Innovation Night SHOWDOWN: Another IF Success Story!
Yes, another success story from our own #HamOnt Innovation Factory and I’m so so pleased to have attended this big Innovation Night SHOWDOWN Pitch Contest just this past Wednesday evening!
So, what is a “Pitch Contest?” you might ask…and it’s really just what it says. Past winners and nominees from within the Innovation Night events held all year, get a two minute timed presentation to pitch their company to a crowd of more than 300 and they do it with style and drive!
Talk about an event where you can see startup founders at their best…this event is always well attended and I learned that there was a sizeable waiting list past the 300 registered attendants too! Looks like we all appreciate passion, eh!
Ably MC’d by our own Innovation Factory ED, Dave Carter….the night went smoothly and showed (at least to me) a real sense of community and involvement in our startup eco-system….it was a perfect pitch contest and much of that goes to Emily Kinread the IF Marketing Manager too! #Kudos Emily…job well done…so, the list of the startups was as follows….
- Democravise pitched by Ken Seville
- OverAir pitched by Ethan Do
- BandwaveFM pitched by Ryan Hartley
- Trend Trunk pitched by Sean Snyder
- Schopf Innovvations pitched by Tom Schopf
- IlearnULearn pitched by Kevin Choi
- Growing Green pitched by Dean Hale
- RZR Skate Blades pitched by Michael & Chris Verticchio
- Menus Only pitched by Marie Pavone
- ShowDom pitched by Graeme Davis
- Orobys pitched by Ben Olenick & Alexander Dzikiewicz
- Fix Our World pitched by Linda Lannigan
- Typohgram pitched by Sergio Aguirre
As you can see there were 13 startups pitches to listen to….and then everyone who attended got to place their own single vote for the startup pitch that they felt was the best….and that was done over a 15 minute period. It was fun to see the startup founders “work” the crowd by answering questions about their startups and try to cajole or persuade voters to vote for them!
At the end of that voting, the two finalists were announced…and it was Marie Pavone of MenusOnly and Ethan Do of OverAir who took the stage and each got a final “skill testing” question from our MC, Dave Carter.
I thought each answered their queries well enough and then via a final show of hands, the winner was announced, and it was Ethan Do of OverAir. #Kudos Ethan for a great pitch – and yes, to Marie too….both startups are great ideas awaiting implementation and I know both will be true #HamOnt success stories too! And yes, if this sounds a bit familiar, our Innovation Factory ran the same event last year, and you can read about that one here!