Fifteen full-time jobs and 41 part-time positions were created during the first six-month cohort of Ignite Bermuda, the organisation’s executive director revealed yesterday.Sean Reel said the 17 businesses in the cohort experienced overall sales growth of 35 per cent, which translates into an annual aggregate sales increase of approximately $1.23 million.The business survival rate of 100 per cent marked the first time in the history of Entrepreneurial Spark, Ignite’s United Kingdom-based curriculum partner, that all businesses remained intact for the duration of a six-month cohort.Mr Reel said he was “blown away” with the results. “They were three times my expectations,” he said. “I thought it would be good to create a job a month, but we were way ahead of that.”Saying that each part-time job equates to one-third of a full-time position, Mr Reel said that means nearly $1.8 million of payroll was created.He said: “Given the economy of Bermuda and the challenges the island has faced, this is an example of how entrepreneurial spirit can create economic growth and support the families of Bermuda.”Mr Reel said the vision set out by Ignite co-chairs Neil Patterson and Don Mackenzie “proved that there is a strong entrepreneurial opportunity and capability to create jobs and opportunity for Bermuda”.He said many of the existing businesses in the programme added substantially to their bottom line.“Ignite is not only about start-ups, it’s about scale-up as well,” Mr Reel said.He added: “The fact that none of them declined is equally important. No one in the programme fell off the edge of a cliff and sometimes that takes more work than the ones that are flying.”Mr Reel said three businesses in the Ignite cohort faced significant issues.“Their sales were significantly in decline, month-on-month or quarter-on-quarter, and they were able to turn that around,” he said. “One in 10 businesses faces a structural change, or a market that has moved, or talent issues.“Entrepreneurs learn how to manage these situations. Sometimes, they have to go back and say ‘what is my customer proposition and do I have the right people in the right place to do that’?”The second cohort of Ignite, the island’s first privately-funded entrepreneurial accelerator, kicks off on January 6 and 7 with a “boot camp” that introduces the incoming entrepreneurs to the programme.The cohort will double in size to 34 businesses, Mr Reel said, while an additional 42 entrepreneurs will participate in Ignite’s “light programme” of workshops, and special events involving guest speakers, up from the 40 that participated in the first “light” cohort.