cleaning product that can clean off industrial grime and paint – even dried spray paint.
And Rishin Behl, a UNB engineering student with a passion for manufacturing, is designing a low-energy unmanned aerial vehicle based on a blimp model that could be used, for example, to monitor the Arctic.
NBIF will announce five finalists for Breakthru late next month, all of whom will be profiled on CBC television and Radio-Canada. Viewers will then vote on their favourites for the Viewers’ Choice award. That award and the overall winners will be announced at a banquet March 20.
