Cornwall Ontario – The Cornwall Innovation Centre is proud to announce that three ventures were given “Green” ratings and are top contenders for the Lead To Win program.

“We were very impressed by the level of pitches,” said John Rattray, a member of the four-member review panel and co-chair of the CIC’s Board of Directors.  “It’s a sure sign of the strength of ideas and the power of our local entrepreneurs.”

A total of eight participants from six ventures pitched their business plans to a review panel made up of local business professionals including Rattray, Lesley Lang of the Community Future Development Corporation, Gerry Benson of The Benson Group, and Tom Kaneb of Gus-Kan ULC. Each entrepreneur had 20 minutes with the panel—10 minutes to present and 10 minutes to answer questions.

The pitches came from entrepreneurs in varied fields, including agri-tech, digital media, consulting and tech. The review panel tallied results and rated each venture Green, Yellow or Red.

“Green” ventures are now subject to a further and final review of their growth plans, and successful candidates will be welcomed into Lead To Win. “Yellow” ventures were directed to continue to build their business case and invited to return to pitch at future events. “Red” ventures were alerted to deficiencies in their plans and advised to rework their approach.

The inaugural Venture Demo Day’s recommended “Green”-rated ventures include:

• EVO WEIGH, a manufacturing company based out of Chesterville, ON, headed by Hayley and Matt Cooke. The company has designed and will produce lightweight, robust, modular weigh scales.

• Smart Greens, based in Cornwall, ON, and presented by Eric Bergeron and Eric Lang. The company is building a network of local hydroponic farmers growing fresh greens in their respective communities across Canada and the United States.

• A third entrepreneur with a consultancy based in Cornwall, ON. (Details cannot be announced at this time.)

The CIC’s Lead To Win program is a unique offering in the region. It is modeled after Carleton University’s LTW program, named one of the Top 10 accelerator programs in North America,  The three successful ventures will be guided to grow their businesses into generating $1 million in revenue in their third year of operation. They will benefit from access to high-level mentorship, capacity development events, early buyer support, funding, IT support, co-working spaces at the NAV Centre and on-site wellness amenities.

The next Venture Demo Day is set for May 31, 2017.