Who couldn’t use a portion of $50,000 for their business? Six Michigan woman-owned businesses got a boost recently at the third Entrepreneur-YOU Business Plan and Pitch Competition at Walsh College.
The competition is a collaboration between Walsh College, the Michigan Women’s Foundation and Inforum Michigan. The aim of Entrepreneur-YOU is that it is women helping women launch and grow businesses.
There were two categories for the competition, lifestyle and growth, and the participants were evaluated on 15 criteria.
The winners who received prizes ranging from $5,900 to $13,900 were:
In the lifestyle category:
1st prize, Tatiana Grant, Flash Delivery, $13,900
2nd prize, Shannon Byrne, Slow Jams, $9,400
3rd prize, Yvette Rock, Live Coal Gallery LLC, $5,900
In the growth category:
1st prize, Julie Hyde-Edwards, re-Contour Nipple Guard and Mastectomy Dressing, $13,900
2nd prize, Julie Andreae, Secure Beginnings’ Breathable Crib Mattresses, $9,400
3rd prize, Adrienne Minerick, Blood Typing Microdevice, $5,900
“We are ecstatic about the award,” says Tatiana Grant, Co-Owner of Flash Delivery with Ericka Billingslea, winners in the lifestyle category. Their prize money will be used for software updates, to expand the business and for branding and marketing. Flash Delivery is a restaurant and grocery delivery service based in Detroit. Grant resides in Farmington Hills.
The first-place winner in the growth category was Julie Hyde-Edwards. She was inspired to create a device to help patients going through breast reconstruction after she experienced it herself. After sharing a prototype of the dressing to her surgeon, Hyde-Edwards received a U.S. Patent in April and recently received confirmation of the product’s FDA classification. Quite an achievement.
“The goal is to help women heal more beautifully from breast cancer and launch a successful business in the process,” said Hyde-Edwards.
In addition to the cash award, support in-kind will be provided in the areas of accounting, PR/Marketing, and Legal.
Accounting: Baker Tilly, Deloitte, and Rehmann;
PR and Marketing: Brogan & Partners, Eisbrenner Public Relations, and Tanner Friedman;
Legal: Stobl Sharp, Tifani Sadek, Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, and Butzel Long.
The Entrepreneur-YOU education conference will return for a fourth year and is scheduled for Friday, March 20, 2015 at the Walsh College Troy Campus. Visit www.thewalshinstitute.com/eyou for more information.
