Judges to decide winner
The winner of the first Startup Port Hawkesbury competition will be selected Thursday.
Local judges Tracey Cummings, Danielle MacDonald and Wayne MacKay, will be joined by Antigonish’s Tareq Hadhad and Sen. Dan Christmas to hear the contestant’s final presentations and choose the winner.
The judges have received business plans from each of the three finalists and this week’s event will be their last chance to persuade judges that their business should win.
The Start-up Port Hawkesbury contest is a “Dragon’s Denstyle” contest that will see one new business win two years of rent free space in Port Hawkesbury, pre-qualify for a $20,000 business loan, receive pro-bono legal services, graphic design services, a one-year chamber of commerce membership, and ongoing support and training from the contest partners.
Finalist Liam Brophy is hoping to open his business, Island Enigmas, which will operate two escape rooms and have a tabletop games retail shop.
“I’m really hoping that being involved in the start-up program, regardless of the outcome, will help me get to where I need to be with my business,” Brophy said.
Waddy Long of Proud Maritimer Marketing, said he can’t imagine any other place his group, a marketing and apparel company, would start their business.
“We have a support system here,” Long said. “We have, obviously, a business-friendly community or you wouldn’t be having this contest.”
The third finalist Michelle Tabensky, who plans to open a doggie daycare, agreed.
“Port Hawkesbury is the best place to have (the contest) because we are the hub,” she said.
There were 20 submissions received in the first round of the contest, which required entrants to submit a 90-second video pitching their business idea. The 10 contestants who advanced to the second round were required to further refine their idea through a concept paper and a two-minute pitch before the judging panel before three finalists were chosen. In this final round, contestants have submitted business plans to the judges and will have the opportunity to present to the judges one last time. The judges will ask questions regarding each proposal before selecting the winner.
The three remaining contestants will deliver their final pitch presentations to the judges at the Bear Head Room in the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.