Queen’s Venture Network’s UpStart Pitch Competition Splits $25K Between Two Student Ventures
The suspense built as eight teams who’d pitched their new ventures to a panel of judges awaited the results of the first annual UpStart Pitch Competition. The event, held at Ernst & Young’s Toronto offices on Feb. 4, was hosted by the Queen’s Venture Network (QVN). This Smith School of Business group offers networking and information-sharing opportunities for entrepreneurially minded Queen’s alumni and current students.
The competition garnered applications from Queen’s students and alumni that were narrowed down to the eight finalists invited to Toronto to make their pitches. At stake was a share in $25,000 donated by a Smith grad who preferred to remain anonymous. The judges, who were given the discretion to decide how the prize money would be split, awarded a first-place prize of $15,000 to Gryllies, a producer of protein products made from environmentally friendly and sustainable cricket flour. Second place, and $10,000, went to Lumos Energy Strips, a breath strip that provides an immediate hit of caffeine.
The event was made possible thanks to Ernst & Young hosts Colleen McMorrow and Mark Vrooman, BCom’96; Ian Macdonald, BCom’09, Co-Founder of beer sponsor Old Tomorrow; and Chris Simes, MBA’14, from wine sponsor Gallo.
QVN has gained traction since its launch in March 2015 at a panel event that featured alumni entrepreneurs (see “Networking 101 for Start-Ups” in the Summer 2015 issue). Since then, three other major events, in addition to February’s UpStart Competition, have taken place, and a monthly lunchtime series has also proven popular. Hundreds of entrepreneurial alumni and students, keen to connect with and learn from each other, have taken advantage of these opportunities. Registration was brisk for a June 21 event on “The Ins and Outs of Early-Stage Venture Success” as this issue went to press.
“Being an entrepreneur is hard,” says Elspeth Murray, Associate Dean, MBA and Masters Programs. “It can be lonely when you’re starting something new from scratch and feedback is hard to come by. Entrepreneurs need a supportive social and professional network that enables them to share their experiences and make the connections that can help them build their new ventures.” Focus groups with interested alumni and students have helped shape this initiative, which is propelled for alumni, by alumni, she adds.
Interested in learning more? Check out ssb.ca/qvn for information about upcoming events, including the next UpStart competition in November, and the monthly lunch series, which resumes in the fall after the summer break.
