propel Accelerator

Entrepreneurial Leadership Program Registration and Videos

Jeff Roach — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:11:49 -0400

Author

Source

Wallace McCain Institute

Source Url

http://www.wallacemccaininstitute.com/application_process

Image

Image Caption

The 2009-10 Members of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program

Body

Registrations are now open for 2010-2011 Entrepreneurial Leadership Program of the Wallace McCain Institute.

If you are an entrepreneur who wishes to reach your full potential and maintain your head office in the Maritimes, then you are encouraged to apply for the Entrepreneurial Leaders Program (ELP).

The basic criteria for applicants:

be running a business they founded
have growing staff and revenue
be committed to a head office in the Maritimes
exhibit personal tenacity and drive

Factors that will be considered:

growth/export potential of the company
serial entrepreneurial behaviour
outside community involvement
comments from references

All applicants are asked to submit a one page letter outlining their motivation to become part of the ELP class. Letters must include the names and emails of 3 references that share the belief that the candidate should be considered as one of top 15 emerging entrepreneurs in the Maritimes. See sample application.

Get your application form now

Videos
Take a look at the videos to get a better understanding of the Entrepreneurial Leaders Program. If you wish to apply please click on the button below to download our application: http://ow.ly/16jGp

Company targets health clinics

Rowser — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:38:58 -0400

Author

John Pollack

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Monday December 21st, 2009

Source Url

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/896474

Image

Image Caption

Chris Boudreau, CEO of Clinic Server, a Saint John-based tech startup that has a server system aimed at health clinics. In the background reviewing the software are marketing manager Brad Dryer, left, Paul Kasdan, chief operating officer, Tom McLean, chief technical officer, and Ken Salmon, owner of Saint John Sports Medicine Clinic. Photo by: Kâté Braydon/Telegraph-Journal

Body

Clinic Server is now hoping to gain a share of the American physiotherapy market

As jurisdictions across the developed world push their hospitals and doctors to go digital to more efficiently and effectively treat patients, dozens of companies have launched in hopes of making money in the niche market.

But a Saint John-based firm is looking to capitalize on providing similar services to the relatively ignored health clinics.

Clinic Server focuses on organizing patient files for physiotherapists, chiropractors, doctors and other health professionals' offices and clinics.

"There was a huge gap in the market," company chief executive Chris Boudreau says. "A lot of the smaller clinics didn't have an affordable way to manage their people and resources."

The company already has its system in 51 clinics with 84 locations across Canada and is now hoping to gain a share of the American physiotherapy market, which brings in $11 billion annually.

Clinic Server will be targeting some of the more than 115,000 physiotherapists south of the border, 75 per cent of whom Boudreau says work for smaller independent clinics.

Although there are plenty of other health clinic management systems, Boudreau says his is cheaper and easier to install and maintain.

"A typical entry point for a clinic could be as low as $50 per month," Boudreau says. "The average is $100 per month."

The service is managed online but accessed through a program users download from the Clinic Server website. The application runs in Java - a programming language often used for web-based games and other interactive online content that can be read by most computers - which Boudreau says is faster than a web-based application, but easier to set up and maintain than a desktop application.

"With a web browser you can get slowness, but when you're working with a pure java, it's closer to a native application being on your machine," he says.

But because all the info is managed through the web, health professionals can access the files from any internet-connected computer after downloading the java program and logging in.

Clinic Server's system can also be accessed from a Blackberry, and the firm may someday develop an application for the iPhone.

"If you're a clinic that has five or 10 locations it allows them to manage all their clinics on one system," he says.

Boudreau says the company is targeting physiotherapists first because it's the field, where "the real heavy lifting has been done."

The Canadian Physiotherapy Association has endorsed the management system and Queen's University teaches the product in its physiotherapy program.

But doctors' offices, many of which still keep patient files on paper, can also use the system. The Clinic Server system can be integrated within most e-health records systems used at hospitals so all health professionals could have a more holistic view of a patient's history.

It can also make transfers easier and more efficient, Boudreau says.

Currently when a family doctor refers a patient to a specialist they will call the other office and have them call the patient to book an appointment. When that appointment finally happens sometimes tests are redone if the files weren't sent. But with Clinic Server's system a doctor could access a specialist's calendar, book appointment and share relevant information.

Before the appointment the system can send the patient a notification.

"But it's also a confirmation," he says. "For physiotherapists and chiropractors, they need to have a steady flow of clients."

If a client doesn't show up for his or her appointment, a private practice may have wasted person hours. The system will also show trends over time to help improve service at a clinic.

"These types of patients are getting in within a couple of days while these other types of patients are getting in within a couple of weeks," Boudreau says providing a hypothetical situation. "How can I change that?"

It can also help a clinic shape the business to better serve clients and make more money.

"We're treating a lot of people for motor vehicle accidents, if our clinic had more expertise we could take on more," Boudreau says.

Clinic Server had been in the works since 1998 when clinician Paul Kasdan and java programmer Tom McLean saw a need for it. Andrew Patterson came on later to integrate the business trends functions of the system, which has been piloted at a Saint John Clinic for roughly a decade.

A year-and-a-half ago, the system hit the market and when Boudreau, a full-time Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. employee, heard about Clinic Server this summer he decided to take on the chief executive position as a second full-time job.

The company has been accepted into Propel ICT Inc.'s accelerator program, and is now looking for financing for the sales and marketing push it needs to expand. If or when financing comes Boudreau says the company will more than double revenue every year for the first three, at which point the business should be profitable.

How to change the world with innovation

Rowser — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:10:17 -0400

Author

Rebecca Penty

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Saturday December 12th, 2009

Source Url

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/887445

Image

Image Caption

Guy Kawasaki’s venture capital fund, Garage Technology Ventures, bets on entrepreneurs. ‘It’s really the case where the richest vein is two people working at home part-time building the product they want to use and they have an engineering background,’ he says. Kawasaki will be the keynote speaker at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s R3 Gala on March 18 at the Delta Fredericton.

Body

It's easier to do business with less money, says Silicon Valley investor Guy Kawasaki

The biggest technology firms in the world are conceived of in the minds of engineers, says California innovation guru Guy Kawasaki.

"Apple, Google, Yahoo, Cisco, those types of companies that change things," said the Silicon Valley investor in high-tech startups.

Google was developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were computer science graduate students at Stanford University in the late 1990s, to name one example.

Kawasaki's venture capital fund, Garage Technology Ventures, bets on entrepreneurs with engineering expertise and has one investment in a data-integrity company developed by such thinkers - Tripwire Inc.

"It's really the case where the richest vein is two people working at home part-time building the product they want to use and they have an engineering background," he said in an interview.

Kawasaki will be the keynote speaker at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation's R3 Gala on March 18 at the Delta Fredericton.

The event - which stands for "recognizing research results-" honours three successful New Brunswick researchers who have produced applied work that impacts the province's industries.

The foundation hopes to attract up to 400 academics and corporate types to help foster partnerships - Kawasaki is meant to bring out the business folks.

Kawasaki said he will talk about how to raise money, make a product, sell it and collect earnings, including 11 steps on "how to change the world with innovation."

"In my travels around the world, innovators and entrepreneurs are more similar than they are different," he said.

Kawasaki is a founding partner of Garage Technology Ventures and the co-founder of Alltop.com, termed an "online magazine rack" of popular topics on the web with news stories associated with those topics. He was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer Inc.

He is an author of nine books on entrepreneurship and related topics and a public speaker.

His venture firm, which provides seed funding in amounts between $250,000 and $500,000, cut back its investments this year as the markets took a hit, Kawasaki admitted.

According to the U.S. National Venture Capital Association, which cites PricewaterhouseCoopers' compilation of Thomson Reuters data, venture capital investment is down a great deal this year and last.

In the third quarter of 2009, 637 deals across the country worth US$4.8 billion were made, compared with 904 deals worth US$5.7 billion in 2008.

The 2009 figures are worth almost half the value of third quarter investments two years ago: Venture capitalists bet on 1,076 startups and shelled out a total of $8 billion in 2007.

"It's harder than ever to raise money, no question," Kawasaki said.

Luckily, it's easier to do business with less money, he said, advising entrepreneurs to employ social networking sites for marketing, use open source software and pay for cloud storage over hosting data in-house to cut infrastructure expenses.

"I think that people should bootstrap their companies and don't assume they're going to raise venture capital," he said.

Calvin Milbury, president and CEO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, said he hopes Kawasaki will be the drawing card that will "bring out the masses" to the gala next March.

The foundation's premiere research event, the R3 gala fits into the organization's mandate to "spur innovation and help commercialist research," Milbury said.

Last year, researchers recognized were Dr. Marc Surette of the Université de Moncton; Kevin Shiell of the New Brunswick Community College and Tillmann Benfey of the University of New Brunswick. Douglas Campbell and Amanda Cockshutt of Mount Allison University were also commended for commercializing a proprietary phytoplankton testing procedure.

Remaining otherwise tight-lipped, Milbury said the foundation will soon announce funding for a project Shiell is working on.

The Grand Falls-based researcher has worked to turn unusable potatoes into biodegradable plastic through a fermentation process and has moved on recently to transform potatoes, wheat and barley into biogas that can be used to generate electricity.

Survey results no surprise to Bathurst entrepreneurs

Jeff Roach — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:37:27 -0400

Author

Paul Chapman

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Tuesday November 3rd, 2009

Source Url

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/844624

Image

Image Caption

Communities in Boom: Canada's Top Entrepreneurial Cities in 2009 (see attachment at the top of this page)

Body

BATHURST - Local entrepreneurs say they're not surprised that Bathurst ranked first in New Brunswick and second in Atlantic Canada in a new national survey released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The survey, entitled Communities in Boom: Canada's Top Entrepreneurial Cities in 2009, ranked cities across Canada using statistics such as the number of business start-ups and the level of self-employment as well as "the actual perspectives of a community's business owners."

Based on that data, the federation drew conclusions about the effectiveness of local governance and public policy in supporting independent business.

"It doesn't surprise me," Dave Goyette, an owner of websolutions.ca, a web development business, said Monday.

"The one thing many of these smaller communities - like Bathurst, the Miramichi, the (Acadian) Peninsula - have is a strong sense of entrepreneurial spirit. Because we're not a completely serviced area, we brave it out, and we have to figure out how to do things that, if you were in a bigger centre, you would just hire someone to do."

The theory that smaller is a more positive environment for entrepreneurs is reflected in the report.

Saskatoon, Sask., ranked first in the survey. Bathurst placed 18th overall, but first in New Brunswick and one notch below Kentville, N.S., the No. 1 city in Atlantic Canada.

"Entrepreneurs are celebrated here, too," Goyette said.

"People are generally very encouraging when you tell them you own your own business and the business community is of a size people tend to help each other."

Danielle Gaudet, general manager of the Greater Bathurst Chamber of Commerce, was elated by the ranking.

" I have found that here (there) is so much vitality and goodwill in the business community "¦ it's a very positive work environment," she said.

"When I meet with people in the region, I am awed and amazed by their friendliness, work ethic, sense of charity and their passion for where they live and work."

Gaudet believes the business federation's ranking of Bathurst will motivate existing businesses and help foster more.

"This helps our educational and promotional efforts to make sure people know that the greater Bathurst region is business-friendly and that message comes from the entrepreneurs themselves through an independent survey."

Measuring efficiency

Jeff Roach — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:24:22 -0400

Author

John Pollack

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Monday November 2nd, 2009

Source Url

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/843529

Image

Image Caption

Richard Jones, president and CEO of Shift Energy, says eventually the company is planning to create ways for people to control energy efficiency remotely via their computer, phone or TV. Currently any changes to try to reduce energy consumption have to be made manually.

Body

While there are other energy monitoring systems on the market, Richard Jones of Shift Energy says he believes his is better

SAINT JOHN - We're a long way from the Star Trek-style home - where one talks to a central computer that controls devices in the house - but a Port City-area startup is seeking its first customers to try out something that could eventually be similar.

"We're looking for customers who are innovative and passionate about saving energy," says Richard Jones, chief executive of Shift Energy Inc.

The company officially launched last week at the Think NB ICT Showcase and made its pitch to potential clients and investors at the technology tradeshow's partner event, the New Brunswick Innovation Forum.

The company hopes to make it easier for businesses and households to reduce their energy consumption by monitoring power-hungry devices and putting the to-the-second information about their electricity use into an a single format.

In June, Jones quit his job as Maritime regional director of Bell Aliant's (TSX:BA. UN) ICT division Xwave to start the new company.

"I've always had an interested in entrepreneurship," says Jones, who has worked in both the technology and energy sectors. "This seemed to be a really unique opportunity to apply my background towards."

Though Jones has big dreams for the system, currently any changes to try to reduce energy consumption have to be made manually.

Since not everyone knows how to make their home appliances and devices more energy efficient, the trade marked system, which is called EnergyMentor, provides useful tips along with the data.

EnergyMentor works by plugging in a device that monitors electricity use between the outlet and the electronic equipment to be measured.

"We identify which devices are the biggest energy users and we attach our device to each piece of equipment. The client can get the data back in several different ways," Jones says.

The information can be sent over the Internet and presented almost any way the user wants (regular email, cell or smartphone, etc.).

"One thing we're exploring is presenting the information on the TV through Internet Protocol TV," he says.

Eventually, Jones says, the company plans to create ways the user could control appliances and devices to reduce the amount of energy they are using via computer, phone or TV. With the same tool it could provide the consumption data as well.

This could lead to a wide range of other remote and automated controls of electrically powered devices.

The company's first focus is on business applications, but Jones says he plans to roll out a home-targeted version some time next year.

Shift Energy has begun working with some commercial clients, and is looking for more through an early adopter program.

"We want to get some initial clients to help us get creative," he says.

The advantage of coming on board early, Jones says, is the system can be customized to the clients needs.

"Years down the road we may say here are our standards, just pick one," he says.

While there are other energy monitoring systems on the market, Jones says he believes his is better, because some of the others only track consumption for an entire building and most don't provide options about how the data is received.

Jones says the EnergyMentor will be extremely useful for homes and businesses that have a renewable energy generator.

"One of the critical things will be to measure how those systems are operating," he says. "If I had a solar hot water system I'd want to make sure that when I have hot water available that my system tells me and gives me recommendations about what I might want to do."

If a cap and trade system comes to fruition, Jones says, those with solar panels or wind turbines on their property will be glad to have the EnergyMentor.

"If I displace a lot of fuel consumption with my solar hot water, that carbon that I saved has a defined value," he says. "I want to be able to measure how much carbon I saved and get credit for that."

TONIGHT: propel Director and Mentor, Dan Martell, to Keynote Rising Stars Gala

Jeff Roach — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:54:37 -0300

Author

Source

Rising Stars Committee

Source Url

http://propelict.com/node/1791

Image

Image Caption

Dan Martell, 2009 Rising Stars Keynote Speaker

Body

Tickets still available - details below

An award winning Entrepreneur, Dan recently co-founded Flowtown, a company focused on providing web-based tools that allow small businesses to measure their online marketing efforts. Now living in San Francisco, Martell spends the majority of his time looking at ways to build a bridge between Silicon Valley and New Brunswick. As an informal angel investor, he is active in advising entrepreneurs using metric-based marketing tactics to gain market adoption.

Cost:
$75.00 per person. Tickets available at the door. Details at www.risingstars.ca

Rising Stars Finalists Announced - Awards to honour the best and brightest of New Brunswick’s Knowledge Industry

Jeff Roach — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:13:46 -0300

Author

Source

Rising Stars Committee

Source Url

Image

Image Caption

2008 Rising Star Chris Newton with his award in Moncton

Body

MONCTON, NB – The Rising Stars committee today announced the finalists for the 2009 Rising Stars Awards, honouring the best and brightest of New Brunswick’s knowledge industry.

“We’re excited about the number and quality of nominations submitted again this year,” said Craig Gallant, Co-chair, Rising Stars. “It’s a testament to the health of the knowledge industry in our province, and the talent New Brunswick has to offer the world.”

Now in its sixth year, Rising Stars is an annual provincial event that recognizes knowledge industry workers, in companies or organizations throughout New Brunswick, who have distinguished themselves from their peers by the quality of their work and their positive impact in their community and the industry.

The 25 finalists for the 2009 awards are:

Sal Belal
Joe Cormier
Nat Couture
Marie Eve Filion
Jennifer Gallant
Weiwei Geng
Yvon Hachey
Conrad Hebert
Doug Jones
James Keirstead
Patrick Kerry
Mathieu A. Landry
Stéphane Melanson
Don Moore
Todd Murphy
Troy Nelson
Shawn Peterson
Jason Richard
Matt Shaw
Ben Steeves
Michael Taylor
Abby Teed-Walton
Cheryl Veinot
Luc Volpé
Chelsea Wilson

RapidMind Solutions Inc
Kleinmundo Solutions
PQA Testing
Remsoft Inc
Atlantic Lottery Corporation
Oracle Canada
Blue Cross Life
Oracle Canada
Remsoft Inc
OAO Technology Solutions
CGI
Université de Moncton
Atlantic Lottery Corporation
OAO Technology Solutions Inc
MedRunner
Red Ball Internet
T4G
Prop2Go
Ambir
Integrated Technology Services - UNB
Atlantic Lottery Corporation
CGS Canada Inc
Atlantic Lottery Corporation
JBL Soft Inc.
Accreon

Saint John
Sackville
Fredericton
Fredericton
Moncton
Moncton
Moncton
Moncton
Fredericton
Moncton
Fredericton
Moncton
Moncton
Moncton
Saint John
Moncton
Saint John
Saint John
Fredericton
Fredericton
Moncton
Saint John
Moncton
Edmundston
Fredericton

Eleven of this year’s finalists are from the Moncton area, seven are from Fredericton, and five are from Saint John.
The two remaining finalists are from Sackville and Edmundston.

Ten Rising Stars will be chosen from among the 25 finalists at a gala event on Thursday, Oct. 1 in Moncton. Tickets
and additional information are available at www.risingstars.ca.

About Rising Stars
Rising Stars is an annual provincial event intended to recognize knowledge industry workers, in companies or organizations throughout New Brunswick, who have distinguished themselves from their peers by the quality of their work and their positive impact in their community and the industry. Junior Stars, a new addition to the program, recognizes High School students who have demonstrated abilities and interests in ICT.

For further information, or to arrange for interviews, please contact:

Kari Dinan

Co-Chair, Rising Stars

(506) 867-5839

kari.dinan@alc.ca

Craig Gallant
Co-Chair, Rising Stars
(506) 871-5699
craigdgallant@gmail.com

The Best 54Hours of the Season Start Friday in Moncton!

Rowser — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:32:05 -0300

Author

Source

Source Url

Image

Image Caption

propel Accelerator is pumped to be involved with 54Hours Startup Weekend!

Body

Started Friday October 2 and running through to Sunday, New Brunswick's entrepreneurs, developers, and designers will gather together to share ideas and start businesses at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Moncton. Similar to other startup weekends that have been held in cities across North America, the 54Hours event seeks to take business ideas from concept to launch in just one weekend.

Participants begin by bringing pitch ideas to the table on Friday evening, and the best of those ideas will be accepted by working teams. The goal is to divide into teams on Friday evening, and bring the ideas to market by the following Monday morning. “The entire weekend is meant to be a fun way for members of the ICT and business community to interact and network with one another at a deeper level than is generally possible at a traditional industry event,” says Craig Gallant, an ICT project manager based in Moncton who is one of the organizers. “54 Hours is designed to be a lot of fun, however will hopefully also result in the creation of several web-based enterprises that will enrich New Brunswick's ICT environment”.

There is no cost to attend the event and the only requirement is a little skill, a positive attitude and a willingness to roll with the punches. The atmosphere is meant to be fun and the entire process organic. “We’ve adopted the slogan 'No Talk. All Action.' for the event and we are intentionally keeping the agenda loosely defined,” explains Gallant. “We want to the weekend to be like the early days of a startup, where creativity and frenetic energy are the norm and there aren’t a lot of rules.”

So what happens when the weekend is over? Above all, it is hoped that a strong community bond will form but beyond that, it depends on the group. Some groups work beyond the weekend and continue to build and market their products; some may incorporate as companies and even engage in angel rounds. Issues like ownership and shares are determined by the members of a team over the course of the weekend and 54Hours will not retain any ownership of any company that might be formed over the course of the event.

"There are plenty of good ideas out there, but it takes more than an idea to give a business its legs. This is an opportunity to assemble business managers, startup enthusiasts, developers, designers and marketers in one place to see if natural partnerships will form. We are extremely interested to see what might come from this weekend."

To participate in this fun, unique networking event, please visit www.54Hours.com and sign up.

Matt Doherty, a participant from a recent 54hours weekend held in Saint John, NB, summed it up this way: “…54hours was an experience akin to throwing a handful of seeds in a garden and seeing what grew. To have such a talented cross-section of people come together and create three businesses with actual opportunities is such a great outcome. Everyone who attended brought something different and being surrounded by these people showed me how myopic we can become in our day to day life. It was refreshing to be able to learn from and to interact with such a varied group. If I had to pick one word to describe the weekend, it would be 'intense'”.

Media Contacts:
Heather Spencer
Emerging & Social Media Specialist, HAWK
spencer.heather@hawk.ca
506.877.1485

Michael Wilcott
Xentient Solutions Inc.
mwilcott@xentientsolutions.com
506.647.3269

Local group gathers for intensive business-building event

Jeff Roach — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:18:46 -0300

Author

Source

Source Url

Image

Image Caption

The <a href="http://propelaccelerator.ca">Propel Accelerator</a> is a major sponsor of 54Hours.

Body

Moncton, NB - September 18, 2009 - On October 2nd, 3rd, and 4th developers, designers and entrepreneurs from around the province will gather together for a community building startup event in downtown Moncton at the Crowne Plaza hotel. Similar to other startup weekends that have been held in cities across North America, the 54Hours event seeks to take business ideas from concept to launch in just one weekend.

"We strongly support these grassroots, creative activities that help people visualize what their ideas might look like in the shape of a business." says Jeff Roach of propel ICT, a private, non-profit, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) association based in New Brunswick. "There are plenty of good ideas out there, but it takes more than an idea to give a business its legs. This is an opportunity to assemble business managers, startup enthusiasts, developers, designers and marketers in one place to see if natural partnerships will form. We are extremely interested to see what might come from this weekend."

To participate in this fun, unique networking event, please visit www.54Hours.com and sign up.

Media Contacts:
Heather Spencer

Emerging & Social Media Specialist, HAWK

spencer.heather@hawk.ca

506.877.1485

Michael Wilcott
Xentient Solutions Inc.
mwilcott@xentientsolutions.com
506.647.3269

Start-ups: the way to develop an economy

Jeff Roach — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:18:15 -0300

Author

John Pollack

Source

Telegraph-Journal, Published Saturday September 26th, 2009

Source Url

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/804373

Image

Image Caption

Gerry Pond says there is room for improvement. ‘What we’re probably lacking is early stage investment.’

Body

Entrepreneurship is one of the keys to creating jobs in the province: experts

New Brunswick should strive to become the best place in Canada to start a business, says Gerry Pond.

The prominent New Brunswick technology sector veteran says entrepreneurship is one of the keys to the province's economic development.

"It's very important to have a solid entrepreneurial community and obviously to encourage more entrepreneurs," Pond says.

Jeff Roach, executive director of Propel ICT Inc., a provincial technology association, agrees.

"We need to be obsessed with supporting risk takers, supporting creative ideas, putting our money into start-up companies," he says. "There isn't enough attention; there isn't a focus (on entrepreneurship)."

Though Roach sees value in attracting companies to create jobs in the province, he says start-ups and expanding small businesses are better ways of developing the economy.

"It should be what the self-sufficiency plan is based on," he says. "The thing that you rally the people of this province around should be entrepreneurship.

"I'm not saying our government is against entrepreneurship," he says. "I'm just saying it's not the obsession that it needs to be."

Finance Minister Greg Byrne, the former Business New Brunswick minister, says the department is looking at how it can better help businesses.

"All programs will be reviewed to see whether or not they're meeting our needs," he says.

But Byrne says the province needs both home-grown and out-of-province companies.

"I think the key is to strike the right balance. We do have to continue to attract new investment into the province," he says. "When you attract large companies into the province they can often create new markets for existing businesses."

Pond agrees.

"There are some sectors of the economy that attracting businesses would make a lot of sense," he says. "Call centres were a good example of that."

Mark Federman, a business organization theory researcher at the University of Toronto, says neither entrepreneurs nor corporations alone can claim the credit for economic growth.

While small business expansion can easily multiply its workforce, he says, large companies provide more stability.

"It's like how stable is an ocean liner in the middle of the ocean versus a canoe or a kayak or a raft," he says. "The others will float if you work hard enough, and you can actually get around the world on a very small craft, but the ocean liner of the freight provides more physical stability."

Pond says New Brunswick has a lot of what's needed to bring businesses around the world, as companies he co-founded, such as Mariner Partners Inc. and Radian6 Technologies Inc., have done.

Byrne says the province has a number of programs that provide funding for small businesses starting up, expanding or looking for new markets. The government also partially funds enterprise agencies and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, both of which help entrepreneurs.

But Pond says there is room for improvement.

"What we're probably lacking is early stage investment," he says. "It is the hardest to get."

Rick Hancox, executive director of the New Brunswick Securities Commission, which has a mandate to foster capital markets, agrees the province needs more investors.

The commission is partially responsible for the formation of a network of more than 75 Maritime angel investors, wealthy people willing to put money into start-ups for a share of the business, roughly a third of who are from New Brunswick.

"In the last two years their investments have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of $1.5 million," he says. "This is a good start but we need more of this."

He suggests other networks could be started in the province themed around women or the north.

Once a company needs more money than an angel investors can offer, they often have to look outside of New Brunswick, Hancox says.

"The challenge these days with venture capital is the financing window is moving up the scale," he says.

Where $2.5 million used to be the minimum investment request to interest a venture capitalist - which is usually an investment firm or managed fund - Hancox says it is now up to about $5 million.

With investment dollars usually in larger centers, Roach says a lot of Matritimers move there to start companies.

"We need to make New Brunswick the place where they stay to start their companies," he says. "Maybe they have to go to Toronto to get their money or to grow bigger, but if they started here they're going to be based here."

Pond agrees and says New Brunswick-based companies can still solicit outside money.

"I don't think we have to limit ourselves to only to New Brunswickers," he says. "Once you develop a reputation of some merit it gets easier (to attract investors).

"If you get companies that are growing quickly and are successful, especially internationally, that reputation brings money," he says.