NEW YORK, Dec. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OnDeck® (NYSE:
ONDK), the leader in online lending for small business, and
celebrated entrepreneur Barbara
Corcoran announced the three winners of the 2016 OnDeck Seal
of Approval Contest —B'more Organic®, Beau & Belle Littles™,
and Hardball Cider®— during a nationally televised broadcast of the
Rachael Ray Show yesterday. Chosen from over 1,000
submissions, each of the winning small businesses will receive a
$10,000 cash prize from OnDeck and a
one-on-one coaching session with Barbara
Corcoran designed to propel their businesses to the next
level.
The winners of the 2016 OnDeck Seal of Approval Contest are
three innovative small businesses from diverse
backgrounds:
- B'more Organic, an organic smoothie company founded
by Jennifer and Andrew Buerger,
promotes healthy living with a socially conscious mission.
Dedicated to local, family-owned sustainable farming, B'more
Organic smoothies use skyr, an Icelandic yogurt packed with
protein. One percent of their sales benefit Jodi's Climb for Hope,
a non-profit dedicated to funding the development of a new viable
treatment for breast cancer. The company's biggest challenge is
educating consumers about the brand while competing in the
increasingly popular health food space. With Barbara's advice and
the $10,000, B'more Organic hopes to
gain marketing techniques to help move more of their products off
the shelf.
- Beau & Belle Littles,
maker of reusable swim diapers, started out in 2015 in Loveland, CO. What began as a few
well-designed and adorable swim alternatives for Rachelle and Paul Baron's water-loving
six-month-old, Beau, quickly developed into a top-selling Amazon
product – the Nageuret Swim Diaper – which grossed $250,000 in the first year. The eco-friendly
diaper manufacturer also donates 5% of their profits to Compassion
International to help bring children and their parents out of
poverty worldwide. Leveraging Barbara's advice, the Baron family is
looking to expand their reach, develop new product lines, and
pinpoint the most cost-effective way to expand.
- Hardball Cider, driven by founder Geoffrey Dean's passion for baseball and real
hard cider, began three years ago in Mount Bethel, PA. The company's three
varieties of cider can now be found in the area's local restaurants
and, appropriately, in many of Pennsylvania's major and minor league baseball
stadiums. As an avid Shark Tank fan, Geoffrey hopes that
Barbara can offer guidance on how to plan for controlled expansion
across multiple market segments and to overcome his challenge of
scaling production.
For a full summary of the contest winners, including their video
submissions, visit the OnDeck blog at:
https://www.ondeck.com/blog/ondeck-seal-of-approval-winners/
"Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, and these
three winners exemplify the spirit of Main Street America," said
Barbara Corcoran. "I'm thrilled to
personally work with each of these entrepreneurs to not only help
solve their business challenges, but to also create sustainable
business strategies that will elevate their brands to the next
level."
To enter the contest, business owners had to explain how they
would use the $10,000 prize and
guidance from Barbara Corcoran to
grow their businesses. Winners were selected by a panel of judges,
including Barbara Corcoran, OnDeck
CEO Noah Breslow and David Bobbitt, President of The SCORE
Foundation®, a non-profit organization comprised of 11,000 business
executives who volunteer to provide free and confidential
advice.
The owners of the three winning small businesses will meet with
Barbara Corcoran to formulate a game
plan for their businesses on Thursday,
January 26, 2017 at OnDeck's corporate headquarters in
New York City.
About OnDeck
OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) is the leader
in online small business lending. Since 2007, the company has
powered Main Street's growth through advanced lending technology
and a constant dedication to customer service. OnDeck's proprietary
credit scoring system – the OnDeck Score® – leverages
advanced analytics, enabling OnDeck to make real-time lending
decisions and deliver capital to small businesses in as little as
24 hours. OnDeck offers business owners a complete financing
solution, including the online lending industry's widest range of
term loans and lines of credit. To date, the company has deployed
over $5 billion to more than 60,000 customers in 700
different industries across the United
States, Canada and Australia. OnDeck has an A+
rating with the Better Business Bureau and operates the educational
small business financing website BusinessLoans.com. For more
information, please visit www.ondeck.com.
Note: Barbara Corcoran is being
compensated for this endorsement.
OnDeck, the OnDeck logo, OnDeck Score and
OnDeck Marketplace are trademarks of On Deck
Capital, Inc.
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SOURCE OnDeck