RIC Centre Call For Submissions – Innovator Idol 4
The RIC Centre presents the finale event for this season’s Growing Your Business, Breakfast with the Experts Series.The competition is modelled as a hybrid of American Idol and Dragon’s Den where 4 companies are invited to present their business pitch to a panel for feedback. The panelists typically include a venture capitalist, an angel investor and a representative from an Emerging Technologies Fund.
The audience votes to select the winner and $40,000 in prizes for the winners – register your company now for the opportunity to pitch at Innovator Idol 4 on June 13th 2012.
Why would companies want to do this? Firstly, for exposure to potential funding sources and valuable feedback to polish their pitch from an audience’s voting. More importantly, to win prizes to assist in the company’s continued development. Finally, companies should sign up because the RIC Centre is committed to providing continued suppor to the companies after the event towards their successful commercialization.
Past winners not only benefited from exposure to funders and valuable prizes, they have gone on to become significant players in Canadian and international markets. Induce Biologics took home the crown at RIC’s Innovator Idol 3 competition. Sean Peel, Induce’s CSO, was named the winner with a compelling pitch about his company’s innovative technology to help surgeons regenerate bone. Induce has developed a unique process which combines the use of growth factors and biomaterials to stimulate the body to regenerate bone.
Induce was one of the four finalists that were selected to pitch to a panel of industry experts last year. The winner was chosen by the audience. Along with the title, Sean’s company was awarded a trophy and a share of the $40,000 prize. The runner up for the competition was Carmel Vision, a North York company that’s created software allowing users to manage information overload from a single application.
Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion praised RIC and Innovator Idol, saying that “RIC Centre programs like Innovator Idol help bring innovators to the point of success by highlighting their accomplishments, and by showing off their products and services to investors.”
