Minnesota Twins become Kinduct Client

Kinduct Technologies has announced that the Minnesota Twins are the newest addition to their growing list of high-profile sports clients. The two-time World Series champions, now gearing up for spring training, have adopted Kinduct's innovative suite of athlete management tools across their organization, including their minor league affiliates. The Twins' coaching staff and sports scientists can now leverage Kinduct's technology to streamline their performance and operational capabilities in an effort to achieve further success on the field. 

"We're excited to partner with Kinduct to create a custom athlete management system that we can use to improve our players overall health and performance," Tony Leo, athletic therapist with the Minnesota Twins, said in a statement. "Kinduct provides us with highly relevant data in a quick and efficient manner so that we can individualize player programming which is essential to adapting their workload to maximize health and performance throughout the season."

Kinduct has recently sent a group of their consultants to Minnesota to assist with implementing the athlete management system. "The Minnesota Twins are an exciting team and they are quickly becoming one of the most innovative teams in the league," said Kinduct CEO and Founder Travis McDonough. "Our technology will help the Twins consolidate athlete data in a centralized system that promotes more informed decision making.”

Venn Launches V-Lab for Corporations

Venn Innovation, the Moncton-based support facility for innovative industries, is launching a new corporate innovation program called V-Lab to encourage new technologies at corporations.

Based in the VennCentre in Moncton, the V-Lab program is designed to provide corporate clients with a methodology to change their processes and/or adopt new technologies to disrupt their market. The goal is to help them gain a competitive edge and deliver new innovation to their customers. 

V-Lab clients will be immersed in a collaborative program that allows their execs to work closely with tech companies of all sizes, from early-stage startups in the Vennture Garage program to growth-stage tech companies and others. They will also have regular interaction with academic partners and service providers.

“The intrapreneurship model has emerged as a key vehicle for enterprise to survive and grow in an environment where most of the innovation and disruptions are emanating from the startup community,” said Venn CEO Doug Robertson in a statement.

“Innovation outposts like V-Lab become the eyes and ears of the corporation, actively engaging with the innovation ecosystem, being alert to threats that could lead to disruption of the corporation, and identifying and creating innovative products and services for new and existing markets.”

Qimple, Oulton, Dovico Unveil Bursary

Moncton-based organizations Qimple, Oulton College and Dovico have formed a partnership in which they will provide bursaries to two New Brunswick students.

YU Tech Sales Bursary program will benefit two deserving Grade 12 students who demonstrate a financial need and a personal interest in a sales career in the local tech industry. They must also plan to enroll in Oulton College’s Business Marketing and Sales Diploma program starting in September 2016. The successful applicants will receive full tuition for their diploma program, plus a practicum option with Qimple or Dovico.

An early employee at Qimple, Anthony Yu (now Online Media Marketer for Intercom in San Francisco), inspired the bursary. “This partnership is an opportunity for Qimple to give back and empower New Brunswick's youth to explore all of the incredible opportunities associated with technology sales and marketing,” said Yves Boudreau, Founder and CEO of Qimple. “Anthony worked with Qimple through the world's leading startup accelerator, 500 Startups. He was so thankful for the great experience he had working with Qimple that he opted to have his compensation donated to benefit the future of tech in New Brunswick.”

Propel ICT’s recent announcement of its latest cohort of tech startups illustrates just how quickly Atlantic Canada is developing a huge pool of expertise in launching and scaling high-growth companies.

The regional accelerator this month announced that 38 companies will participate in its first course of 2016, including nine in its elite Build program, which is tailored to more advanced companies. What’s interesting about the group of entrepreneurs in the Build course is that the participants include authorities in their own right in a range of different fields.

Al Sturgeon, the Propel exec who will oversee the Build program, will no doubt bring in a range of mentors to teach this group. But the peer-to-peer mentorship (one of the key benefits of any accelerator) will be fantastic.

It’s great for the nine entrepreneurial teams going through this specific program, but it also demonstrates a positive development in the economy of Atlantic Canada. In the past half-decade or so, there has been a steady march of people from universities and traditional businesses into the startup segment, and they have been experimenting, failing, trying new things and seeking guidance from others.

Through it all, the regional startup community has developed a body of expertise and – this is key – an eagerness to share it with one another. It’s difficult to over-state how happy startup entrepreneurs are to help each other out. So when the Build program convenes next week, the participants will have a range of talent, experience and networks to draw on.

Propel Names 38 Startups to Latest Cohort

The group will include Heather Anne Carson, a previous Propel mentor. Carson is entering the course as the Co-Founder and CEO of Moncton- and Toronto-based Repable, which provides analytics for the gaming industry. She previously was a founding partner of the public relations and marketing firm, Onboardly, whose clients include startups around the continent. She brings a huge network to the program.

Another member is Alastair Jarvis, the Co-Founder and CEO of WoodsCamp of Lunenburg, N.S. Jarvis has a deep background in gaming and tech, and is an authority on using a lean canvas to develop business models. His last startup, Orpheus Interactive, produced the successful Sons of Anarchy game.

As well as Propel, Kelly Lawson is also taking her Saint John-based startup Ella Online Marketplace Inc. through the Fashion Zone at the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University in Toronto. Her husband is Jeff Roach, the head of social media marketing firm Sociallogical. 

Then there are brothers Kousha and Ehsan Nakhaei. Their company MouseStats is now based in Halifax, but six months ago it was headquartered in Iran. The tool for analysing online user interaction once won an award for the best English-language website in Iran. These guys, who came to Canada in the immigrant entrepreneur program, grew a global client base in a country subject to international sanctions. Don’t tell they can’t teach other entrepreneurs about sales and scaling.

Others in the group include another team of brothers, Drew and Coady Cameron, the co-founders of Fredericton-based TotalPave, winners of the 2013 Breakthru competition in New Brunswick, and Colin MacInnis and Brian Best, whose company Phased.io grew out of the IUT program at Cape Breton University. 

All these people embody one of the revolutionary features of startup communities – the way that they provide sustenance for themselves and spontaneously develop business expertise. And accelerators are one way that this business knowledge spreads.

Disclaimer: Propel is a client of Entrevestor.

There is a massive display screen above Marylin Ma’s desk in the Communitech Hub and all day, every day, it flashes the weekly sales goals of each team in the Rev accelerator.

It is a constant, Orwellian reminder that the cohort members have to get out and sell, and meet their weekly targets. And it is one reason that all four cohort members – BluePoint Technology, FunnelCake, Knowledgehook and Tallyfi – increased their sales in the first two months of the program, even though the holiday period is usually a dead season for sales.

“This new model is going extremely well,” Ma, the Program Manager, said in an interview in January. “We’re working with the companies religiously on their sales and marketing strategies.”

Rev started early last year as a means of helping companies with revenues to scale. The thinking was that the Waterloo Region was really great at launching companies but needed to pay more attention to helping companies grow. So Rev is a program for companies with a product and that need to get serious about building scalable marketing and sales processes.

Check Out The Members of Rev's Cohort 3

After the first cohort successfully concluded with about eight companies graduating, the organizers refined the program.

First, they staggered the intake. Four companies entered the six-month program in November, and another four entered the program in February. By staggering the program with a four-company intake at one time (rather than eight companies at once), Rev allows for more customized programming because each business is unique.

The second change is that the organizers intensified the executives-in-residence positions for the program, naming three of them for the four teams, and deepening their work with the companies.

“The mentors are almost acting as embedded executives,” said Ma, adding that these experienced executives are diving into the companies’ strengths and weaknesses, coming with them on sales calls and working side-by-side with the founders. “Being in the field allows the executives to gain insights directly from the customers. They’re then better positioned to advise where the companies should go.”

But for the most part, the goals of Rev haven’t changed since the program started a year ago – to grow revenues and develop solid corporate organizations. When the four members of Cohort 2 pitch at Centre Stage (the name for Rev’s demo day) in May, they will have to demonstrate how the sales and marketing engine they’ve built will help them achieve their future revenue targets. It’s what Rev companies have to do to graduate.

“We’ve gone in since Day 1 with that goal,” said Ma. “It’s never easy but we have a lot of knowledge under our belt now to better guide our companies.”

This week in Jobs of the Week, we’re focussing on the Halifax area, including a new posting on the Entrevestor Job Board from Hacket’s Cove, N.S.-based transmitter developer Nautel.

Nautel is a manufacturer of high powered radio frequency products that are primarily suited for broadcast, navigation, industrial, and plasma rocket applications.

The company, which is looking for a Product Management and Marketing Specialist, has sold its radio broadcast transmitters in 177 countries.

Entrevestor and Qimple operate the Entrevestor Job Board, which helps match job openings and candidates in the tech and start-up communities.

Hackett’s Cove

Nautel

Product Management & Marketing Specialist

Nautel is looking to fill an opening for an entrepreneurially minded, motivated individual with a flair for crafting messaging and positioning a brand within a marketplace. The successful candidate must help to develop marketing programs and events and work on demand generation and product launches. He or she will approach each of these tasks with a keen eye for detail. This person will be continuously engaged with the sales team, and understand the technical capabilities and benefits of Nautel products. The successful candidate will be an expert on competitors’ strategies and customers. Qualifications include an MBA or a Bachelors in Marketing and technical acumen gained through experience or technical education. Alternatively, the candidate may have a technical degree complemented by business experience. Multiple languages, and communication skills would be an asset. This role will require international travel.

Halifax

STI Technologies Limited

User Experience (UX) Designer

STI Technologies is looking for a UX designer to work within its R&D/Innovation team. Qualifying traits include an analytical sensibility, good business sense, strong research ability, a passion for technology, and exceptional problem-solving skills. This role will be responsible for customer retention, researching customer behavior, recommending improvements, site architecture and navigation, and user flow. The successful candidate must also create user interfaces and functional specification documents. Qualifications for this position include a bachelor or college degree, and three to six years’ experience in a similar role.

Proposify

Growth Hacker

Proposify is seeking an experienced marketer/growth hacker to join their small team in Halifax. The ideal candidate would fit in with Proposify’s corporate culture of customer service, inter-departmental communication/cooperation, respect and humour. The applicant should have a track record of driving revenue for SaaS companies, be data-driven, analytical, innovative, creative, and posses a diverse set of skill to drive growth. This includes SEO marketing automation, conversion optimization, and consumer psychology. Responsibilities for the role include using data and analytics to develop insight for improved decision making, and drive growth related to revenue, retention and referrals. Qualifications for this position include five plus years’ experience in a similar role.

Gracenote

Web Developer

Gracenote is looking for an applicant to fill the position of web developer in its Halifax office. The successful applicant will work independently alongside a technical team, and write web, desktop, and mobile applications. They will be responsible to expose themselves to relevant industry applications (IIS, Bamboo, Jira, Confluence, Fisheye, etc.) and technologies (NuGet, Gradle, MongoDB, etc.). Qualifications include a Computer Science Degree or equivalent, five-plus years’ experience working with the following – Java and/ore NET (C# and VB), HTML, XML and SQL Server. Experience with third party and open source tool such as Hibernate and Spring would be considered an asset.

Norex and Pursu.it

Ruby Engineer

Halifax-based web development company Norex and Pursu.it, its division that operates a crowdfunding site for elite athletes, are searching for a ruby engineer. This person will be in charge of developing a scalable crowdfunding platform used around the world – including payment processing and localization for international clients. The successful candidate will work closely with Norex’s Lead Developer, Lead Designer, Project Manager, and Partner to create a white label crowdfunding platform that will be used for Pursu.it and available to other social organizations around the world. The position requires object-oriented programming, and experience in Javascript, HTML5 & CSS3 and PostgreSQL. Ruby and Ruby on Rails experience is preferred.

Clean Simple

Software Tester

Clean Simple, whose platform improves communications in commercial cleaning services, is looking for a talented Software QA lead to join its team. This person will design and implement the company’s Quality Assurance Program with the expressed objective of ensuring the best possible performance for both its Mobile and Web software. The successful candidate will be given creative control over the design of Clean Simple’s QA program with the mandate of thoroughly de-risking and refining products in development. He or she will collaborate with development and design teams to plan and execute testing across a variety of world-class applications on the newest web and mobile technologies. Clean Simple is looking for someone with three to five years of experience in a similar role.

Dadavan Systems Ltd.

Front-End Developer

Working within the technical team on web-based projects, the Front End Developer’s main responsibility is to produce, modify and maintain web-based user interfaces. The successful candidate must also work closely with server-side developers to understand and use their server-side code to develop complex, interactive and database-driven websites. Dadavan is seeking a candidate with experience designing and implementing web applications that are part of larger, multi-tiered distributed applications that include server and database components and processes.

QRA Corp

Full Stack Software Engineer

QRA develops software to help engineers build flawless products. The company is searching for an experienced software engineer with confidence and talent. It is seeking candidates with a minimum of three years of progressive web and client/server software development experience. A formal education in Computer Science or Engineering is a major asset.

Vmo Solutions

Senior Software Developer

VMO is searching for a lead developer based in the Halifax area with three to five years of experience. The successful candidate should be a self-motivated and independent senior level developer who is current with modern web and cloud-based technologies. The position calls for programming for mission-critical real-time systems, transforming the way airlines operate today. On occasion, the developer will also be tasked with communicating with clients to address open issues with beta and production software.

BML Web Development and Communication

Intermediate Full Stack Developer (JavaScript+PHP)

BML, which is developing BuyMyLemonde.com, a youth fundraising website, is looking for talented full stack developer to join its team. The candidate will have to construct, develop, code, debug and maintain web site applications. He or she will also have to define software design methodology for the development and implementation of internet-based applications to support all aspects of web site functionalities. The company is looking for someone with a minimum of three years of PHP web development experience and Javascript development.

Athletigen Technologies

Java Developer

As part of the product development and engineering team, the Java Developer will be expected to play a critical role in shaping Athletigen’s technology offering. This will involve participating in building a state of the art DNA analytics engine using different technologies such as Java, Hibernate, Spring AOP, Spring IoC, python, R, big data systems and REST services. Minimum Qualifications include in-depth knowledge of data structures and Java Collections including, Maps, Sets and Graph implementations. The candidate should have a very strong knowledge of Java Language including, inner, nested and anonymous classes, private constructors, final methods, overloading, and overriding.

As we build a list of Atlantic Canadian startups, we’re putting out a special request for young innovative companies based in New Brunswick to let us know they’re in business.

Why New Brunswick?

We believe that the province has been a hotbed of company formation in the past two years, especially in the IT segment. There are New Brunswick startups that we haven’t heard of yet, and we’d love to be aware of them.

We’re not reporting on these companies or naming them publicly if they don’t want to be named. We are just developing our list of startups and high-growth companies in Atlantic Canada – all those that were active as of Jan. 31, 2015. We have a list of about 300 companies that we’re familiar with.

If you’ve appeared in Entrevestor, then you’re on our list. If not, or if you haven’t contacted us before, please email me at peter@entrevestor.com and let me know the company name, location, sector, year founded and CEO.  

This list of companies is the backbone of the Entrevestor Databank. In a few weeks, we will be surveying all the companies and come up with metrics on the size and performance of Atlantic Canadian startups. We aggregate this data and publish most of it free on Entrevestor, and we also prepare reports for clients. It helps us to finance the daily news we provide for the startup community.

Of course, there are grey areas on what constitutes a startup, so here are the criteria:

You have to be actively working on your company. That doesn’t mean the company has to have paid employees. But a person or team has to be working each week on the project and have to be well into customer discovery and product development. It can’t just be a hobby. And it can’t be something you were working on last year and may return to one day.
It has to be owned by at least one Atlantic Canadian. We want companies based here. We will include companies that have at least one co-founder in the region. We won’t include companies based elsewhere that have some developers working on the East Coast.
The company must be developing proprietary technology for the global market. You have to be working on a product. Service companies and companies serving the local market would not be included.

If you meet these criteria and haven’t been mentioned in Entrevestor before, please shoot me an email. You should do this for three reasons: first, it means we’ll know about you when your company reaches the stage that it merits press coverage; second, our reports are read by decision makers, and the better our information, the more impact it has on policies for startups; and third, this helps us to continue to report on the Atlantic Canadian startup community. And we believe that helps the whole community.

A year on from winning New Brunswick’s Breakthru competition, Castaway Golf Technologies has exceeded its annual sales targets and is selling its second-hand golf balls in 1,400 stores in Canada and the U.S.

The Fredericton company last year won the $287,250 first prize in Breakthru, which seeks to find the top new startup in New Brunswick. The company won with a mechanized device that can retrieve the millions of golf balls that end up in water hazards. It now retrieves ball from more than 75 golf courses in the Maritimes and the U.S. and then resells the balls under the Castaway brand.

The number of golf courses is growing as Castaway forms more partnerships.

“This summer we really got into the industry as a whole and figured out our position in it,” said CEO Matt Vance during a recent interview in Toronto, where he was meeting with potential investors. “We created some very strong partnerships over the past summer and that’s what really helped us to grow the business.”

UNB Expands Summer Institute

Castaway grew out of Vance’s love of golf and his realization as a boy that there’s money to be made from retrieving and reselling golf balls lost in water hazards. Now he’s on a mission. “We want to help make the game of golf more affordable as we want to help grow the game of golf,” he said.

Vance, a product of the University of New Brunswick Technology, Management and Entrepreneurship program, became CEO last year after his former partner Josh Ogden left the company.

Vance said Ogden’s passion is starting companies, so he is working on new startups while Vance is in growth mode with Castaway.

Vance’s company is now making improvements to its hardware so the next iteration will be more sophisticated and user-friendly than the previous version.

The five-member team (which includes at least one Maritimer lured home from Western Canada) at Castaway is developing new revenue streams, he added. However, Vance was coy about the specifics of what partnerships he has formed given the fact that there are a number of competitors with similar products.

“We really nailed down and asked our customers what they wanted and we’ll launch some new products this summer that our customers have told us they’d like to see,” he said.

The growth has been strong enough that the team is now looking at finding a new, larger warehouse in the Fredericton area, as it’s outgrowing its current location.

Castaway has been able to accomplish its growth by bringing in revenue and from the money and in-kind services it won from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation’s Breakthru competition. To continue the growth, Vance is now in the process of raising capital from investors.

Without getting into specifics, he said he is talking to “smart money” investors, that is individuals or institutions that bring expertise and networks as well as capital. It’s similar to the benefit the company got from winning Breakthru.

“Winning that competition proved our business model, helped us to be poised for growth and established relationships,” said Vance. “And it gave us the opportunity to bring some Maritimers from out West back to the East Coast.”

With a goal of helping young entrepreneurs avoid failure, Canada’s Business Model Competition will take place this Friday and Saturday at Dalhousie University.

Now in its fourth year, CBMC judges student teams from across the country based on their use of the lean canvas, which emphasizes speaking directly with potential customers and users of their business idea. Teams don’t receive points for library research or fancy graphs, but by showing how their business idea could legitimately find a place in its market.

Eighty-three per cent of businesses fail within their first year, said CBMC organizer Mary Kilfoil. By sticking with the business model canvas, she hopes the 52 businesses competing at this year’s CBMC won’t become part of that statistic.

“Teams that have gone through this process and have learned the skills of customer discovery are much more likely to launch businesses,” said Kilfoil, who heads Dal’s Starting Lean program, which teaches students to use the lean canvas.

The participants not only have the chance to become first-, second- or third-place winners and receive a shared $50,000 in cash and in-kind services from Deloitte, but also to network and receive mentorship throughout the weekend.

The overall winner of CBMC will go on to the International Business Model Competition, which will be held in April at the Microsoft Campus in California.

Read About Last Year's CBMC Winner, HeadsUp

The judges, who include representatives from the Business Development Bank of Canada, the University of North Carolina and The Next 36, among others, give feedback to the teams to help them develop further. Teams also receive mentoring from local entrepreneurs on Friday night to prepare them even more for their Saturday presentations.

“There are dinners, networking sessions, and everyone gets to meet one another, which adds real value to the nature and friendliness of the event,” Kilfoil said.

In conjunction with CMBC, the inaugural Canada’s Pitch Competition will also take place Friday and Saturday. (You can register to pitch or watch the event here.) Pitch 101, which teaches new entrepreneurs how to create one-minute pitches, is hosting the pitch competition to celebrate the university participants who completed the Pitch 101 program.

The reason for putting both competitions on at the same time is to show the Pitch 101 participants, who are in the ideation stage, what can happen once one works more on an idea and further develops a pitch.

The pitching competition participants can also participate in the networking events and dinners so that they can expand their networks and further their business ideas.

Kilfoil describes it as “a competition where there is tremendous learning—with, of course, an after party after the final pitches.”

The CBMC organizers, Kilfoil, Ed Leach and Akram Al-otumi, all work at the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship at Dalhousie.

Al-otumi is a commerce student himself, but also owns two business and is a faculty advisor for Dal’s ENACTUS team, which encourages social entrepreneurship.

Leach is the director at the Norman Newman Centre and oversees all the activities related to entrepreneurship both academically and extra-curricular.

Disclaimer: The author of this article also did paid work for Canada's Pitch Competition.   

Solace Power has won Sikorsky Innovations’ 2016 Entrepreneurial Challenge, allowing the Newfoundland and Labrador company to work more closely with the U.S. Aerospace company.

Based in Mount Pearl, NL, Solace Power specializes in wireless power – that is, delivering electrical energy to batteries or devices without any wires attached to them. It works on projects for specific customers and then licences the technology to them.

The Newfoundland and Labrador company entered and won the sixth annual Entrepreneurial Challenge organized by Sikorsky Innovations, whose ultimate parent is the aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. As the winner, Solace received US$25,000 and – more importantly – an opportunity to explore with Sikorsky the impact of Solace Power technology on Sikorsky's product line.

“It’s obviously great market validation in the aerospace market – a market we’ve been working on for a while,” said Solace SEO Kris McNeil in an interview on Tuesday.

HeyOrca! Adds Staff After Funding

Sikorsky said in a statement that its Entrepreneurial Challenge is a one-of-a-kind gateway in which disruptive ideas can quickly gain exposure and a customer base within one of the most exciting transportation verticals in the world.

"We look forward to exploring the applications of the exciting Solace Power technology,” Chris Van Buiten, Vice-President of Sikorsky Innovations, said in the statement. “The Sixth Entrepreneurial Challenge exceeded our expectations, and we're anticipating strong additions to the portfolio with competitors from the seventh competition."

A graduate of the Genesis Centre at Memorial University, Solace Power has been working with about 15 customers and gaining revenues through the licensing fees. A year ago, it announced a partnership with Boeing, under which the Solace technology is used to wirelessly recharge unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. The technology uses energy transmitters that send electricity to receivers on drones to keep them in the air for longer periods of time without landing or swapping batteries.

McNeil said the company has been focusing closely on UAVs, and is now branching out into new projects. It is working with an original equipment manufacturer in the U.S. on an automotive product, and is even helping an office furniture company develop new devices related to electrical outlets in boardroom tables.

Having previously raised money from the First Angel Network and a few other angel investors, McNeil said he is raising a Series A financing round in 2016. He declined to name a target for the round. Solace now employs 21 people, and McNeil expects to add about 12 in the next year. In the meantime, the company will continue to work with Sikorsky and its other partners.

"The Sikorsky Entrepreneurial challenge was a fantastic opportunity for Solace Power to showcase its unique wireless power technology and earn validation from one of the world's most innovative companies," said Neil Chaulk, Solace Power’s Vice President of Business Development. "We are looking forward to working with Sikorsky to develop leading edge technology in the aerospace and defense market."

New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant has outlined plans to establish a centre of excellence for cybersecurity in New Brunswick.

The premier attended the RSA Conference 2016 in San Francisco this week to promote the province to information technology companies and security specialists. Before he left, he told the media that New Brunswick, and Fredericton in particular, is already strong in the field of cybersecurity, but more needs to be done to promote it.

“Developing a centre of excellence in cybersecurity will create jobs, protect our businesses and help us become the smart province,” said Gallant in a statement issued by his office. “This will be a great opportunity to showcase what New Brunswick has to offer.”

By attending the conference, Gallant is following up on recent efforts by his government, which include participating in the Halifax Securities Forum, meetings with IBM, aligning with the priorities of the federal government and a visit from the Israeli ambassador to Canada Rafael Barak in January.

At the conference in San Francisco, Gallant met with some of the leading figures in international IT security, including Avi Shavit, chief scientist of Israeli Cyber and Homeland Security.

Companies with operations in New Brunswick, such as Bulletproof Solutions Inc., IBM and Sentrant, and institutions like the University of New Brunswick are at the forefront of developing cybersecurity technologies, said the government.

Gallant told the media that cyber attacks each year have an economic impact of between $400 billion and $500 billion.

The Fundica Roadshow will stop in Halifax next week, holding a pitching and mentoring event on Friday, March 11, at Volta Labs in Halifax. The winner of the event will get a chance to pitch at the Grand Finale in San Francisco.

Fundica is a national organization dedicated to helping startups accelerate the funding process, and one of its key events is the coast-to-coast Fundica Roadshow. The event next Friday will include a few fireside chats, and pitches from a range of startup. The Atlantic Canadian winner will travel to the grand finals in San Francisco, receive three months of office space in Silicon Valley, and receive a cloud hosting package and one year of free Quickbooks online.

Fundica will also give $250 to the best pitch as voted by the audience.

"This is a national initiative designed to help entrepreneurs in the path towards getting funded,” said Lana Tayara, Fundica’s partnerships and marketing manager. “In 2015, 31 percent of the pitching companies were offered funding and the best pitch in each city won trip  to San Francisco and a pitch opportunity to investors in the Valley. "

In the 2015 Roadshow, there were 144 piches, 1147 participants and 124 funders, and the events featured 96 educational and inspirational “RoadTalks”.

The winner of the Halifax event last year was Vendeve, the Halifax-based startup that helps women in service industries and professions find markets for their services.  

Companies interested in pitching can register here. To be eligible, the companies must feature a technological component, be incorporated in Canada, be in seed or growth stage and expect revenue growth of more than 50 percent.

You can register to attend the event here.

Meet MTEI Student Interns

Members of the Nova Scotia business community looking for talented interns are invited to attend a session to meet students from the Master of Technology Entrepreneurship Innovation at St. Mary’s University.

The students in this graduate program for entrepreneurially minded executives will “pitch” themselves at Volta Labs in Halifax on Monday, March 7, from 5 to 7:30 pm.

MTEI intern students are trained in the entire startup process, from innovation processes and management to commercialization and business development.

Organizers of the event said these students have the skills to become innovators and to grow a business, whether it is a startup or a long-established organization.  With an average of five years’ work experience, MTEI students have already demonstrated a track record of success and have the knowledge, skills and abilities to help companies drive innovation and solve complex business challenges.

You can learn more about the students here and register for the event here.

[Disclaimer: MTEI is a client of Entrevestor.]

Silver Economy Summit Set for Next Week

The Silver Economy Summit, a conference on the opportunities in providing products for the elderly, will take place March 8 and 9 at the Pictou County Wellness Centre.

Organizer John Hamblin said the growing number of seniors in the region require major changes in health, housing, home care and other areas. They also represent a great opportunity for startups and entrepreneurship.

“Dealing with the issues and problems of seniors requires new products and new applications, and these opportunities can result in great businesses that have world wide application,” he said.

The two-day conference includes keynote speeches from Gerry Pond, Chairman and Co-Founder of Mariner Partners, and noted futurist Ayelet Baron, as well as a range of other speakers.

You can register for the event here.

Selectbidder Lands Two Customers in Maine

Automotive technology company Selectbidder has signed two more U.S. auto auction partners: Acadia Auto Auctions and Port City Auto Auction, both of Maine. This follows deals signed recently with auction partners in Florida, Pennsylvania and New Brunswick.

These partners will use Selectbidder's platform to manage real-time bids between dealers for auto trade-ins. With Selectbidder, the auction partners, as well as their dealers and customers, enjoy a more efficient and fair trade-in process.

“Our teams are very excited to begin using Selectbidder," Dave Wescott, president of both Maine auction groups, said in a statement issued by Selectbidder. “It will help us grow our online sales and allow us to sell fresh vehicles every day, not just on sale day. This new tool will re-energize our sales team and dealers out in the field."

Selectbidder’s easy-to-use platform is attracting interest from independent auto auctions throughout North America, said the company. 

Fundmetric, the Halifax startup that helps charities raise more money, is plotting a bold move into the U.S. after a successful meeting with clients in New York.

CEO Mark Hobbs was in New York last week for an event organized by the Canadian Digital Media Network, where he met with about 20 charities based in the area.

Fundmetric also became the first startup to take advantage of the office space available at Communitech NYC, the new facility operated by the Kitchener-based support organization Communitech.

“We were able to meet some of the leading charities in the New York,” Hobbs said in an interview Tuesday.

Many are household names, though he would not name them.

“To put it mildly, we got an outstanding reception from those customers and many of them are in the process of getting on our software now.”

An Analysis of the Latest Propel ICT Cohort

Hobbs said the company was invited back for second meetings with two of the charities, and in one case to meet the charity’s CEO.

And Fundmetric now plans to open a sales office in New York due to response to its sales pitches.

Founded by Hobbs and Chris Kolmatycki, Fundmetric provides charities with software that helps to increase the results of their funding campaigns.

First, it scans a broad swath of data to learn about the charity’s donors. Then it uses algorithms to determine who is most likely to give and what their concerns are. Finally, it helps the charity contact the donors, so they understand the impact their gifts have had.

Fundmetric now has about 20 paying customers in Canada, including the fundraising teams at Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University.

Hobbs said that the last fundraising campaign to use Fundmetric experienced a 25-per-cent growth in donations and more than doubled the number of donors.

The charities Hobbs met in New York were far larger than those in Canada, he said, and they were impressed with Fundmetric’s unique ability to use data to enhance engagement with donors.

“It was neat going into a new market and learn that the pain is the same (as in Canada),” said Hobbs.

“The intensity at which that market innovates is well known and we were really pleased to be there from Nova Scotia and be there as a company that is bringing innovation to the charitable marketplace.”

One of the impressive things about Fundmetric is how much Hobbs and Kolmatycki have done with relatively modest amounts of capital.

The company has raised only $250,000, including $150,000 from BDC Capital. Yet it has moved to the market by working with some key startup organizations, including Volta Labs in Halifax, the Propel ICT accelerator and the Google for Entrepreneurs program offered at Communitech.

The company, which employs six people, is now raising more money, with a target for this funding round of $750,000.

Hobbs said he met with a few potential investors in the U.S. recently and hopes the funding will help with the move south.

“We’re going to be looking to establish a U.S. sales office in New York. That’s what we’re going to do with our round.”

Kitchener startup MappedIn managed a staggering 500 percent sales growth over the past year while pursuing its simple mission of helping people find things indoors.

MappedIn provides customizable interactive maps for retailers that are seeking to make navigation easier for their shoppers.

“Everyone knows the Canadian Tire experience on a Saturday morning,” said Co-Founder Hongwei Liu, “When you need one thing and it takes you 20 minutes to buy it. We think there’s tremendous benefit in people being able to self-serve.”

Liu added, “If you imagine the retail store of the future five years out, it’s unimaginable that that technology won’t exist. It’s so obvious, but it’s hard to do because managing the data is hard.”

The company simultaneously was founded and launched four-and-a-half years ago when Liu, Mitchell Butler and Leander Lee, all students at the University of Waterloo, showed their then side-project to the general manager of a local mall. She immediately put in an order to purchase a system for use during the Christmas rush, mere weeks away.

“From there, it’s sort of been this epic journey of trying to move as fast as we can,” said Liu, who noted that he and Butler have deferred their degrees while pursuing the company.

UCIC Seeks 100,000 Users in KW

MappedIn was founded out of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity accelerator, and has also been supported by various Communitech initiatives.

“Certainly, I don’t think Mitch and I would be doing what we’re doing right now if it wasn’t for the influence of the school and the community.”

MappedIn’s maps are currently at use or will be soon in use at nine out of 10 of the biggest malls in Canada, and the company works with the four major premium mall owners in the nation, each of which own and manage tens or even hundreds of sites. Liu estimates they work with a total of about 50 companies, but across them support hundreds if not thousands of sites. Perhaps most impressively, they haven’t lost a customer yet.

MappedIn also has a few U.S. clients, including high-fi wireless speaker manufacturer Sonos, which uses the map internally to aid in finding employee workspaces in a densely populated office. Liu noted that the 24-person company also just won what will be a landmark deal in the states, though he is not yet able to discuss the details.

Liu says MappedIn’s main competition comes in the form of individual agencies that will create similar systems from scratch that will look good within the first month, but quickly go out of date.

“Our biggest difference is that we take the time to build up the infrastructure to maintain and automate an indoor dataset, a real-time view of what’s indoors.”

The last round of funding for the company closed March 2015 with $1.5 million raised. Liu said the company prefers organic growth but would raise capital again if the right funding opportunity arises.

“We see tremendous opportunity in the space we’re in,” said Liu, “In some ways we haven’t even really gotten started in turning the taps on.”

Nova Scotia would do well to follow the example of Australia and implement policies like those that are boosting the Australian film industry, said Cape Breton academic Jacquelyn Thayer Scott.

Thayer Scott recently read in the Financial Times that the Australian film sector has long been overshadowed by New Zealand’s, but tax breaks and the fall in the Australian dollar are attracting U.S. film crews.

Foreign films generated US$300 million expenditure in Australia in 2014-2015, more than double the income of the previous year.

Nova Scotia is rich in creative talents and traditions that could grow the economies of the region said Thayer Scott, who is a professor at Cape Breton University’s Shannon School of Business.

 “I believe an under-exploited area of startups is the arts and creative sector,” said Thayer Scott, who is also a former president of Cape Breton University and a former chair of Innovacorp.

“It was stupid, stupid, stupid, getting rid of the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit…We’ve got music, theatre, film, visual artists…”

Plus, Nova Scotians already value and promote the creative sector.

That support was demonstrated to Kansas-born Canadian Thayer Scott when she arrived in Sydney in 1993 to become president of the college that became Cape Breton University.

Orenda Scaling at IBM Accelerator

“I was taken aside by an influential person who said, of several people on the university payroll, ‘Don’t necessarily expect a full day’s work from them. They have the support of the artistic community…’”

“They were good employees but, more importantly, they were real cultural icons…”

Thayer Scott said Cape Bretoners have helped young musicians fund albums. Rita MacNeil’s first two albums were published by the university, she said.

Cape Bretoners volunteer during the annual Celtic Colours International Festival. The festival has increased tourism, exposed local musicians to the world and brought international artists to the island.

Since the Celtic Colours International Festival began in 1997, recording studios have opened on the island, Thayer Scott said, and sound technicians are now trained locally.

“When something is important to a community, why not exploit it in a respectful way?” she asked. “We have that resource in Nova Scotia. Why turn our backs on its commercial potential?”

She said the creative sector may be facing the same misconception tech startups faced in the 1990s when Thayer Scott and others began trying to start a tech cluster in Sydney.

At first, there was little official support because tech startups were not seen as real businesses like retail outlets, steel plants and coal mines.

Eventually, Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation provided money for a monthly meeting.

“We knew that if we had tea and sandwiches, people would come,” Thayer Scott said. “We started TAG, the Technology Advisory Group, at the university.”

Over time, the group helped birth 12 small companies. Most of the 12, which include Marcato Digital, a specialist in web-based management of live events, and e-learning company MediaSpark, are still growing.

The sector was boosted in 1995 when Innovacorp began the province-wide I-3 Technology Startup Competition.

Now, Sydney houses a growing tech cluster. The university has partnered with entrepreneur Gavin Uhma, founder of the UIT Startup immersion stream, to teach entrepreneurs.

Innovacorp, led in Cape Breton by regional manager Bob Pelley, continues to fund new companies. Innovacorp and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency run the Spark Cape Breton contest.

Problems include: the difficulty of obtaining later-stage funding; the scarcity of expert mentorship; the shortage of key graduate programs at the university and associated research; distance from markets and the lack of good staff.

“But if Donald Trump gets elected we may get more people,” she said jokingly, referring to the website called Cape Breton if Trump Wins, which has unexpectedly generated tourist bookings and immigration queries.

 “The site’s been worth a million dollars in advertising,” she added.

Disclaimer: Innovacorp is a client of Entrevestor.

This week in Jobs of the Week, we are featuring two positions from Fredericton-based software solution developer Loft1.

Loft1’s software is used to transform any whiteboard markings into digitized script, eliminating the need to take notes or keep minutes.

Loft1 is seeking to fill two roles in their Fredericton offices: one as a UI/UX Mobile Developer, and one as a Principal Software Engineer. All Loft1 employees receive competitive benefits including health, dental, and vision.

Our Jobs of the Week feature jobs now open on the Entrevestor Job Board. Entrevestor and Qimple operate the Entrevestor Job Board, which helps match job openings and candidates in the tech and start-up communities.

Fredericton

Loft1

Principal Software Engineer

Loft1 is looking for a talented individual to contribute to the overall design and architecture of its software and supporting infrastructure. Ideal candidates would have a Master’s degree in either Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or another related field of study, though preference will be given to applicants holding a PhD. Candidates must have at least two years’ related work experience and be knowledgeable in Cloud Scale application development, knowledge of REST, JSON, and JQuery. An exceptional mathematics/algorithms background is also required. Annual salary is set at $100,000 to $110,000, based on qualifications with $300 annual fitness allowance and eligibility for a performance bonus.

UI/UX Mobile Developer

Loft1 is seeking to add a UI/AX Mobile designer to its Fredericton office. The successful applicant will be responsible for the look and feel of Loft1’s product, as well as the cloud implementation, HTML5 front end development, and mobile application development activities. Ideal candidates would have a degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or college diploma in related field of study. Applicants must have at least two years’ related work experience and show proficiency in HTML5, Web 2.0 technologies, JavaScript, NodeJS, Redis, Fabric, Express, and other programs. Annual salary is set at $80,000 to $90,000 based on qualifications with eligibility for a performance bonus, and $300 annual fitness salary. 

Lumos Energy Strips of Queen’s University, which has developed a quick and calorie-free means of getting a caffeine shot, won the $15,000 second prize at Canada’s Business Model Competition on Saturday.

The $10,000 third prize was awarded to the University of British Columbia’s Ohm Wearables, which has developed a smart belt that checks your breathing during yoga.

Dalhousie University hosted the Fourth Annual Canada’s Business Model Competition, which assesses student entrepreneurship teams based on the process they used in building their company. It places particular emphasis on the use of a lean canvas and interviewing potential customers and partners to shape the business case. ExVivo Labs, Lumos and Ohm with the big winners Saturday from a group of six finalists, which were chosen from a total field of 30 entrants.

ExVivo Labs Wins Canada’s Business Model Competition.

Presented by Co-Founder Chris Angelatos, Lumos Energy Strips are similar to fresh-breath strips that dissolve in your mouth, only they deliver a shot of caffeine.  There is now a $115 billion market for coffee and energy drinks, but these products can be unhealthy and take time to pass through the digestive system to work. Flavoured with mint, the Lumos strips work instantly through sublingual absorption – meaning the caffeine enters the blood stream through blood vessels in the mouth.

Angelatos said Lumos has been in business since May, and has interviewed more than 1,000 people. It now has a product developed and its four-member team, which is in The Next 36, is moving the product to market.

“Why us? Because we are our market,” he said. “Every member of our team thrives on high-pressure, high-stress environments.”

Ohm grew out of a Startup Weekend project that identified the key role that breathing plays for the millions of people who do yoga. But there is no way to monitor your breathing.

The Ohm product is a belt with sensors that you can use during yoga to monitor and analyze your breathing.  

“Our passion is to bring technology and oneness together,” said Co-Founder Adrian Wong. “This product is the first step that will help to bring that vision together. We’re going to improve health one breath at a time.”

She said the company interviewed 122 yoga practitioners and 76 percent of them identified with the problems of not being able to track their breathing. The company plans to sell its smart belt for $179 directly to customers over the internet or in partnership with yoga studios.

The other three finalists in the competition were:

BioFlex

University of Waterloo

This company has developed biodegradable polymers that can secure a broken bone while it heals. Broken long bones are now held in place with titanium rods, which need to be removed with a second operation – which can be painful and expensive. The BioFlex solution would end the need for that second operation. The company is now developing its prototype and doing a patent search. It plans to soon begin clinical trials with animals, hoping the market for pets can produce revenues as it moves into regulatory trials for humans.  

Suavair

University of Victoria

Suavair uses drones to monitor the growth of trees in woodlands. Private foresters on crown lands in B.C. need to produce reports for government on their reforestation efforts, but producing the data can be expensive, time consuming and dangerous. Sauvair has developed expertise in using drones to monitor reforested areas, and working with foresters to interpret the images brought back by the drones. The company is now working with a few clients, and is able to cut their costs in compliling the reports by 30 to 50 percent.

SeeMePly

St. Mary’s University

SeeMePly is an online platform that helps to simplify the process of applying for private schools in Africa. In Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, as many as 40 percent of secondary school students attend private schools.  But parents don’t know what schools offer, and schools have trouble differentiating themselves in the market. And the application and payment processes are inconvenient. SeeMePly allows an exchange of information between schools and parents and simplifies the payment process.  The Co-Founders, who attend St. Mary’s' Masters of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation program, have established contacts with several schools and one is ready to be on the platform at $1200 per year. 

ExVivo Labs of the University of Waterloo won the $25,000 first prize at fourth annual Canada’s Business Model Competition at Dalhousie University in Halifax on Saturday.

Co-Founders Christian Brum and Eric Blondeel won the prize for a poised and focused presentation on the development of their product, which reduces the pain and wait times involved in testing for allergies.

The pair will now proceed to the International Business Model Competition at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, in late April.

The pitchers described current tests for allergies as primitive, painful and inconvenient. People who believe they have an allergy now have to wait several months for a test, which involves placing substances on a needle, pricking the skin, and looking to see if there is a reaction. This is repeated with different substances until there’s a reaction.

ExVivo has developed a simple, painless patch that detects allergens through biomarkers present in the skin. Once the product is launched, patients could buy it at a pharmacy and apply it at home. If there’s a positive reading, they can book an appointment with an allergist. If not, they’ve saved a lot of hassle. It could reduce the wait times, which can stretch to more than a year.

“That’s why we’re calling it the home pregnancy test of allergies,” said Blondeel. “We’re not trying to take away the allergist. We are trying to find the right people who should be going to see an allergist.”

Lumos, Ohm Claim CBMC Prizes

ExVivo has been working with Velocity Science at the University of Waterloo and the Waterloo Accelerator Centre’s ACJumpstart program, and is now preparing for its first clinical trials.

It is also now trying to raise investment capital. CEO Moufeed Kaddoura was unable to attend the competition in Halifax because he was at an allergy conference in Las Vegas, meeting with potential investors.

Brum and Blondeel charted the progress of the company, which previously received funding from the Velocity Fund.

As well as interviewing allergists, pharmacists and allergy patients, the team at one point surveyed 700 people across the country, many of whom said they would test repeatedly with the product. The main reason for wanting the patch was to speed up the testing process and be able to use it at home. And mothers of children with allergies don’t want their children subjected to the repeated pinpricks.

The team is preparing for an initial product that will test for grass allergies, which are increasingly common.

They added that the patch could be used by researchers to generate an early income stream. Clinical researchers need to find people with allergies to conduct their tests, but they can only determine whether people have allergies using the existing primitive process. By using the ExVivo patch, researchers could quickly find a group of people with allergies, cutting time and costs of the trials. And ExVivo would not have to go through the lengthy regulatory process to sell to researchers.

The Canadian and International Business Model Competitions assess student entrepreneurship teams based on the process they used in building their company. They place particular emphasis on the use of a lean canvas and interviewing potential customers and partners to shape the business case. 

Halifax-based LifeRaft, whose platform uncovers potential threats through social media posts, has closed a $2 million round of financing, including a $1.4 million investment from an unnamed strategic investor from outside the region.

Launched in 2014, LifeRaft identifies threatening keywords, such as “kill” and “gun,” on social media sources like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It filters the findings so only the most important information is communicated to the client. Once Liferaft’s clients have been alerted about someone using suspicious terms, they can drill into any post to better understand the context of an individual’s comments.

LifeRaft said in a statement this morning its shareholders had approved a $1.4 million strategic investment from an organization it would only describe as a “major international partner.” The company also said a small group of independent investors also put money into the company, raising the total round to $2 million.

Clean Simple Lands $575K in Funding

The investment will allow LifeRaft to accelerate its growth strategy and to hire more people in its sales, customer support and development teams in Halifax.

“This investment from an active strategic partner is a testament to the power of our technology and the exceptional potential it represents,” CEO John Gallinaugh said in the statement. “It also demonstrates the confidence placed in our team’s ability to deliver.”

He added: “These funds will help grow our presence in the North American market and invest in new hires to build out our team and prepare the company to accelerate our growth.”

Previously, the company had secured a $700,000 round of seed funding from angel investors, complemented by $270,000 in funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Last April, Liferaft said it had more than 100 users in various jurisdictions either piloting or actively paying for the platform. LifeRaft said its users are mainly within post-secondary education and law enforcement, and that it has resellers throughout Canada, the U.S., the United Kingdom and Australia.

Indiana Pacers Adopt Kinduct Platform

Halifax-based startup Kinduct Technologies announced Monday that the Indiana Pacers are its newest high-profile client. The Pacers have partnered with Kinduct as their athlete management software provider to collect  performance and health data for smoother visualization and analysis within a centralized location.

Kinduct has recently added several new teams across the NHL, MLS, MLB and now works with more than half of the NBA.

“The Pacers are excited to be using the state-of-art technology that Kinduct delivers to give our team and players an advantage over the competition,” said Dan Dyrek, Doctor of Physical Therapy for the Indiana Pacers.

Three NB Startups in Soft Landing Program

Moncton-based support organization Venn Innovation has announced that three more New Brunswick companies will participate in the Canadian Digital Media Network’s Soft Landing program. They will be part of the spring 2016 cohort  to help forge the partnerships and connections for international expansion.

The companies are SelectBidder of Hillsborough, and RtTech Software and MASITEK, both based in Moncton.  Venn is the New Brunswick hub in CDMN and this brings to seven the number of New Brunswick companies it has helped gain international market access to since December 2014. Destination markets have included the U.K., Netherlands, U.S. and Australia.

CDMN’s Soft Landing program helps mature startups and SMEs kickstart their international growth by helping them access a foreign market. For a period of up to three months, the participating company can take up residence in a partnered facility that provides the regional support required to help grow its business, as well as receiving up to $4,000 in travel and accommodation costs.

Selectbidder Adds West Coast Client

Automotive technology company Selectbidder has signed its first auction partner on the west coast: AVDA Auction, one of the largest independent auto auctions in California. This follows deals recently signed with major independent auto auctions in Florida, Maine and Pennsylvania.

AVDA will use Selectbidder's platform to manage real-time bids between dealers for auto trade-ins. “This new technology is important to our business. Using Selectbidder will help our dealers buy and sell more cars straight from their lots because they will be dealing with us at the point of trade," said AVDA Auction owner Victor Soghomonian. "This makes the whole process faster and easier."

A month after launching its successful crowdfunding campaign, Spring Loaded Technology has announced a $1.9 million venture capital investment and a new $1 million contract with the Canadian military.

The Dartmouth company has developed the Levitation knee brace, which strengthens the joint as well as stabilizes it, and has received US$172,000 ($229,000) in orders through its Indiegogo campaign, which ends in three days.

Today, the company issued a release saying it has raised $1.9 million in funding from Halifax-based Build Ventures, headed by Rob Barbara and Patrick Keefe. Spring Loaded had previously raised more than $1.8 million in equity and non-dilutive capital, including investments from the First Angel Network and Innovacorp.

“Spring Loaded Technology has the potential to revolutionize the marketplace,” said Barbara in a statement. “The affordable technology they’ve developed will make bionics more accessible. We’re excited to see this company continue to develop its offerings and impact the industry.”

In an interview, Spring Loaded CEO Chris Cowper-Smith said the parties agreed to a $1.9 million funding through negotiation, with Build wanting to invest more but Spring Loaded feeling more comfortable with a smaller investment.

“We’ve been chatting with Build for several months and we’re at an earlier stage than they usually like when they come into a company,” said Cowper-Smith. He added the investors came in now because they were impressed with the traction Spring Loaded has gained in its crowdfunding campaign and its deal with the Canadian military.

“Patrick and Rob as VC investors are generalists but they’re also very deep thinkers and they have provided great insights into our business and strategy,” he said.

Build Invests $3 Million in Icejam

Since they began in 2012, Cowper-Smith and his Chief Technical Officer Bob Garrish have been working on a brace that gains energy when the knee bends and then releases it when the knee strengthens, increasing the power in the joint. They tested and rejected three different joint technologies before settling on the fourth.

Spring Loaded also said today it has signed a contract worth $1 million with the Canadian Department of National Defence, which is the first contract for the military applications of the Levitation knee brace.  Cowper-Smith said the military is interested in the product for performance enhancement and injury prevention.

The Levitation knee brace could allow elite troops to greatly increase the equipment they carry on commando excursions. These soldiers now greatly increase their chance of injury if they carry more than 80 or 90 pounds, but Levitation could increase that to about 120 pounds. Or the knee braces could reduce the risk of injury as they crouch, stand and run on uneven terrain.

“What our brace would enable people to do is carry that extra 30 or 40 more of gear,” said company spokesman J.J. Podboski in an interview last month. “Picture a whole platoon where everyone can carry an extra 30 or 40 pounds of ammunition, food, equipment – they’re going to have  pretty distinct advantage over the enemy.”

Cowper-Smith said the company is pleased with the results of the crowdfunding campaign. It launched the product on Indiegogo just to see if they could sell the Levitation brace through an eCommerce channel. They will continue with an eCommerce sales strategy but are also looking at more traditional retail sales procedures. 

Disclaimer: Build is a client of Entrevestor.