MesoMat Wins $76,000 at LiON’S LAIR 2018 With Their “Conductible, Body Conforming, Wearable Technology”
Hamilton, ON (Sept 28, 2018) – After almost two months of anticipation, the winners of the 8th annual LiON’S LAIR Competition were announced yesterday evening at a gala attended by over 500 members of the business community.
MesoMat was named the grand-prize winner, taking home a prize of $76,000 in cash and in-kind resources, for their wearable, stretchable conductible technology. MesoMat’s prizes include $10,000 in cash from Cogeco, Mohawk College, McMaster University, RBC, McMaster Innovation Park and Meridian Financial Credit Union; $11,520 co-working space from Co-Motion; $10,000 in full strategic branding, marketing and design services from Thinkr; and a $10,000 accounting package from KPMG.
“The Lion’s Lair process was extremely helpful for us in learning how to communicate what our business does and how we can add value to our customers. Going through the training sessions really helped us clarify how to present ourselves. The experience on a whole was challenging but also a lot of fun. It was very exciting to get support from not only Innovation Factory but also other contestants in Lion’s Lair and in the Hamilton community. Lion’s Lair truly felt like an event that the entire Hamilton community was behind and strongly supported.” said Paul Fowler Co-Founder, MesoMat
The second place prize of more than $56,000 in cash and in-kind prizes was awarded to Benjamin Lee, founder of Altius Analytics, a hardware and software company that allows you to seamlessly record and analyze 3D human motion. Third place was awarded to Chad Ingles and Ryan O’Grady of Fotaflo, a profit-generating referral marketing solution that easily captures and shares photos and videos for the adventure tourism and camp industries, who took home $45,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.
The winner of this year’s “Hamilton Award” was Anita Grant, founder of Fleeky, a social web platform that facilitates the connection between beauty professionals and beauty seekers. This award is given to a Hamilton-based company that best represents the spirit of growth and development in the city, someone who has already made a commitment to Hamilton and will continue to do so.
This year’s winners were selected by the 2018 Lions, Julie Ellis (Mabels Labels, Snuggle Bugz), Stuart Wheldon (Redchurch, Eloqua/Oracle), Ruth Todd (KPMG), and Daniel Kube (servicePath, CPQ Solutions). The Lions viewed each finalist’s 25-minute pitch at Innovation Factory with Cable 14 back in August to determine the winners.
LiON’S LAIR was hosted by Master of Ceremonies, Nick Bontis. Keanin Loomis, President and CEO, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, and David Carter, Executive Director, Innovation Factory, welcomed guests and highlighted the many supports available for entrepreneurs in the Hamilton innovation ecosystem.
