Majoura Wins $25,000 Slaight Communications Business Plan Competition

Congratulations to Noura Sakkijha of Majoura for winning the 2012 Slaight $25,000 Business Plan Competition which was held at Ted Rogers School of Management in front of a record number of attendees on Monday March 26^th 2012.

“It has been a great pleasure working with StartMeUp Ryerson and I cannot wait to start my business” Noura Sakkija – Co-Founder of Majoura 

Best Ryerson startup of 2012, as chosen by the audience went to Brennan McEachran of Soapbox.

The annual $25,000 competition, open to all Ryerson students with some ownership in the company, is the largest event organized by StartMeUp Ryerson.

StartMeUp Ryerson is a student run organization that is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs start and expand their business by providing education, resources and funding.    

With a record number of submissions, six finalists were chosen based on their business plans.

• Soapbox: an online platform for community based change that allows each person to get their idea in the hands of key decision makers. SoapBox is designed for change and can be used anywhere that has an active community
  http://hitsend.ca/

• Peytec: an engineering innovation and consulting firm located in Toronto Ontario focused on four areas: Mechanical, Electrical and Biomedical, engineering and design, and Software engineering and design.
  http://www.peytec.com/

• My TaskRunner: aims to solve the problem of a lack of time by having somebody who is trusted and verified complete any time-consuming task
• Make Treks: Through video interviews with those who are living on the streets, MakeTreks is able to capture unique portraits into the lives of the homeless, while providing them with care packages in exchange to enhancing their quality of life.
  http://maketrekslikeimhomeless.com/

• Majoura: Through crowdsourcing, Majoura brings ideas from designers all over the world and provides consumers the chance to select and enhance winning designs that will be manufactured and sold.
• Bank My Coupons: consolidates electronic coupons onto a website where users are able to manage their account and later redeem their coupons.

The competition was presented in front of 4 judges:

• Randy Pilon – President & CEO BA, MBA, ICD. Virox Technologies Inc.
• Rick Spence – President, CanEntrepreneur Communications
• Shayan R. Mashatian – Founder & President, International Institute of Mobile Technologies

The fourth judge was the audience, which voted by paper ballot at the end of the competition.

The $25,000 along with the continued mentorship of the StartMeUp team will allow Noura Sakkijha to reach the highest standard of living for an entrepreneur, having her idea turn into a reality.

The 450 attendees along with the 32 plans submitted represent the growing spirit of entrepreneurship within Ryerson University and StartMeUp is at the heart of this change.

“Ryerson once again shows why it’s the best and brightest light in Canada when it comes to Entrepreneurship” - Sean Wise, Chair, Slaight BPC

Written By: Piotr Makuch | @pmakuch