Start-Up City by Erin Flood, Chair of the StartUp Fredericton Task Force
I
t’s hard to describe the energy of the startup community until you’ve stepped into it yourself. Whether you’re new to New Brunswick, or consider yourself to be a certified local, the energy is evident and progress is full-steam ahead. The buzz of this energy can be felt everywhere, from coffee shops, to park benches along the St. John River, our thriving innovation districts, world-renowned academic institutions and beyond. Once you’ve arrived, it’s inescapable, and positively contagious. In this past decade alone, the entrepreneur community has produced over $1 billion in startup exits. Perhaps the success to date can be directly attributed to the humble and supportive spirit of our maritime people, paired with the unmatched ability to collaborate to build smarter, healthier communities. The community embraces diversity when it comes to entrepreneurship, and proudly support programs that cater to entrepreneurs and companies of all shapes and sizes. Looking to grow your social venture? Look no further than the Pond Deshpande Centre’s “B4C: Be For Change” accelerator. Interested in learning more about energy, smart grid, cleantech and cyber security? Energia Ventures is happy to help. Bio-NB will open your eyes to the world of opportunity in the bioscience sector. Maybe you’re an entrepreneur with an idea, in need of some sounding boards, take a step into the Planet Hatch Accelerator for access to resources for growing every stage of your business. The inclusive nature of the New Brunswick ecosystem has resulted in nationally recognized immigration programs, such as, Fredericton Chamber driven “Succession Connect”, a pilot program created to match immigrants with local turnkey businesses. Fredericton has attracted 30% of all immigrants to New Brunswick- the most of any city in the province. Most recently, through innovation driven by Fredericton’s economic development agency, Ignite Fredericton, Fredericton was coined # 1 for “foreign direct investment strategy” by fDi Magazine’s 2017/2018 American Cities of the Future. The aforementioned organizations and resources only scratch the surface of the opportunities and support initiatives available to entrepreneurs, and also happen to be vital members of the Startup Fredericton Task Force. The task force, made up of a number of organizations built to support the entrepreneurial region, working together to drive the innovation agenda forward, together. The collaborative nature of the startup task force speaks volumes for driving progress and economic growth forward, and in 2016, the task force was named the National Startup Community by Startup Canada, exceeding their vision 2020 goal by a landslide! Since then, momentum has continued and Opportunities New Brunswick recently launched a number of new startup task forces across the province. The success to come is inevitable, and the ambitious, persistent attitudes found in our people, will be the engine driving success for years to come.
25 While the above offers a bird’s eye view into the New Brunswick entrepreneurial ecosystem and it’s vast amount of opportunities and support, you may ask yourself how or where an entrepreneur would start. This was a question asked by our very own entrepreneurs, and a problem the ecosystem was eager to solve. Development of the “Subway Model” has since begun, a platform to guide and assist entrepreneurs in navigating their immediate needs, from early stage all the way through to the mature stages of their company lifecycle. The model will serve as a tool for entrepreneurs to maximize their success, while collecting valuable metrics around the entrepreneur needs, to help drive and inform smarter economic investments in our region. The entrepreneurs innovating in our region today range in diversity in the world-changing problems they are solving, and continually set the bar high and challenge the status quo for the rest of the world. If you’re still need convincing, look no further than to Fredericton’s innovation district, a 2km radius with 60+ research institutions and labs, making up 75% of the province’s publicly funded research. As an entrepreneur in New Brunswick, I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to the extreme opportunity wealth in the province found in our people, resources and overwhelming community-wide support. We look forward to having you catch the #NBProud buzz. -Erin Flood, proud Fredericton Chamber of Commerce Board Member, chair of the Startup Fredericton Task Force and Founder of The Go Do Project
Insight Fall 2017