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WTFast is Runner Up in 2015 Small Business Challenge

Posted From The Globe and Mail link to original story

Here are the four runners-up for the 2015 Small Business Challenge contest along with advice for each from the contest judges. The winner of the contest was AquaMobile Inc. To see all of the Challenge coverage, click here.

Matthew Sherwood for The Globe and Mail

MyBabbo

Toronto-based MyBabbo creates memorial photo books, video tributes and memorial websites and sells these products through funeral homes. Tracy Rossetti, above, the company’s founder, wants to scale operations beyond MyBabbo’s 2 per cent penetration of funeral homes in Canada. She says to do this, she needs an onboarding process for hiring new designers and video creators. She also wants to launch mini-websites where clients can view their books and order more products.

What the judges say: MyBabbo should venture beyond funeral homes and go direct to consumers and expand its focus from hard-copy books to digital products that are easier to share, says Sean Stanleigh, managing editor at The Globe and Mail’s Globe Content Studio. “MyBabbo should boost their Web offering so families are able to share their information and photos,” Mr. Stanleigh says. “The company should then take its marketing online so they can showcase both hard-copy and digital products – a strategy that might also draw more funeral homes, resulting in a double win for the business.”

Jennifer Roberts for The Globe and Mail

PathCore Inc.

Toronto-based PathCore Inc. takes some of the guesswork out of disease diagnosis with image-analysis software that provides precise measures of cancer indicators. The company also offers a technology platform – which it recently moved to the Cloud – that allows health-care professionals to view and manage pathology data. PathCore co-founders Dan Hosseinzadeh, above, and Anne Martel want to provide their product via the Web to pathology laboratories around the world, starting with the United States. But they need money to present their technology to some of the best U.S. hospitals.

What the judges say: Katherine Scarrow, digital content strategist at the Globe, says there’s no denying PathCore’s value proposition is strong. But a key challenge for the company’s leaders is articulating clearly what PathCore does, how the company generates revenue and what makes its technology best-of-class. “One suggestion for PathCore would be to leverage existing relationships and capitalize on the halo effect,” Ms. Scarrow says. “Testimonials from, for example, a doctor at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre or a researcher from Ryerson University would go a long way in helping the company tell its story and ‘humanize’ the technology.”

Kevin Van Paassen for The Globe and Mail

BakerStone International

With a price tag of about $130, BakerStone International’s portable pizza oven box is a more palatable alternative to other, significantly pricier models in the market. About 50,000 BakerStone oven boxes sold last year through retailers in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Europe and Latin America. Lewis Rose, above, and Tim Case, the business partners behind BakerStone, want to spread the word about their product. They believe infomercials are the way to go.

What the judges say: Ami Richter of Lug Canada Inc. advises BakerStone to rethink its strategy of betting a big wad of dollars on infomercials. From the onset, the company was a favourite among Challenge judges. “However, they were so completely stuck on using the entire grand prize money on an infomercial,” notes Ms. Richter. “If they had shown more flexibility and given some consideration to the judges’ encouragement to really rethink this strategy, I think the outcome could have been very different. I would recommend for BakerStone to use the Challenge as an opportunity to re-evaluate its marketing and sales strategy, because it really does have an impressive product.”

Jeff Bassett for The Globe and Mail

WTFast

WTFast, a technology platform developed and owned by Kelowna, B.C.-based AAA Internet Publishing Inc., keeps online gamers happy by reducing the online lag that can occur in multiplayer video games played over a network. Rob Bartlett, above, WTFast’s co-founder and chief executive, says that to keep the business growing, he and his partners need to invest in research and development. They also need to put more dollars into marketing and business development. But going to industry events, where they can talk to potential users face-to-face, is an expensive proposition.

What the judges say: Being a Challenge contest semi-finalist has already set WTFast on the right path to boosting its marketing and advertising. Lug Canada’s Ms. Richter urges the company’s owners to make the most of the media exposure they’re getting through The Globe and Mail and Telus Corp. “Spread it as far as they can since marketing was one of the needs they listed,” she says. “I would recommend that they share any writeups and press releases about the Challenge contest to pique interest from industry-specific writers and help garner additional editorials and media opportunities. This will help to spread awareness of WTFast and its platform, and get people talking.”

About the contest

Now in its fifth year, The Globe and Mail’s Small Business Challenge Contest received a record-breaking 3,000-plus entries in 2015. Five semifinalists and the winner were chosen by a panel of judges that included The Globe and Mail’s Katherine Scarrow, Steve Tustin and Sean Stanleigh, Jim Senko and Suzanne Trusdale from Telus, Ami Richter of Lug Canada and Chris Griffiths of Fine Tune Consulting. The grand prize winner gets $100,000 cash from Telus while all five semi-finalists receive $10,000 and a Business Prize package that includes $2,000 worth of Telus services or devices, a one-year subscription to Globe Unlimited, and mentoring from a business expert. The Challenge is also giving Regional Recognition prizes of three business devices each to 10 businesses from the country’s Atlantic, North, West and Central regions; winners will be announced in October. Also recognized will be three Most Promising Startups and 50 Honourable Mentions.

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Immersive Media Wins Emmy

Emmy win for local firm

by | Castanet Story: 147582 -

Quite a coup for a Kelowna tech company.

Immersive Media has won an Emmy for Original Interactive Program, for its work on Taylor Swift's AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience.

The local company created the content for the video, which was made available as a free app.

"We used our cameras and our technology to capture the whole space for this music video," said Ryan Whitehead with Immersive Media.

"We worked with director Joseph Kahn and Taylor Swift to capture everything the way it needed to be captured and stitched all the imagery together, created the content and worked with an agency out of New York, who created an app to create this."

He said the video is more like a gaming experience than a music video.

"If you want to stay in one room and explore it, you could do that. If you want to continue on, you could click on a doorway and continue through the house and follow Taylor if you wanted to. It was almost like a game really."

Whitehead, and three other Kelowna men who worked on the project will all receive Emmy Awards for their work on the project.

The Emmy for Original Interactive Program was announced earlier this week, along with other behind-the-scenes winners, in advance of the Emmy broadcast Sept. 20.

"It was totally unexpected," Whitehead said of his reaction upon getting the news.

"It's something I never thought I'd personally be involved with. It's a pretty big accomplishment and a big feather in our cap. It's quite an honour."

Immersive Media created the 360 degree technology which was used on the project.

"Originally, we made the Google Street View project. That was our technology. We created the spherical cameras that captured that imagery and mapped it. We did the first 30 cities, then they took the project and ran with it," said Whitehead.

To view the 360 presentation, you must download the free app.

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18 Adventures, 1 Day

What Red Bull and New Zealand can do, the Okanagan can do better.

Or so a local adventure company and video crew aim to prove on Thursday.

Ayn Lexi of Okanagan Outdoor Adventures says a crew will be filming an "18 in 1" adventure video around Kelowna in response to Red Bull’s recent New Zealand "5 in 1" video. The numbers refer to the number of adventures that can be done in a single day, transitioning straight from one to another.    

The group will start off with a helicopter flight and landing at the paragliding launch site on Blue Grouse Mountain, where a stuntman will do a tandem flight, landing at Okanagan Lake to start into some water sports. 

Okanagan Outdoor Adventures partnered with Land Sea Air Canada and cameraman Jason Kenzie, aka A Photo Warrior, to produce the video promoting the many adventures the Okanagan has to offer.

“What prompted this video was when I saw one produced by Red Bull and commissioned by tourism New Zealand. They were showing that you can do their five big adventures all in one day, and I thought we can totally beat that," said Lexi.

"So, we will on Thursday.  In fact, we’re going to crush it! We have arranged for 18 adventures all to be shot on Thursday, with each transitioning from one to another, just like the Red Bull video."

Moving from mountain to lake, the activities will include wakeboarding, jet skiing, sailing, fly boarding, parasailing and a jet boat ride, ziplining, a leap off an 80-foot pole, mountain biking, a Harley, pedicab and a sidecar ride, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding and a wine tour.

“It’s going to be an epic day, and it will be a great showcase for some of the adventures we have locally," said Lexi.

When complete, the video will be posted on the company’s website, www.okanaganoutdooradventures.com.

 
 
 
 
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The Coldest Business In Town

cryocarelogo

by | Castanet Story: 146997 -

The coldest business in Kelowna has just opened its doors.

It’s called cryotherapy, and it’s a treatment reportedly used to treat a variety of issues, including muscle soreness, arthritic pain and stress and headaches, among others.

Cryo Care, co-owned by two Kelowna residents, Taylor Saukarookoff and Devin Gibson, had its grand opening Tuesday.

They partnered with Inn from the Cold Kelowna, a community outreach program that helps homeless people, and donated their proceeds from their opening day to the program.

Gibson said the therapy taps into the body’s fight or flight response.

“Within the first 30 seconds, over 80 per cent of your body’s blood rushes to your body’s core,” he said. “There it gets filled with endorphins, enzymes, nutrients, oxygen, all the good stuff. After the treatment is over, all that blood, essentially supercharged with nutrients and all that good stuff, rushes back to your peripheral tissues brining with it a myriad of health benefits.”

Recently, a number of professional athletes have begun using the treatment to help prevent and heal injuries.

Gibson and Saukarookoff said the 2011 Dallas Mavericks used the therapy when they won their NBA championship.

In addition to personal testimonies about the therapy’s benefits, Gibson said there has been extensive scientific research into the therapy since it was first invented in 1978 in Japan to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

“Hundreds of studies,” Gibson said. “Primarily the studies have been done over in Europe.”

While the thought of stepping into a negative 150 degree chamber for up to three minutes may seem daunting, Saukarookoff said because there is no humidity in the air, the cold only affects half of a mm into your skin.

“It’s not like standing outside on a cold winter’s day,” Saukarookoff said. “You have to feel it in order to understand what I’m talking about, but it doesn’t have that sharp piercing cold.”

For a first-timer, a session costs $55. Check out Cryo Care’s website for more information.

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A Tribute to Henry Penner

henry penner

On August 22, just three days prior to his 73rd birthday, Henry Arnold Penner slipped away peacefully to be with the Lord. He is survived by his loving wife Elsie of 50 years, daughter Cynthia and husband Jay Brooks, son Michael and wife Carrie Elrick, and his much loved granddaughters, Vivian and Lily Elrick Penner. Also mourning his loss are his siblings Catherine (Rita) Whiteley, Anita and husband Lyle Wahl, Alice and husband Michael Gro, Elaine and husband Edward Klassen, Louis and wife Ruth Ann Penner, Kim and husband Abe Dueck, and Dennis and wife Wendy Lee Penner, as well as many nieces and nephews. He will also be sorely missed by his brothers and sisters in law: Margaret and Patrick Burns, Peter and Sue Kehler, Katie Kehler, Helen and Bill Klassen, Neil and Eileen Kehler, and Marie and Henry Dueck and more nieces and nephews. A host of friends, from early school days to far away Asian work assignments, also mourn a friend who was a wonderful blend of warmth, fun, "smarts" and strength of character. He is predeceased by his parents Cornelius and Luise Wiens Penner.

Born in Regina, SK, Henry spent his formative years on a three acre farm in Yarrow, BC. There he developed his interest in hunting, fishing, and sports of all kinds. In the summers he worked for his father at Clearbrook Frozen Foods. After graduating from high school, he continued in a similar vein and attended Oregon State University; graduating in 1964 with a Bachelor's Degree in Food Science. During the summers of his university years, he continued to work at Clearbrook Frozen Foods with the fortunate, life-changing bonus of meeting his future bride in the company's quality control lab. They were married on December 27th 1964 following his graduation. After four years of working for Salada Foods (the new owners of his father's business), Henry and his little family moved to Kelowna to work with Sun-Rype Food Products, where he took great pride in developing and manufacturing renowned fruit and juice products.

His time with Sun-Rype also included extensive traveling to investigate and institute innovations to create new levels of product excellence. Following an exploratory trip to China to assess the feasibility of setting up a plant there, Henry retired after twenty-eight rewarding years. Building on the rich skills and experiences he had gained in the Okanagan, Henry took his expertise abroad to about thirty countries as a food manufacturing and business management consultant. In some of the most desperate places in the world, his role was to provide help to small manufacturers to successfully create and sell products that would, in turn, improve their own lives. Some of his favourite locales were the Philippines, Indonesia, and Kyrgyzstan. His stories of these trips invariably involved graphic details of the obscure foods that were served to him; nothing was too daunting for him to try. Elsie was able to accompany him on some of these trips and as a result they developed many dear friends who remain part of their lives. During these years of foreign consulting, Henry continued to be involved back home, providing guidance to the Community Futures Development Corporation of Central Okanagan.

Although Henry will be remembered through his leadership positions at work and in the churches he attended, he will be best remembered for his personal qualities: his quiet expression of faith and values, his integrity and strength, his sense of humour and fun. He loved his wife and family deeply, he treasured his life-long friends and enjoying a good meal came a close third.

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