MyFarmers’Market, a website and app that allow online purchases of organic food, on Thursday night won the Halifax Entrepreneurship Expo’s Startup Sunday, a $10,000 pitch competition for teams of Saint Mary’s University students and entrepreneurs.

The teams, each consisting of two business students and one entrepreneur, were given a market segment for their venture on March 10, and had only one day to create a business idea and plan.

MyFarmers’Market proposed a website and phone app service that would allow people to buy and sell organic food online. Farmers would still sell directly to shoppers, but would avoid traveling to markets, which are sometimes just too far.

“We want to think about a set of core values,” said Mandhir Singh, a Saint Mary’s MBA student, who headed the team. “We want a sustainable business that can grow in the future.”

The prize money will go towards developing the website and mobile app, he said.

The runners up were DomNom, a freeware gaming app, and Communications, who pitched a projection advertisement company that would use high-powered projectors, rather than billboards, for outdoor ad space.

“I was thinking they were all pretty close,” said Lori Cox, a judge for the event and CEO of Red Dragon Marketing. “It was really their presentation that did it for [MyFarmers’Market] --- they had clear financials. You really got a sense that there was business there in fruition.”

This was the second year for Startup Sunday, and the fourth for the Expo itself. 

The Expo this year featured “mastermind groups” --- roundtable discussions in which participants work as a team to tackle real-life business problems. The event was focused more on interaction than speeches, something event organizer Phil Calvert said he hopes to continue.

“We want to really work on mentor relationships, so we have mentors and mentees learning from each other in business and helping their businesses grow together,” said Calvert. “We’re going to take that even further next year.”

The Expo concluded with a dinner speech by Arlene Dickinson, CEO of Venture Communications and a famed dragon from the show Dragons’ Den. The dinner drew nearly 500 guests.  A “dragon” has been invited to speak each year at the closing dinner, formerly called Dine with a Dragon. Due to the noted lack of remaining dragons, however, it is now called Dine with a Legend.