Cornwall Innovation Centre Announces Two New Lead To Win Ventures

CORNWALL, ON – The Cornwall Innovation Centre is pleased to announce two new green-rated ventures who earned entry into the Lead To Win business accelerator program on Wednesday, May 31, 2017.

“We know there are businesses that can benefit from Lead To Win and we’re happy to have found two more to join the CIC,” said John Rattray, co-chair of the CIC’s Board of Directors.  “It will be exciting to see more entrepreneurs accessing our services.”

This is the second Venture Demo Day held since the Cornwall Innovation Centre opened its doors on April 6, 2017. The first Venture Demo Day took place on April 20, 2017 and saw three ventures accepted into the program.

The CIC’s Lead To Win program is modeled after Carleton University’s offering, recently named one of the Top 10 accelerator programs in North America.

The two ventures pitched their business plans to a review panel made up of local business professionals including Christopher Thompson, Economic Development Director for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Michael Charbonneau, Commercial Account Manager at Royal Bank of Canada and Majid Moghadam, Professor in the Game Development Technician Program at St. Lawrence College.

Entrepreneurs had 20 minutes with the panel—10 minutes to present and 10 minutes to answer questions. After deliberations, the review panel tallied results and assessed each venture. Both were given a “green” rating, an invitation to join the Lead To Win program. (Yellow”-rated ventures are directed to continue to build their business case and invited to return to pitch at future events. “Red”-rated ventures are alerted to deficiencies in their plans and advised to rework their approach.)

The latest Venture Demo Day’s “Green”-rated ventures are:

• Kazulin Boats, makers of handcrafted luxury sports boats.  Based in Cornwall, ON the company is led by Tony Kazulin, a seventh-generation boat builder.

• Pretty Bird App, a service that connects beauty pros with clients, on-demand and on-site. Mary Bratko and Mark Wilson of Mississauga, ON head up the venture.

Both Kazulin Boats and Pretty Bird App now have exclusive access to Lead To Win benefits including high-level mentorship, capacity development events, early buyer support, funding, IT support, co-working spaces at the NAV CENTRE and on-site wellness amenities. Eligible candidates are expected to generate $1M in annual revenues by their third year of operation.

The next Venture Demo Day is set for August 30, 2017.