Thursday marked the Seventh annual seed your startup pitch competition. The event was held at Western university’s UCC building. Students in UWO’ Propel and Fanshawe’s LEAP Junction pitched their products to a panel of judges, most of which western alumni. There were two categories, retail and technology. There were a total of six companies, three for each category. The winners won a $3000 cheque.
The Technology award went to Fanshawe’s Ryan Kelly, founder of Ascend Applications. Ascend Applications pitched a pluggin for websites that is only one line of code. The pluggin is made to help make websites more accessible to those who have special needs. Kelly plans to use the funding to help further the production of his product. “Just with the three thousand what I’m going to do is I’m going to put part of it towards the tech’s completion. I’m so did just continuing to develop and maintain the actual plug in itself. I’m going to also put some money towards the actual hosting of the product as well, and then from there and going to two three major parts which marketing.” Explains Kelly.
The winner for the retail award was North Strong Collective. The company makes clothing that is very inspired by Canadian culture. The company uses funds made off of their products to support up and coming athletes who need the funds to help pay for their training. On top of the cheque for their company, the winners also receive access to mentorship and professional services, provided by Western’s Propel and Fanshawe’s LEAP junction.