A coalition of New Brunswick economic development groups presented MyNexia, a new website aimed at helping entrepreneurs, on Wednesday during a meeting with the Telegraph- Journal editorial board. From left: Doug Motty, CEO of Enterprise Fredericton; Donne Smith, president and CEO of the NB Security Commission; Kathy Watt with Learn NB; Nancy Mathis, executive director of G. Wallace F. McCain Institute; and Kelly O'Brien, director of the innovation initiative with Enterprise Fredericton.

A coalition of provincial economic development agencies is creating a social networking website to link entrepreneurs with investors, mentors, technologies and business partners.

The MyNexia site, set to be launched this fall, will allow entrepreneurs to create profiles, detailing their business models, revenues, growth strategies and their needs, whether they are financial, technical or in mentorship.

These profiles would then be matched with those of service providers. The matches will come back to the entrepreneurs in the form of messages, and they can contact the organizations whose services meet their needs.

The service providers will never be able to access, or browse, the personal information of entrepreneurs.

"Businesses invest significant time, effort and money locating the resources they need to grow," Kelly O'Brien, a MyNexia partner and director with Enterprise Fredericton, said during a meeting with the Telegraph-Journal editorial board on Wednesday.

"There is no mechanism to match them to capital, technology, opportunity and partnerships. We're not a well-orchestrated community to support all of what they need in a very efficient fashion."

A coalition of four agencies, including Learn NB, the New Brunswick Securities Commission, Enterprise Fredericton and the G. Wallace F. McCain Institute, are working toward meeting that goal.

The MyNexia web concept, a startup business itself, is currently securing funding from government and the participating agencies to finance the project. Once in operation, organizers plan to fund the project with subscriber fees, paid by service providers who will benefit from the targeted advertising MyNexia will offer.

The entrepreneurs looking for services will not have to pay for their use of the site.

"There is a business model behind this, because it offers direct advertising," said Nancy Mathis, MyNexia partner and executive director of the McCain Institute.

"If they are advertising a service, whether it's a government financing program, marketing, intellectual property, it costs money to do that. With MyNexia, they have direct access to the specific markets they're looking at."

The MyNexia coalition plans to have a collection of service providers subscribing to the site by the fall launch. As entrepreneurs sign on, subscribers will be able to identify the number of members looking for a specific range of capital within a specific geographic location.

This will allow government agencies to identify funding programs that would better serve company needs, and would allow economic development agencies to have their finger on the pulse of the province's economic climate.

"Over time as the system matures and we continually update the information, we'll be able to map trends and see how innovation is happening more frequently," said Doug Motty, chief executive of Enterprise Fredericton.

"You're going to be able to adjust your programs to continue to support where that opportunity is."

The MyNexia web concept will also allow universities or private companies to showcase their technologies to a wider audience. Companies may have developed specific technologies to solve a business problem, but have no desire or money to take them to market.

MyNexia, the four partners say, can solve this and other problems stifling the growth of entrepreneurship in New Brunswick.

"We don't need new programs to help entrepreneurs," said Mathis. "There are lots of entrepreneurs, lots of business people, looking for those programs and all that's missing is the pipe that connects the two.

'This is all about bridging and linking the service providers to their customers in New Brunswick."