Communitech has announced the winner of the $100,000 prize for the pitch competition for its Fierce Founders bootcamp, which supports early-stage companies led by women.
Ratio.City ended up taking the top prize. The company helps real estate professionals identify and evaluate urban sites that would have the most potential. The company uses open data as part of its solution.
As part of her win, Ratio.City CEO Monika Jaroszonek will receive a spot at the Fierce Founders Accelerator, which begins April 1.
“Fierce Founders exceeded my expectations. It really helped me narrow our business plan and focus on our messaging, and how we can better communicate a very technical tool and make it relatable to the general public,” said Jaroszonek. “There was a great group dynamic, which I think is a specific product of being all women with similar experiences and stages of our businesses.”
Twenty-four women took part in the bootcamp over two weeks, where they learned about running a startup and business fundamentals, including customer discovery, lean startup methodology, problem and solution validation, accounting, funding, marketing and sales. They were also coached on their pitch presentations.
The eight founders who pitched Thursday include:
- Maya Strasser, JAUNTIN’ (Toronto, ON)
- Charlene Nadalin, Amintro (Toronto, ON)
- Monika Jaroszonek, Ratio.City (Toronto, ON)
- Lisa Pfister, PFERA (New Brunswick, CA)
- Serese Selande, ORA (Saskatoon, SK)
- Daryna Kulya, OpenPhone (Kitchener, ON)
- Natasha Dhayagude, Chinova Bioworks (Fredericton, NB)
- Erin Laidley, Innovative Protein Technologies (Kitchener, ON)
