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Many cliches should be burned on a pyre. But some endure for good reasons—like the hoary old chestnut about the third time being the charm.<\/p>\nMany cliches should be burned on a pyre. But some endure for good reasons—like the hoary old chestnut about the third time being the charm.<\/p>\n
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For Launch Academy’s third Pitch Day was by all accounts the most successful yet. A sold out event with a waiting list 50 names long, Thursday night’s competition saw entrepreneurial faces, new and familiar, cheer on talented competitors as they stepped onto the pitcher’s mound to see if they have what it takes in the big leagues. The success of Launch Academy itself may have been the only thing that prevented the night <\/em>from being an ironclad success; fifty steaming hot pizzas, two hundred bodies and a humid August night added up to one sticky room.<\/p>\n The evening began with 10 lightning pitches from eight Launch Academy members and two students from Launch Academy’s Lean Entrepreneur Program<\/a>. The top five crowd favourites (as well as four companies from the Launch Academy Student Startup Challenge<\/a>) then presented longer three-minute pitches in front of judges Meredith Powell (The Next Big Thing<\/a>), Jack Newton (Clio<\/a>), Sandra Wear (CanWIT<\/a>), Shane Luke (Recon Instruments<\/a>), and Sam Chandola (Victory Square Games<\/a>). The Student Startup Challenge finalists competed for cash prizes of $3,000, $1,500, and $500, while the remaining companies competed for a top prize of a flight to New York City for Startup Next’s Demo Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n “It’s been exactly a year since our last competition, so we were really excited to showcase an entirely new crop of entrepreneurs this time around,” says Launch Academy’s Executive Director, Ray Walia.<\/p>\n “A lot of these startups were just an idea three months ago, so it’s been really exciting to see how quickly they’ve grown into real companies while under Launch Academy’s roof,” he added.<\/p>\n In a little under two hours, the winners emerged. In order, the winners are:<\/p>\n\n
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