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Smart & Biggar celebrates self-funded entrepreneurs in the Ottawa region as presenting sponsor of the Bootstrap Awards for 4th year in a row

The Bootstrap Awards are back in 2020 to celebrate the Ottawa region’s start-up movers and shakers and pay tribute to a legacy of self-funded entrepreneurs deserving of recognition. Smart & Biggar continues its role, for the fourth consecutive year, as presenting sponsor of the awards, in partnership with The Ottawa Network.

“As Canada’s leading law firm for intellectual property law, Smart & Biggar supports Canadian innovators and entrepreneurs”, says Jamie-Lynn Kraft, senior associate in the firm’s Ottawa office and co-host and co-organizer of the annual Bootstrap Awards. “We actively encourage the development of new ideas and innovation in the local Ottawa business community and celebrate the tenacity required to bring those ideas to life as a successful commercial enterprise.”

The Bootstrap Awards recognize the achievements of self-funded start-ups and founders who embody the entrepreneur lifestyle in early stage companies in all industries, both for-profit and not-for-profit, and across a range of distinct criteria-based categories.

Each winner is an entrepreneur from Eastern Ontario or Western Quebec who has been in business for less than seven years without having received more than $500,000 in outside funding.

The Bootstrap Awards ceremony is hosted by Tech Tuesday at The Marshes Golf Club (320 Terry Fox Drive, Ottawa) on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, 6:30 PM.

Meet the 2020 Bootstrap Award winners:

Green Award: Backcountry Wok 

Founder: Melanie Ang

Backcountry Wok Inc. creates dried Asian-inspired vegan meals in 100% compostable packaging. The Backcountry Wok line is made for outdoor adventures and the Wok Fresh line for the office, school and travel. Just add hot water to the heat-resistant pouch, wait 20 minutes and it’s ready to enjoy! After only one year of incorporation, Backcountry Wok meals are available online, at third party online and brick-and-mortar retailers, at events, at outdoor stores, at universities, and in offices across Canada.

Innovation Award: Tungsten Collaborative

Founders: Mike Brown, William Dicke and Dave McMullin 

Tungsten Collaborative is a physical product design firm based in Ottawa. Their collaborative approach to design ensures successful results for clients of all sizes. Paying close attention to how form and function intertwine, Tungsten Collaborative always look at the bigger picture to ensure a new product fits successfully into a client’s brand ecosystem. Self-funded, profitable, and growing strong, Tungsten supports innovators and designers in the Ottawa area and beyond to prototype, optimize, and bring their products to market. 

SAAS Award: Rillea Technologies

Founders: Lisa Hallsworth and Rob Hallsworth

Rillea Technologies specializes in helping organizations clearly define and mitigate the chemical related risk of occupational disease and damage to the environment using digital technology to alert organizations to exposure risks to people and the planet. Workplace hazardous chemicals are a liability for employers everywhere due to the cost of occupational disease and environmental damage. Rillea Technologies’ SDS RiskAssist can effectively assess, mitigate and clearly communicate chemical hazards, no matter how complex the chemical inventory. Rillea Technologies provides chemical inventory audits, software onboarding, software integration and chemical risk management, that guides employers to take action to mitigate their risk and ensure workers have the right knowledge to prevent harm.

Marketing Award: Hit Point Press

Founder: Ricardo Evangelho

Hit Point Press produces tabletop and roleplaying game accessories, with a primary focus on supporting accessories for Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. These products allow people to personalize and customize their games or help reduce clutter. Additionally, these products provide new ways to play that had not been professionally produced. In the niche market of role-playing game products, Hit Point Press has bootstrapped and grown to occupy a 6,903 square foot warehouse and impressive sales growth over the last three years. Hit Point Press has used a combination of direct-to-consumer, Kickstarter, and other smart and strategic creative marketing strategies to promote their unique and popular role-playing game products. 

Bootstrap Capital Award: Space Strategies Consulting

Founders: Andre Dupuis, Maria Rey and Anne-Marie Dupuis

As innovators, Space Strategies Consulting  brings forward creative solutions and disruptive capabilities to meet the most pressing civil, commercial and national security challenges in the air and space domains. With an unparalleled knowledge of the key civil and military organizations that promote and regulate these domains, they excel at creating multi-disciplinary teams to tackle complex problems and deliver unique solutions for today's urgent global challenges. Space Strategies Consulting have grown by re-investing its profits back into the organization. Through consulting, R&D, IP creation/co-creation and development of technology and hardware, SSCL’s mission is to make a positive and meaningful impact on our lives and advancements in the space domain.

Disruptor Award: Lightship Security, Inc.

Founders: Jason Lawlor, Brad Proffitt, Lachlan Turner and Greg Mclearn 

Lachlan Turner Lightship Security is a fast-growing cyber security company that specializes in IT security standards-based test automation and product certification. They are one of only three accredited IT security test labs in the country and the only one that is independently owned. Their proprietary test automation platform, Greenlight, is disrupting the product certification industry and helping Fortune 500 clients achieve better faster certification outcomes. Since starting in 2015 Lightship has grown from 4 people to 20+ with offices in Ottawa, Vancouver, and Austin, Texas.

Community Impact Award: Sprig Learning 

Founders: Jarrett Laughlin and Faud Khan

Sprig Learning is an education technology company that harnesses holistic assessment and instruction to provide every student with access to the tools they need to build a foundation for lifelong learning. Sprig's programs support teachers and parents by creating personalized learning pathways for students that accelerate literacy and numeracy outcomes in the early years. Most of Sprig Learning’s current clients are First Nation schools across Canada. For these clients, in addition to improving literacy skills, the Sprig Language program has supported the revitalization and reclamation of 11 Indigenous languages across six provinces in Canada.

Founder of the Year: Meta Innovation Technologies

Founder: Dr. Ellie Ardakani 

Meta is a Canadian Energy-Tech company and developer of the first simulation-based technical training platform to power Geoscientists and Subsurface Engineers with on-the-job intuitive learning, shaping the future of professional development in Energy. In addition, Meta offers an array of AI Augmented Analytics products to Oil and Gas Exploration and Production companies. Meta has contributed to academic knowledge in the geoscience industry with multiple peer reviewed publications pushing forward what can be achieved from geophysical datasets and applied this knowledge in an oversight service in the microseismic industry.

The Bootstrap Awards are presented by Smart & Biggar and powered by The Ottawa Network.

Smart & Biggar is Canada’s leading Intellectual Property law firm. We work with international and Canadian companies to develop IP protection strategies that maximize the commercial value of IP and increase return on innovation. In the Ottawa region, Smart & Biggar is committed to supporting emerging technology and innovation, and the work of start-up entrepreneurs and inventors.