Lion’s Lair Gala Winners! #HamOnt was the Biggest Winner!

First off…no Snappay my own top ten finalist mobile app did not win, but then again, we did!

Lion’s Lair as all our regular readers know, is Hamilton’s answer to the CBC Dragon’s Den TV show – and we offer up a similar contest right here in #HamOnt for our own local startups to come and pitch to 5 local Lions! And what a great second annual it was this year too!

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Lion’s Lair 2012: Today is the Gala Event!

Yes that’s right….today is the second annual Lion’s Lair Gala event where the winners of the contest will be announced….and Snappay is one of those in the running for $100,000 in cash and prizes – and we’re pumped!

And the #HamOnt Spectator, our daily newspaper covered same in a full-page spread on those top ten finalists and can be seen here too (big shout-out to Meredith MacLeod for the great reporting too!).

And a small reminder/disclaimer, that Snappay is a new mobile app that I’ve invested in and I am the CEO so it was myself that did the “pitch” to the Lions back in late August so as you may be able to tell, I’m very proud of what the company has done in the past 5 months since our launch! 

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DOH!: I Missed a Pitch Chance!

Okay, if you realize that I’ve pitched before to Angels, VCs and in competitions and you know that just last Thursday here in #HamOnt, our Lion’s Lair 2012 Pitch Competition was taped, then maybe you know what’s coming.

That I killed it, I aced it….would be how I felt I did for our Snappay mobile POS app Pitch…but it came to me yesterday, that I missed one chance that I had – and it slipped away!

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CBCHamilton News: Hamilton company has payment solution

It’s a beautiful Friday once again, and I’d rather be out in the sunshine say sitting on a patio having a nice Chardonnay today, that working online…but one must do what one must do, eh!

And todays week-ending blog post is about our Snappay app and coverage of our Top Ten Finalist rankings for the #HamOnt Lion’s Lair 2012 Contest and our CBCHamilton coverage of same.

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Lion’s Lair 2012: Our Pitch Deck!

Okay, after much thought on same, I felt that I should post here some slides from our upcoming Thursday Lion’s Lair 2012 Pitch Competition….and that in doing so, I could show you what we’re going to be presenting.

I’ve not included in the speaking scripts for same…as that would be too much to offer here…but just the screens in a “show & tell” mode. Hope you like them….

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Entrepreneur’s Trap: The Too Too Busy Error!

It’s about time I blogged on this – the fact that when you ask any entrepreneur, startup founder, C-level exec “how you doing?” the  answer is usually the same! Busy! Crazy busy! Too too busy! Not enough hours in the day type of answer…and there’s the rub! Are you – are we – all too too busy?

Here’s what I’d like you to think about….being an entrepreneur is about the best/coolest/finest thing that could ever happen to a human being in my world. The creation of a new idea….the nurturing of same….the building of the basic framework of your company…the search for advisors and mentors and counsel from same…the first MVP (minimum viable product) for the marketplace…the customer validation and initial wedge into their consciousness…and then the pivots that come from all of these items. It takes time. It takes focus…and perhaps most importantly, it eats up your life.

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Lion’s Lair 2012: WooHoo We’re a Finalist!

Big big smile here…because announced just last week, the second annual 2012 Lion’s Lair contest top ten finalists were announced – and Snappay is in!

That smile of course, is just the start of how we feel about same and by that I mean we do realize that it’s going to be dang hard to “finish in the money” of this $100,000 dollar contest, but we’re up for the challenge, eh!

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