The New Brunswick Innovation Fund (NBIF) has announced the finalists for the Breakthru NB Business Plan Competition. Breakthru’s purpose was to reward NB entrepreneurs 19 and older who have an innovative product idea for a NB business venture.

mobile2social – Tracadie-Sheila
Combine social media with GPS and Internet enabled cell phones and you’ve got something to sing about. mobile2social is working on a way to introduce GPS technology to the social marketing mix so that friends and marketers can tell where you are and what you’re doing. The project leads are high-tech entrepreneur Mario Basque, marketer Yan-Alexandre Keable and hardware/software developer Éric Dusablon.

Greenlight Geomatics – Miramachi City
Railway companies across North America spend over a billion dollars a year to manually get rid of plant growth that threatens track safety. Using GPS technology, Greenlight is developing an automated technology that will meticulously map and controls herbicide spray without affecting environmentally sensitive areas.
Championing the project is land surveyor Herman Koops, engineering students Anthony Illukwe [software] and John Lord [mechanical], and business students Brad Pierce and Khaled Taha.

Mass Rule – Riverview
General searches on the internet, or “googling” is a no-brainer for most people who want to get general information. But finding out what people think about that information is another story. Mass Rule is developing a revolutionary internet poling solution that delivers searchable statistics about people’s opinions. Shawn Carver, founder of THINK Technology, previously launched one of the first premium text messaging brands and campaigns in Atlantic Canada.

PlayDartsNow.com – Saint John
Game-play is now a mainstay for the virtual world, where people play each other online from all over—something not so easy for traditional games. PlayDartsNow is developing a technology that will turn your dartboard into a virtual playing field. Using a sensory device, you can use your own dartboard to play online with anyone who has the same technology. Heading PlayDartsNow is Justin Kennedy, a private software consultant who has previously advised a number of high profile companies including Microsoft, Sony and Umbra

Trivnet Media Systems – Saint John
There was a time when you could sit in a restaurant, order a meal, and stick a couple quarters in the jukebox station, situated at the table, and play your favorite song. Imagine what you could do today. Trivnet is working on a new generation of table top media devices that adds value for the patron and the owner, including entertainment, information access and billing. Leading the team is marketing specialist Rivers Corbett, and father-son duo John Trivett, a long-time radio broadcaster, and William Trivett, an electrical engineering student.

Carbon Concepts - Fredericton
Today, some provinces and US states give tax breaks for generating your own emission-free energy. But the only way to get the savings is if you can distinguish electricity made from electricity taken from the grid. Most micro-energy solutions don’t know the difference between the two. Carbon Concepts is developing a new measuring device to do this for sale in Ontario—to start. Championing the innovation is Levi Hargrove and Adam Wilson, a PhD and MSc candidate in electrical engineering, respectively.

A total of $245,000 in cash and in kind prizes of support for legal, marketing, website services and accounting services. The prizes will be awarded on November 22. 

It’s great to see this type of event to encourage entrepreneurs in NB. Although I think as a province we could do even more. I’m looking forward to following the companies and hope they help put NB on the map for innovative technology.