Centennial community demonstrates vibrant entrepreneurial spirit at inaugural Demo Day

COIE’s first Demo Day provided a safe and supportive platform for Centennial student, staff and community entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures and business ideas

On November 25, 2025, COIE successfully delivered their Fall 2025 Demo Day: a flagship experiential learning and entrepreneurial showcase for Centennial students, alumni, faculty and staff, and community founders. The event, including 1-Minute and 3-Minute Pitch Competitions, an Entrepreneurs’ Open Mic, a Startup Showcase, People’s Choice voting, and awards, created an accessible yet rigorous platform for early-stage founders to validate ideas, strengthen pitching skills, and engage with ecosystem partners. The event directly advanced our goals in innovation, entrepreneurial development, applied learning, and industry engagement.

We welcomed ~60 audience members, featured 16 pitch presenters across the 1-Minute and 3-Minute categories, 12 startup showcase booths, five judges, and participation from a Venture Capital / Board of Governors representative and 2 ecosystem partners.

“Across the 26 presenters who shared their ideas, stories, and ventures, one theme rose clearly to the surface: people are drawing deeply from their lived experience to shape businesses that lift others up. Their motivations were personal, their insights hard-earned, and their aspirations grounded in making life better not only for themselves but for their communities.

What emerged was a portrait of a cohort that is empathetic, resilient, collaborative, and committed to building solutions informed by who they are and what they’ve overcome — the very essence of a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Mindset.”

– Patrick Robinson, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, COIE and Judging Lead at Demo Day

Strategic priorities alignment

Aligned with Centennial College’s 2025-30 Strategic Plan, COIE’s F25 Demo Day celebrated the college and community’s entrepreneurial spirit while advancing Centennial’s strategic priorities of empowerment and community:

• Empowerment (Priority #4): Demo Day provided a real-world platform for Centennial and community founders to publicly test and communicate their venture ideas in a safe and supportive space. For many students, this event represented their first experience transitioning from classroom learning to public-facing innovation, which made the event significant in strengthening their confidence and kickstarting their entrepreneurial journey.

• Community (Priority #5): Demo Day supported presenters’ early-stage validation through live feedback and audience engagement and offered a rich networking opportunity that helped foster connections between students, alumni, and local entrepreneurs that strengthened Centennial’s innovation ecosystem.

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Participation profiles

• 16 pitches were delivered across the 1-minute and 3-minute categories, with over 50% focused on B2B software. Ventures addressed real-world challenges in travel accessibility, healthcare, 3D printing, international students advising, and cybersecurity.

• 12 startup showcase booths were featured, with over 80% of ventures presenting functional MVPs across tech and no-tech models. Founders demonstrated strong product validation, user engagement, and early commercialization potential.

• Over 80% of pitches and booths were led by Centennial students and alumni, with two staff-led ventures reinforcing applied learning. The remaining 20% came from COIE community members engaged through SDG programs, the VR Studio, and COIE virtual events.

• The entire audience casted their votes to determine the People’s Choice Award winner of the 1-Minute Pitch Competition, while a panel of 6 judges determined the Judges’ Choice Award winner for the 3-Minute Pitch Competition. The judging panel consisted of:
  • Jonathan Hack, Dean, Centennial Innovates, Centennial College – Demo Day Executive Lead
  • Wenzi Ckurshumova, Associate Director, Research and Innovation – Demo Day Judge
  • Vicky Huang, Team Lead, COIE – Demo Day MC
  • Kailimi Li, Entrepreneurial Programs Lead, COIE – Demo Day Ask Me Anything / Event Flow Coordinator
  • Debbie Deer, Immersive Lab Coordinator, COIE – Demo Day Photographer/Videographer
  • Pat Robinson, Academic Coordinator / Entrepreneur-in-Residence, COIE – Demo Day Judging Team Lead

Our winners

Meet our participants!

• Anthony Wong, Centennial College student — Strategic Bridge; Hong Kong Professional Service Bridge (1-Minute Pitch Competition & 3-Minute Pitch Competition)
• Jashanjot Kaur, Centennial College student — Centennial Connect (1-Minute Pitch Competition)
• Kotiande Yomo, Centennial College student — PiliPili Spices (1-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Melissa Hannah, Centennial College student — AmpVision (1-Minute Pitch Competition)
• Amitabh Bhattacharjee, Centennial College student — Travel.ai (3-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Tasia Castell, Centennial College student — Bodies in Motion (3-Minute Pitch Competition)
• Shivam Kaushik, Centennial College student — Lumio (3-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Ishika Bhutani, Centennial College alum — Lumio (3-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Bridget Ofosu, Centennial College alum — Be Authentic Consultations: Business Babe (1-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Merlin George, Centennial College alum — Another Dream (3-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Claire Bussue, Centennial College alum — Sentryify Inc. (Startup Showcase)
• Olga Gagarina, Centennial College staff — NOC-to-WORK (3-Minute Pitch Competition)
• Bernard Sadehanbi, Centennial College staff — FusionART (Startup Showcase)
• Debbie Deer, Centennial College staff — Debbie Deer Productions & Orion Digital Inc. (Startup Showcase)
• Ayoola Gbade-Bello, University of Waterloo alum — Kintrace (1-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Cailyn Stewart, Georgian College alum — BabyDoll GameLabs (3-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Marie-Éve Bouchard, Georgian College alum — BabyDoll GameLabs (3-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)
• Robert Shuttleworth, Community member — 3D Scanning for Marine Application (1-Minute Pitch Competition)
• Foluwa Rewane, Centennial College alum — Customersify, PayTribes.com & Sentryify Inc. (1-Minute Pitch Competition & Startup Showcase)

(More details and photos about our presenters coming soon!)

A special thank-you to our COIE Student Ambassadors who helped out at the event: Rachel Davis, Christine Joy Maala, Joseph Hamuli Rais, Jashanjot Kaur, Sanakshika Sharma, Anthony Wong and Melissa Hannah.

More than just an event

Being COIE’s first Demo Day, this event also brought together members of the COIE community who have until then, only interacted with the team virtually. That made this in-person setting especially meaningful to many of the participants.

“Although the event ended on time, as many as ten attendees stayed for more than half an hour afterward, seeking guidance, sharing their stories, and asking how they could stay connected and supported. These conversations reinforced the value of COIE’s environment as a place of belonging, reflection, and empowerment.”

– Patrick Robinson, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, COIE and Judging Lead at Demo Day

These valued COIE changemakers include:

• Ruthie Thee Truth (@ruthietheetruth) – Author, Wheel of Life Workbook
  Although Ruthie has no formal affiliation with Centennial, Ruthie has attended dozens of COIE workshops over the past few years, and even travelled from New York City to participate in this event. She often describes COIE as her learning home, which speaks deeply to the environment we’ve created. At the Entrepreneurs’ Open Mic, Ruthie presented her Wheel of Life workbook, a reflective tool designed for “dads and grads” that helps people build emotional resilience through regular life check-ins. Through her startup, Ruthie guides community members in grounding practices and self-reflection. After the event, Ruthie shared that this venture began as part of her own coping and gratitude process after her father passed away — a healing practice that has since evolved into a resource for others.

• Melissa Hanna — Founder, Integrity VR, AmpVision, and Luna
  Melissa’s portfolio spans three ventures grounded in improving lives through thoughtful technology: Integrity VR, AmpVision, and Luna, an AR tool in architecture and design used to build net-zero homes. After presenting in the 1-Minute Pitch Competition and sharing about her ventures in the Entrepreneurs’ Open Mic, Melissa expressed that receiving a physical copy of Lean Startup from us three years ago was a turning point in her entrepreneurial clarity. She’s also joined our Student Ambassador team this semester.

• Bridget Ofosu — Founder, Be Authentic Consultations – Business Babe
  Bridget is a proud graduate of Centennial’s Helping Youth Pursuit Education (HYPE) program in 2016, which helped her find her career calling and enroll in the college’s Social Service Worker Program. Now, she leads Be Authentic Consultations and has founded the Business Babe community, which invites women entrepreneurs into safe, strategy-forward spaces to grow their confidence and business skills. She spoke with pride about the “house” she is building for women founders — a metaphor for belonging and empowerment.

• Vahid Zoormand — COIE Community Member
  Vahid’s presentation during the Entrepreneurs’ Open Mic was exceptionally prepared and deeply grounded. He shared three lessons that crystallize the Sustainable Entrepreneurial Mindset: 1) Start before you’re ready: No one feels fully prepared — clarity comes through movement, not waiting; 2) Test small, grow smart: Start with tiny experiments, learn fast, and scale only when the data supports it; and 3) Community makes the journey lighter: Your background is your strength, your story has value, and entrepreneurship shouldn’t be done alone. Wahit also brought his wife to meet us, saying that our encouragement — including suggesting he apply to speak at a conference — was a pivot point for him. His wife is now registered to attend Centennial next year. He followed up the next morning offering to join our mentor circle: a perfect example of COIE’s ecosystem in motion.

• Cailyn Stewart — Founder, BabyDoll GameLabs
  Cailyn participated in our VR Pitching Workshop this past summer as an aspiring student entrepreneur from Georgian College and received the Most Compelling Pitch Award. Since then, she further honed her entrepreneurial spirit, refined their concept, and carved out a niche audience dedicated to inclusive 3D character assets and game environments with her co-founder Marie-Éve Bouchard. Their venture, BabyDoll GameLabs, challenges long-standing norms in gaming by offering non-sexualized character designs featuring diverse body types, authentic cultural features, and modular outfits and animations. They are also building a supportive creator community through tutorials and asset packs that help other developers bring more inclusive worlds to life

Lasting impact

Through Demo Day, COIE delivered multi-level impact to our students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members.

Personal experiential learning impact:

• Demo Day provided a real-world platform for Centennial and community founders to publicly test and communicate their venture ideas in a safe and supportive space. For many students, this event represented their first experience transitioning from classroom learning to public-facing innovation, which made the event significant in strengthening their confidence and kickstarting their entrepreneurial journey.

• Founders strengthened public speaking, business storytelling, time-restricted pitching, and real-time idea validation skills, with clearer problem definitions, stronger value propositions, and improved market positioning.

Innovation community impact:

• Demo Day supported presenters’ early-stage validation through live feedback and audience engagement and offered a rich networking opportunity that helped foster connections between students, alumni, and local entrepreneurs that strengthened Centennial’s innovation ecosystem.

Industry & entrepreneurial pipeline impact:

• The event increased the visibility of Centennial student ventures across campus and the broader community, fostered mentor engagement and early-stage support, and highlighted startups addressing real-world challenges in areas such as healthcare, travel, international services, and cybersecurity.

• Demo Day generated follow-on interest in validation programs, incubation pathways, and potential industry collaboration, reinforcing COIE’s role as a hub connecting student innovation with real-world application and commercialization.

COIE looks forward to continuing to foster entrepreneurial mindsets and skills, resilience and confidence to support student venture development, build workforce-ready skills, and nurture Centennial College’s vibrant entrepreneurial community!