As Halifax-based Bob Williamson prepares to host Invest Atlantic in New Brunswick for the first time, his years of mentoring entrepreneurs are being recognized by a national startup organization.

Williamson, who has won Startup Canada’s regional Entrepreneur Promotion Award, finds he is impressed with New Brunswick. He said the province is leading when it comes to collaborating to grow the startup ecosystem and companies.

“In some ways New Brunswick is a tighter community,” Williamson, CEO and founder of Jameson Consulting Group, said. “They seem to really pull together as one.”

He said the accelerator Propel ICT, which began in New Brunswick and is now regional, has become a model of co-operation, but the sector needs more.

“It appears some of us are still working in silos,” he said. “Governments are working in silos, communities are in silos, and some of our programs are working in silos...By collaborating we will see a large multiplier effect for our time and resources.”

What the Startup Canada Award Winners Said

Williamson started Invest Atlantic six years ago after realizing that regional entrepreneurs lacked the supports available to entrepreneurs elsewhere. This year’s event will be in Moncton on Oct.5. Until now, the conference has been held exclusively in Halifax.

“I’d retired from the off shore oil and gas sector and I’d invested small amounts in several startups coming out of universities that had ideas for the energy sector,” he said, as he explained how the conference started.

He said that many of these young entrepreneurs didn’t know anything about business, but they were filled with plenty of dynamic energy.

“I thought, there’s more of these entrepreneurs in other sectors, but there didn’t seem to be formal mechanisms to help them. If we could bring entrepreneurs and investors to one room things would start to happen.”

The first year was a success and the conference has grown steadily since. The number of other events and supports for entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada has also grown enormously. Williamson himself has founded the Pitch101, 201, and 301 series and cofounded the Accredited Investor Outreach program currently being developed.

“We have quite a sector we didn’t have six, seven years ago,” Williamson, who began his career by founding Ocean Resources magazine, said. Over a 22-year period, he created a family of energy-related publications before exiting in 2002.

Williamson’s Startup Canada award stems from his mentoring work which has seen him contribute around the region. Institutions and programs he has been involved with include Dalhousie University’s Rowe School of Business, the Enactus program at St. Mary’s, Springboard Atlantic, the University of New Brunswick, Cape Breton University, the University of Prince Edward Island, and Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador.

He said mentoring has enriched his life and been critical to his contribution in helping grow the ecosystem.

“Without mentoring, I wouldn’t have had the empathy to know what was needed,” he said.

Williamson is now working on developing a program that will encourage more investors to fund Atlantic Canadian startups.

“It’s well known that the pool of angel investors is decreasing, while the pool of startups is increasing,” he said.

He envisions a regional program similar to a Community Economic and Development Investment Fund that would act as a seed fund for startups by removing provincial barriers.

In his vision, the fund would allow a Nova Scotia-based investor to put money into a New Brunswick company and get a full tax credit, which can only be obtained right now if the investor invests in a Nova Scotia venture.

Williamson is also looking for a partner for Invest Atlantic, so that he can eventually move on to other things.

“I would like to help initiate a seed fund and also bring in more angels and accredited investors from outside the region,” he said.

“There is still so much to be done. If my legacy could be summed up in one word I’d like it to be ‘collaborator’.”