Innovation Guelph and the Rhyze Ventures program are excited to announce the third cohort winners of the culminating pitch contest.
The Rhyze Ventures pitch awards are provided to one competitor from each of the program’s three streams: small business, social enterprise and scalable along with a People’s Choice award based on event attendee votes. This pitch competition culminates the completion of the eight-month Rhyze Ventures program that combines education (leadership/business skills), mentorship, hands-on project work and networking events.
The recipients are:
Small business
Katie Skyvington
The Traveling Physio
($10, 000)
Social Enterprise
Rebekah Churchyard
Green Care Farms Inc.
($10, 000)
(Also People’s Choice Winner of 10 Mentorship Hours)
Scalable
Debbie Stanley
ETP Canada Inc.
($10, 000)
“We are thrilled to celebrate our third cohort participants who have all worked extremely hard over the last eight months! The pitch competition is a wonderful allows Rhyze Ventures participants to show off their hard work and passion, but my favourite part is watching the support radiate through the Rhyze Ventures community,” said Katherine Laycock, Rhyze Ventures program manager.
Innovation Guelph is grateful for the objective evaluation provided by the judging panel:
- Colleen James, Principal Consultant & CEO of Divonify
- Elizabeth Pringle, Associate Partner at EY
- Kavita Srivastava, Fractional CFO, Mentor – She Raises Capital, and SheEO Activator
- Sandra Hinojosa Verdin, Industrial Technology Advisor with the National Research Council Canada
- Valerie Healy, Area Manager with TD Business Banking
The Rhyze & Shine event held virtually May 12 featured:
- Keynote Speaker: Cheryl Haskett, CEO and Co-Founder of Udderly Ridiculous. Cheryl gave honest and inspiring advice for women entrepreneurs, including the importance of having a mentor (or several of them if you can), making peace with problems, aligning your values to your business, asking questions, approaching tough conversations and problems while sharing what she’s learned along the way.
- Networking break out rooms
- Pitch competition video
- VIP guests including:
- Lloyd Longfield, Our Member of Parliament (MP) for Guelph since 2015
- Cam Guthrie, City of Guelph Mayor
- Jennifer Monaco, Regional Manager, Women in Enterprise, Central Canada with TD Business Banking
- Alison Crumblehulme, CEO Innovation Guelph
We congratulate our pitch winners and all finalists who participated!
Small Business
Alice Grey – Mindful Monk
Tali Kellerstein – The Speak Boutique
Katie Skyvington – The Traveling Physio
Social Enterprise
Rebekah Churchyard – Green Care Farms Inc.
Kay Valley– HomeBanx
Sheila Boudreau– SpruceLab
Scalable
Debbie Stanley – ETP Canada
Rhowena Adolfo Patel – Healing Mama Co.
Susan Snelling – Split Rail Brewing Company
Rhyze and Shine is proudly supported by TD Bank Group
