YED Launch Book 2014

igniting innovation: it starts with an

idea

Spring 2014 Session Venture Booklet

CONTENTS Project Director Introduction 3 Entrepreneurs and Ventures 5 Executive Team 32 Subject Matter Experts 33 Partners 34

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Project Director introduction The York Entrepreneurship Development Institute (YEDI) is proud to welcome you to our Venture Fair.

It all starts with an idea. Over the past 12 weeks, our entrepreneurs have focused their missions, analyzed the competitive landscapes surrounding their ideas, tested their offerings through prototyping, and devised sustainable business plans. As we conclude the Spring 2014 journey at YEDI, our entrepreneurs are prepared to take the necessary and exciting next steps toward the growth of their start-up ventures and not-for-profit organizations.

Along the way, the entrepreneurs have been encouraged and guided through the commitment and expertise of their program advisors, instructors, and mentors, and we thank them for their dedication and invaluable contribution.

It has been my great pleasure during the past three months to support our diverse group of innovators and observe as they foster camaraderie with their peers. I am impressed with the entrepreneurs’ drive to develop their original visions into the showcase of ventures you will become acquainted with today.

The YEDI Team looks forward to the meaningful impact these entrepreneurs will bring to the communities of Toronto and York Region, and the Canadian economy at large.

I wish you a captivating and inspiring afternoon.

Maria Konikov Project Director, YEDI Spring 2014

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entrepreneurs and ventures 5

Bernard Bourret ThumbszUp!

Seed Stage

About the Venture: Thumbszup! offers an affordable proof of market demand to filmmakers using an online platform where films are uploaded to gauge audience feedback prior to launch. Results allow filmmakers to tweak their films to better reach their audiences and reviewers receive rewards for their efforts. Social media awareness is generated via our partners’ social media platforms and our database of subscribers. Thumbszup! connects films with their target audiences.

• Sector: Market Research/Entertainment Inspiration: Over 98% of all independent films produced fail to break-even. The statistics are alarming but reversible. What if independent filmmakers had access to market research tools used by studios and large companies? Films would better reach their audiences and filmmakers would sell their films at the right price. Industry stakeholders have confirmed the need to have an affordable online market research platform. This is what Thumbszup! is all about: Providing independent filmmakers the opportunity to compete on a more level playing field!

Venture Accomplishments: Thus far, Thumbszup! has begun software development.

www.thumbszup.com bernard@thumbszup.com

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Upcoming Milestones: Complete software development; Establishment of strategic industry alliances for cross promotion and reward partners.

Presentation Notes

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Hanna Chukistrina

Early Stage

VG Automation About the Venture: VG Automation is a robotic automation tool which enables manufacturers to increase their production capabilities without incurring increased costs.

• Sector: Production Automation, Manufacturing

Inspiration: To help small scale manufacturers realize greater profits without the burden of increased costs.

Venture Accomplishments: VG Automation is presently in the final stages of prototype development.

Upcoming Milestones: Completion of prototype development and market testing.

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Presentation Notes

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Raelene Gannon Tea and All Its Splendour

• Sector: Beverage, Health & Education Tea and all its Splendour @teasplendour teaandallitssplendour

Growth Stage

About the Venture: Tea and All Its Splendour provides premium loose leaf tea, customized packaging and tea blends, tea server training and tea accessories for restaurants, cafes and retail environments. After 25+ years of retail experience and 3 years of specific development and activity of the tea wholesale business, over 50 clients have joined our business. Tea and All Its Splendour seeks investment for growth: for a flagship showroom and tea education centre, to protect IP, equipment and systems to increase productivity, strengthen online presence and to roll out the tea ritual training and development.

Inspiration: I am inspired by the tea experience and how it impacts people’s lives in a positive, healthful way.

Venture Accomplishments: 50 wholesale customers who order on an ongoing basis. Founder, Raelene Gannon has authored a cookbook on cooking with tea.

Upcoming Milestones: Tea and All Its Splendour is working towards opening a tea showroom and education centre in September, 2014.

www.teaandallitssplendour.com raelene@teaandallitssplendour.com 10

Presentation Notes

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Sergei Gorlovetsky ADHD Assist

Seed Stage

About the Venture: 10% of children in North America are diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Presently, a host of drug and drug-free treatments are available, however tracking the efficiency of a treatment is subjective and leaves much room for interpretation. There is a clear need for a computerized monitoring solution which will be both accessible and affordable for every child diagnosed with ADHD.

• Sector: Education, Health & Wellness, Not-for-profit

Inspiration: My child was diagnosed with ADHD and I was surprised by the approach used to measure the effectiveness of prescribed treatments which are mostly based on subjective surveys . My goal is to make a computerized ADHD testing tool that is both affordable and accessible, in-turn providing insight into a variety of alternative approaches to treat ADHD symptoms.

Venture Accomplishments: ADHD Assist has conducted extensive market research and established a viable business model. The venture team has also completed the development of its first prototype.

sergei.gorlovetsky@gmail.com 12

Upcoming Milestones: The team will be conducting prototype testing to receive scientific validation and plans to extend the service to both web and mobile platforms. Along with establishing strategic partnerships with ADHD clinics.

Presentation Notes

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Gil Katz ComicReply

Early Stage

About the Venture: Fans love to remix branded content! With social co-creation as the most successful tactic in advertising today, ComicReply presents a platform for marketers to easily launch and manage creative contests. The platform enables fans to create ‘fan-art’ by remixing branded elements with personal expressions and sharing their votes.

• Co founder: Eyal Katz • Sector: Digital Marketing Giant Step Inc. @ComicReply comicreply

www.comicreply.com info@comicreply.com 14

Inspiration: The creation of our Gogo toy contest which got over a million fan posts.

Venture Accomplishments: ComicReply had received funding from the Canada Media Fund and OMDC Export Fund. The venture was also a finalist in the nextMEDIA competition and has already secured early adopters.

Upcoming Milestones: ComicReply is planning to bring the platform to small-medium enterprises while securing partnerships with large well known brands and education centre in September, 2014.

Presentation Notes

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Sergey Kotylev Luma Strike

Early Stage

About the Venture: Toronto- based innovative integrator of Electroluminescent (EL) technology and low-energy lighting solutions. Luma Strike designs, manufactures and sells EL displays, which are illuminated paper-thin sheets printed on specialized translucent media. Luma Strike is able to control precisely which areas of the EL sheet to illuminate and when. The illumination can vary from static lighting or occasional flickering to complex animation patterns creating dynamics and motion.

• Co founder: Nick Shin • Sector: Clean Tech/Alternative Lighting luma-strike-inc. @lumastrike

Inspiration: Eye-catching EL media displays which attract greater audience attention than conventional advertising.

Venture Accomplishments: Luma Strike has developed design, manufacturing and R&D facilities. Additionally, the venture has secured early-adopter clients.

Upcoming Milestones: Luma Strike is working on licensing IP for electronic devices and software. Along with, establishing partnerships with design, marketing and ad firms.

www.lumastrike.com info@lumastrike.com 16

Presentation Notes

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Maxim Kriukov Alantex

Growth Stage

About the Venture: ALANTEX Managed Cloud Services (AMCS) provides data sovereignty to protect Canadian organizational data from overseas legislation and offers scalable, reliable and unique Hybrid Cloud Datacenter Solution. ALANTEX uses the same design principles and technologies that power IT innovators such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. It eliminates the need for capital and reduces operational expenses by offloading cloud operation to AMCS.

• Co founder: Vladimir Kryukov • Sector: IT, Manged Cloud Services, Consulting alantex-corp @ALANTEX1 alatenxcorp

Inspiration: We draw our inspiration from the projected market spend of $241 billion by 2020.

Venture Accomplishments: ALANTEX has developed partnerships with key vendors including: Cisco, Microsoft and Nutanix. Furthermore, the venture was a finalist in the 2012 WPC (Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference) Upcoming Milestones: ALANTEX is working on completing development and launch of an AMCS hosting environment along with the growth of its sales team.

www.alantexcorp.com maxk@alantexcorp.com 18

Presentation Notes

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Veronika Ressin Old Cricket’s Tales Children’s Theatre

Seed Stage

About the Venture: We teach to learn, we learn to love and we create to inspire. The Old Cricket’s Tales Children’s Theatre is dedicated to help parents instil a system of moral values in their children through tales from across the World.

• Sector: Not-for-profit, Arts & Culture @OldCricketsTales

Inspiration: Immigration taught me to love my differences. I want to help Canadian children find and love theirs.

Venture Accomplishments: Old Cricket’s Tales has conducted market testing and established a viable business model.

Upcoming Milestones: Old Cricket’s Tales is working on testing a prototype, securing partnerships with existing theatres as well as securing funding.

veronika@oldcricketstales.org

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Presentation Notes

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Vian Sharef DERMEDIX BEAUTY CLUB

Growth Stage

About the Venture: Dermedix Beauty Club, a place where we help clients look, feel & live better. An exclusive membership for new & 1200 existing clients allows them to have access to cutting-edge information on anti-aging techniques along with information on beauty products, supplements, diet and nutrition, mental health and fitness. Dermedix has been providing the latest in laser technologies combined with medical grade skincare to its clients for the past four years. Dermedix Beauty club is seeking investment for expansion.

• Sector: Health & Beauty Vian Sharef @vsharef Dermedix

Inspiration: A passion and desire to make people feel and look great from the inside out.

Venture Accomplishments: Over its 3 years in operation, DERMEDIX has built a loyal clientele base and implemented revolutionary treatments.

Upcoming Milestones: DERMEDIX is working towards launching the BEAUTY CLUB, a value added paid membership service where members receive exclusive benefits and rewards.

www.dermedix.ca vian@dermedix.ca 22

Presentation Notes

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Dennis Sherbakov LD Superior Homes

Early Stage

About the Venture: LD Superior Homes produces and sells innovative proprietary prefabricated modular homes – “Sectional Pre-Fabricated Homes” (“SPH”), delivered in standard shipping containers. SPHs are steel-framed; are being delivered to the construction sites with 95% readiness and assembled in only 2 weeks. With immense design flexibility, and a short lead time of 69-72 days from order to completion, LD Superior Homes present significant cost savings and efficiency when compared to on-site built homes.

• Co-Founder: Lev Bilum • Sector: Construction LD Superior homes

Inspiration: After building 2 homes in Canada and seeing how inefficient the process was, we decided to create a cheaper, faster and superior quality alternative.

Venture Accomplishments: LD Superior Homes completed a pilot project in Ontario: a 3,200 sq. ft. detached house built in 2012; with a real cost of $64/sf.

www.ldsuperiorhomes.com dennis.sherbakov@ldsuperiorhomes.com

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Upcoming Milestones: LD Superior homes is looking to complete factory certification to CSA A277 and sell 10 additional homes in the next 6 months.

Presentation Notes

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Matis Stebben The Original Mini Dairy

Seed Stage

About the Venture: The Original Mini Dairy is an all-inclusive manufacturing plant that fits into a shipping container. All equipment will be included to allow the farmer to use his fluid milk manufacturing it into cheese or yogurt and packaging it for distribution. This will enable dairy farmers to bring additional income while raising the value of their current business. In addition to the Prefab Mini Dairy, a private label product will be introduced.

• Sector: Manufacturing, Agriculture

Inspiration: I wanted to achieve a local, fresher and better quality product while supporting our local farmers.

Venture Accomplishments: The Original Mini Dairy has designed a prefab manufacturing plant as well as partnered with a distribution company and leasing company.

Upcoming Milestones: The Original Mini Dairy is working on developing and launching a prototype.

matis.stebben@gmail.com

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Presentation Notes

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Zohar Tauber Authorated

Seed Stage

About the Venture: Authorated is a cloud-based crowd-source document authoring platform designed to supersede Wikis, Forums, Blogs and other discussion systems. All these systems have one goal: create a valued document. Authorated will achieve that goal far better than existing systems as it is a unified platform for all posting needs. Readers will quickly find relevant, concise and trustworthy results – not spam – when searching the web, while authors will take pride in their contributions.

• Sector: Internet Technology

Inspiration: After building many wikis and blogs I discovered that social authorship will save valuable time while delivering exceptional results.

Venture Accomplishments: Deployment of a custom forum extension for MediaWiki (Wikipedia engine) on several websites.

www.authorated.com tauber@objectcoded.com

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Upcoming Milestones: Authorated is working on the development and launch of a prototype as well as adding a rating functionality.

Presentation Notes

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Rebecca Wahab Kindli

Seed Stage

About the Venture: Kindli is the only program that lets you combine your loyalty program points and redeem them for health, beauty and wellness rewards. It’s time to get the most out of your rewards programs and be kind to yourself.

• Co-Founder: Leo Romero • Sector: Loyalty Marketing, Health and Wellness @livekindli livekindli

www.livekindli.com rebecca@livekindli.com 30

Inspiration: I was inspired to make health and wellness more financially accessible to everyone. One day I opened my wallet and saw it was filled with loyalty cards and that’s when it came to me. There’s actually a way to access “free” money and use it towards taking better care of yourself.

Upcoming Milestones: The Kindli team is currently working on completion of the website platform, marketing and raising awareness of the program for a projected launch in 2015. The team is also presently working on securing funding for the venture.

Presentation Notes

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EXECUTIVE TEAM The Executive Team of the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute is the “backbone� of the incubator sessions, setting the vision and direction of the program and working closely with our respected partners and Project Director to ensure its smooth execution. The Executive Team members provide guidance and counsel to YEDI entrepreneurs, and are committed to their success.

2014 Executive Team: Marat Ressin, PhD President, YEDI

Oleg Amurjuev, PhD Program Advisor, YEDI

Richard Phillips Program Advisor, YEDI

The Spring 2014 Session would not be possible without the invaluable collaboration of: Dr. Alan Middleton, Executive Director, Schulich Executive Education Centre Dr. Alina Pekarsky, Senior Account Executive, Schulich Executive Education Centre Mr. Glan Guanqi Chen, Associate Director, Schulich Executive Education Centre Ms. Alice Fang, Program Assistant, Schulich Executive Education Centre Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman, Director at Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario Mr Vladimir Kojemiako, Senior Account Manager, Business Development Bank of Canada 32

Subject Matter Experts At the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute, a mentor is a highly regarded subject matter expert who has seasoned experience in a particular industry and desires to give back to the community by volunteering to help budding entrepreneurs. As veterans of their fields, subject matter experts provide valuable insight to YEDI entrepreneurs in both personal and professional development.

Spring 2014 Session Mentors: Jason Agouris, President, iTristan Media Group Inc. Nadia Baboo, Owner, Image Factor Michael Fin, Co-Founder & CTO, MIT Consulting Dov Rivkind, Owner and COO, Axxoo Internet Marketing Inc.

Vadim Sloutsky, Co-Founder, ViaNetTV Ken Smith, VP Operations, Pearl Kim Company Ltd. Suzanne Tyson, Founder, HigherEd Points Igor Wilderman, Founder, Wilderman Medical and Cosmetic Clinics

We would like to express deep gratitude to all YEDI mentors at large for their continuous work and dedication to entrepreneurial success.

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Our partners The York Entrepreneurship Development Institute would like to express deep gratitude to our partners for their hard work, support and collaboration in the execution of the Spring 2014 Session.

PRESENTENSE GROUP

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The York Entrepreneurship Development Institute is a registered charitable institute (#81209 5735 RR0001) with a mandate to provide instruction on business and entrepreneurship for new and innovative small businesses and not-for-profit organizations, to help them become productive pillars in Canadian society.

@YEDInstitute | facebook.com/YEDInstitute | info@yedinstitute.org | 647-919-YEDI (9334)

www.yedinstitute.org