The Economist magazine has an excellent primer this week on the start-up revolution and why this time is different from the Dot.Com boom of the late 199os. One of the articles is on the importance of accelerators – a space in New Brunswick mostly dominated by Trevor MacAusland at PropelICT. Trevor and I have talked a lot about scalability – how do we get hundreds of new start-ups across the Maritimes put through the programming – and the article in the Economist confirms for me the role and need.
For Trevor, it could be a career moment.
One of the fascinating things about the new Harrison McCain bio for me was the the brothers’ perfect sense of timing starting when they decided to go into frozen French Fries just as the fast food revolution began across North America. McCain himself says his success was based on “right time, right place”.
Now could be the “right time, right place” for start-up accelerators in the Maritimes.
PropelICT is at the heart of that ecosystem. There are lots of other players in the sand box – PlanetHatch, Innovacorp, etc. but as MacAusland says they are complementary to Propel.
Giddy up.
Hope you’re sincerly not pinning hope on this – > “As of June 2012, PropelICT has accelerated 10 start-ups that have raised a total of over $3,000,000 of new private funding within 12 months of completing Launch36. They’ve also been hiring, creating 50 full-time jobs.”
No pressure whatsoever… ;-p
If I’ve learned anything in business, timing is key.
Sometimes it’s luck. If you’re smart, you decide.
Trevor is smart.
He adopted Lean Startup before anyone else. He realized we didn’t need to re-invent the wheel … we could adopt best practices from other accelerators and add our own twist.
It’s been a real pleasure watching what’s been developing in the region.
I just hope people keep pushing forward when times get tough, cause they will – it’s all part of the cycle.
We need to keep a long view on building this ecosystem.
@danmartell
@Andrew
Those are old stats from our first cohort. Here is the most up to date information which will be updated on our website soon:
26 Launch36 graduates as of Jan 2014
$12M raised in venture capital
100 New Full Time jobs created in Atlantic Canada
Avg Salary: $70,000
Total Direct Employment income generated by new employment (Excludes latest cohort): $4,690,000
Total Fed personal Income Tax submitted by new employment: $844,200.00
Total Incremental consumption generated by new employment: $3.100,045.00
Total Federal Sales tax submitted by new employment (Excludes latest cohort): $155,002.00
Tax Revenues generated per $1 of funding: $19.00
These numbers were audited by a reputable 3rd party accounting firm and still do not factor in the numbers from our most recent cohort graduates. Would you like to know anything else?
Thank for the continued support @Dan Martell