Virtual startup accelerator Propel has announced the finalists for its annual Gerry Pond Sales Award, with food-related startups making a strong showing.
The Gerry Pond Award is an annual, $25,000 cash prize in honour of former NBTel CEO and Aliant Telecom President Gerry Pond, who went on to co-found Saint John-based Mariner Partners and Propel itself. Propel, meanwhile, offers a suite of virtual startup accelerators, including its Traction and Growth programs, from which the award finalists were drawn.
Of the seven companies on this year’s shortlist, four offer products or services involving food.
"This year’s list of finalists made a clear and resounding commitment to success in sales, particularly in understanding their customer," said Propel CEO Kathryn Lockhart in a statement. "We celebrate the significance of this event, as it not only gives us the opportunity to honour our founder Gerry Pond but also recognize companies who are bringing smart solutions to market and able to scale, equipped with the knowledge they have gained through the Propel program."
The awards presentation will be held virtually on April 17 at noon Atlantic time and include a keynote speech from Ryan Porter, head of product at Moncton-based online recruitment company CareerBeacon. Attendance is free and you can register here.
Here’s a look at the finalists:
Mubdu Alali
Halifax
Bloxo has developed an online platform that helps users find or organize recreational sporting events. It matches users based on their interests and skill levels, all without requiring long-term commitments or rigid schedules.
Omar and Mohamed Soliman
Halifax
Couryah is a food delivery service that lets users order from both restaurants and grocery stores, and aims to compete with incumbent players by undercutting them on price.
Mandhir Singh
Halifax
Easy Platter is an online platform that lets personal chefs prepare weekly meals at affordable prices for middle-income families.
Colin Hunt and Jonathan Young
Mount Pearl, NL
Prospre is an app that helps users create custom meal plans based on their nutritional requirements, personal preferences and dietary restrictions.
Christy Silvestri and Jeff Barsalou
Halifax
The QuickFacts platform lets brokers view insurance packages from competing companies side by side for easy comparison, which the company says can reduce the time brokers spend searching for information by 10 to 20 times. It also says the platform offers brokers more depth of information than competitors.
Robert Chambers
Halifax
Sandbox is a suite of software tools that can be used to build ERP, or enterprise resource planning, environments. The software’s purpose is to help small businesses replace spreadsheets with cloud-based databases and consolidate their data.
Fredéric Laforge
Moncton
The Farmers’ Truck is a social venture that sells specially designed vehicles to non-profits. The charities use the trucks to distribute healthy groceries to food insecure households and residents of food deserts.
