With over five hundred attendees to celebrate along with them, 2018 Lion’s Lair winners collected over $175 000 in cash and in-kind prizes recently in Hamilton. The gala event was a celebration of the growing tech and innovation community in Hamilton, hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and Innovation Factory (Hamilton’s Regional Innovation Centre). It was the culmination of a business plan and pitch competition five months in the making.
Applicants to the competition submitted their business plans in late spring with the field being narrowed to ten finalists, announced earlier in the summer. They went through a variety of training modules, and “pitched” their companies to Lions Julie Ellis (Mabels Labels, Snuggle Bugz), Stuart Wheldon (Redchurch, Eloqua/Oracle), Ruth Todd (KPMG), and Daniel Kube (servicePath, CPQ Solutions) and was recorded by Hamilton’s Cable 14. Recordings of the pitches were presented the night of the gala, with the grand prize winners announced by the Lions at the end of the evening.
Lion’s Lair Winners
MesoMat was named the grand-prize winner, taking home a prize of $76,000 in cash and in-kind resources, for their wearable, stretchable conductible technology. “The Lion’s Lair process was extremely helpful for us in learning how to communicate what our business does and how we can add value to our customers” said Paul Fowler Co-Founder, of MesoMat
The second place prize of more than $56,000 in cash and in-kind prizes was awarded to Benjamin Lee, founder of Altius Analytics, a hardware and software company that allows you to seamlessly record and analyze 3D human motion.
Third place was awarded to Chad Ingles and Ryan O’Grady of Fotaflo, a profit-generating referral marketing solution that easily captures and shares photos and videos for the adventure tourism and camp industries. They took home $45,000 in cash and in-kind prizes including $10,000 in sales and marketing services from VA Partners.
The winner of this year’s “Hamilton Award” was Anita Grant, founder of Fleeky, a social web platform that facilitates the connection between beauty professionals and beauty seekers.
Supporting Startups
VA Partners has been a proud sponsor at Lion’s Lair for a number of years, and regularly supports startups through events such as Innovation Factory’s monthly Sales Peer 2 Peer. Mark Elliott will be presenting on the topic of “Yearly Sales Planning” on October 10th.
VA Partners has worked closely with several Hamilton Startups recently including:
Aiva Labs: Last year’s Lion’s Lair winner. Aiva Labs delivers a website marketing tool that drives higher engagement and creates branded stories using AI to automatically design a unique, personalized experience.
InnovoGENE: Is developing a water-testing kit for e-coli which produces test results in a fraction of the time current tests take.
Owl Ops: Provides a web-based maintenance and task management tool used by over 1000 fast food locations across North America.
Nanophyll: A 2017 Lion’s Lair finalist. Nanophyll has created anti-stick protective coatings integrating nanotechnology that can be applied on a number of surfaces in the industrial, transportation and construction industries.
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