WHITBY, ON Feb 5, 2013 – A final group of 5 entrepreneurs have been chosen to move on to the next phase of Ignite Durham. On Monday, February 4th, a short list of 30 Ignite participants pitched live in front of the Power Panel and 250 members of the community. The 30 were selected from a pool of 102 applicants for Ignite Durham (www.ignitedurham.ca), a brand-new start-up boot camp that will set two local companies on the path to success.
Ignite is presented by Spark Centre, a not-for-profit organization that offers services and support to local entrepreneurs; The Region of Durham; and VentureStart, a program that helps technology entrepreneurs in Southern Ontario.
All applicants took part in a five-night Pitch School where they learned to write a business summary, best practices for pitching, anxiety-management strategies, and how to cultivate strategic vision for their company. They also heard personal stories from local entrepreneurs Jason Atkins from 360 incentives, Jeff Quipp from Search Engine People, and Jenn Atkinson from 5 Minds Mobility.
Here are the five Ignite Durham finalists:
Squabble Studios Ltd — http://www.squabblestudios.ca/
Participants: UOIT alumni: Matthew Stephan, Aaron DeChamplain, Eric Rosendale, Ian McCabe and Veronica Cole.
Squabble Studios is a game development studio with a focus on serious games, simulations and training applications. We work with other companies and institutions to develop original games that meet needs across various domains.
The Mobile Experience Company (Mobile X Co.) — http://www.mobilexco.com/
Participants: Peter Pinfold and Andy Bruce.
As a context marketing company, we tackle the age-old problem that, “half the money spent on advertising is waste; the problem is, we don’t know which half.” By providing agencies and brands with tools to gain real-time insight into how marketing dollars perform across online and offline media channels, Mobile X Co makes calculating marketing ROI easy.
They Innovate — http://www.theyinnovate.com/
Participants: Jeff McLarty and Danilo Malanczyk from They Innovate.
They Innovate Inc. develops solutions for consumer and commercial applications. They Innovate’s pilot solution is a fashionable way for anybody to secure any smartphone or tablet, to any clothing or surface.
Element34 — http://www.element34.ca/
Participant: Adam Goucher
With the explosion of complexity in today’s applications, managing the test cases and testing ideas needs to change and adapt. Element 34 will create a next-generation, cloud-based, test-case management system based on mind maps.
Moxie Retail Solutions Inc. — http://www.moxieretail.com/
Participant: Joshua Tibdano, UOIT student.
The Moxie suite of services combines insights gathered from customer mapping, POS and
loyalty data to create distinct communications and in-store environments that result in meaningful customer engagements.
