Sydney: Our Fastest-Growing Startup Hub

by Peter Moreira

Before Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil unveiled his state of the province address in February, the stage was occupied by a few startups, one of which represented the fastest-growing startup hub in the region.

Colin MacInnis and Brian Best, two students at Cape Breton University’s UIT program, took the stage to discuss their company Phased.io, which had been developing a tool for student councils. They’re examples of what’s happening in the region once known as Industrial Cape Breton.

The burgeoning tech community in Greater Sydney has been a well-kept secret for several years, but it might soon be better known.

Here’s a fact that few people realize: Two-thirds of the startups in this community didn’t exist three years ago. The growth has been encouraged by several factors but largely by the coordinated efforts of entrepreneurs, academics and government to churn out new companies and see where they will lead.

“Sydney is really fostering the development of the tech startup community,” said MacInnis. “There are a lot of great companies beginning right here at home and they’re more than willing to help others looking to get started.”

The second-largest metro area in Nova Scotia has boasted some intriguing innovations companies for some time. Corrine MacIsaac has been building up Health Outcomes Worldwidein New Waterford into a multi-million-business, and Mathew Georghiou’s MediaSpark has launched a range of educational games and simulations and soon the GoVenture World massively multiplayer online game.  {Italicized text are corrections made by goCapeBreton.com}

The profile has risen in the past few years. In 2012, the Caper community scored a massive win when GoInstant, a co-browsing startup whose cofounders included Cape Breton University alumni Gavin Uhma and Kirk MacPhee, sold out to Salesforce.com for a reported $70 million. Then Jim DeLeskie’s Heimdall Networks won the 2014 I-3 Technology Startup Competition, Innovacorp’s event that aims to find the best new startups in Nova Scotia.

And there has been a wave of company formation. According to the Entrevestor Databank, there were 16 startups formed in the Sydney area in 2013 and 2014 – two-thirds of the 24 companies we follow in the area.

Only Halifax has produced more startups in that time in Atlantic Canada, but Halifax is home to scores of startups so the growth has been far more explosive in Sydney.

More and more people, especially young people, are learning that they can plan careers as entrepreneurs.

“It’s a viable option and enough people are now saying that you can do it anywhere and here, Cape Bretton, is a great place.” said Bob Pelley, Innovacorp’s representative on Cape Breton Island.

There are two concurrent factors that have uncorked the startup spigot in the region better known for coal and steel.

First, Uhma began to work with CBU to establish the UIT program, which in the past year has taught technology and entrepreneurship to a dozen students, including six women. The intake will rise to 20 students in the coming year. The students are encouraged to come up with ideas in various forms of technology and investigate whether they could be developed into businesses. “The idea of the program is that throughout the course of the year they’ll be exposed to different forms of technology,” said Uhma.

It has led to a few companies, including Phased.io.

Phased.io began as a planning and organizational tool for student councils, but MacInnis and Best have since morphed it into a company that helps businesses and organizations bring in new employees or go through the process of succession.

The second development is the Spark Cape Breton competition, which has been held in each of the last two years and awarded development money to 14 companies. Spark Cape Breton looks for young companies, some with little more than an idea, and awards them small amounts of development capital. The winners last year ranged from a team of professors working in nanotechnology to a high school student.

“The energy that is in the startup community in Cape Breton right now is unbelievable,” said Pelley. “It’s a perfect storm of UIT and the success of Spark and it’s all just highlighting what can be done here.”

This article was taken from the latest Entrevestor Intelligence publication. I had the pleasure of meeting with the Cape Breton tech community at a TecSocial on Thursday evening. Today we hold out Entrevestor Luncheon and StartupCapeBreton 3.0 at the Verschuren Centre in Sydney.