BrightLane Announces Winner of 2014/2015 BrightLane Entrepreneur Awards

ONTARIO, Ontario - Dec. 17, 2015 - PRLog -- Last December BrightLane created the BrightLane Entrepreneur Awards, a yearlong competition that challenged budding entrepreneurs to demonstrate their business skills in pursuit of their business goals. “BrightLane attracted some of the brightest entrepreneurs in Toronto, with terrific ideas to grow an early stage business,” said George Horhota, President and CEO of BrightLane.

Today, after a year at BrightLane building their new ventures, the competition’s five finalists were measured and a winner was chosen. HiMama, the highest rated childcare app for easy parent communication, digital daily reports and paperless educational documentation, became the first winner of the BrightLane Entrepreneur Awards. “In 2015, BrightLane contributed prizing valued at a total of $135,000, which has allowed some great new businesses to incubate at BrightLane,” said Susy Renzi, General Manager at BrightLane.

“Judging the top five was an extremely rewarding experience as it showed how each of the finalists had progressed and learned during their time at BrightLane; Ron and his team at HiMama have really shown tremendous growth over the past year,” said Jessie Moenifar, President of Viafoura and one of the BrightLane judges and mentors.

Ron Spreeuwenberg, President of HiMama, commented, “It is truly an honour to win the award and to have gone through the journey with other, amazing entrepreneurs. I have been inspired by BrightLane's founder, Raymond Chang, since my first pitch for the BrightLane Entrepreneur Awards and I hope to carry forward his philosophies on business and leadership into HiMama's next phase of growth.”

“In 2015 we have seen these finalists grow so much, and it is wonderful to see this competition emerge as a truly positive entrepreneurial activity. It’s exactly what BrightLane’s founder, the late G. Raymond Chang, would have wanted and we are thrilled to be moving into the next round of the BrightLane Entrepreneur Award,” said George Horhota.

The purpose of the BrightLane Entrepreneur Awards is to promote entrepreneurial initiative, friendly competition and ultimately help the participants develop their skills and business ideas so that they become successful entrepreneurs. Along with the benefits from the BrightLane Membership, all of the winners have the benefit of advice from a skilled team of mentors/judges during their tenure. The top five also have the opportunity to meet potential investors and potentially grow their business more rapidly.

There are three opportunities for participants to demonstrate their skill:

An initial elevator pitch, where participants have sixty seconds to pitch their business idea. If the idea is sound, the participant(s) are invited to present a 5-minute pitch, face-to-face with the judging panel. Participants will be selected to receive 6-months free Membership and support services at the BrightLane King West location (valued at $4000/winner).

The 10 winning participants are observed during 6-months at BrightLane. The top five are awarded workspace for another 6-months (valued at $4000/winner).

After a year of developing their business, the single most promising entrepreneur is awarded the $15,000 BrightLane Entrepreneur Award.

The 2015/2016 BrightLane Entrepreneur Awards kicked off November 28^th, with a new group of competitors pitching for Membership at BrightLane and a chance at the larger $25,000 grand prize. The winners of the first stage will be announced in January, with webisodes from the event soon to follow.