Shopify’s 4th “Build-A-Business Competition”: The Winners

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This is one interesting and productive competition created by Shopify. How does it work? During eight months, more than 21,000 entrepreneurs create new businesses. Together, this year, they managed to sell more than $120 million in products. There have been twice as many participants compared to last year’s competition, while the revenue generated tripled. So, these guys mean business. The winners get  $50,000 each, VIP trips, meetings with industry experts and a set of other perks.

But let me take a closer look at the 10 winners:

Fashion & Apparel: Bolder Band

It all started with an athletic headband that was always flying off the hair while this lady was working out. Thus, she came up with a product to solve the problem: a fabric that retains moisture and keeps its stretchiness. Husband helps with the marketing. Friends and family purchased the product. Sales began to snowball. Now, the couple works full-time on their product.

Photography & Art: Tatsup

Ex-motocross racer opens a tattoo parlour, but notices a gap in Australia’s tattoo supply industry. After market research, he realizes there is a need for an online business that would deliver supplies to tattoo studios. In the meantime, he sells his tattoo parlour to run Tatsup full-time. Already four employees. With plans to expand the business abroad.

Jewellery & Crafts: MVMT Watches

It fills a need in the watch market. The founders launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the money. They were hoping for $15K, but they’d earned over $220K from pre-order customers. Their store uses more than 15 apps from the Shopify.

Sports & Recreation: The WOD Life

WOD = Workout of the Day is a company that provides community support and products that facilitate the crossfit lifestyle. The company has 4 employees.

Food & Beverage: Orchard Flats

Cold-pressed juice company made all their sales using Shopify POS in their physical stores. The founders noticed most juices out there didn’t taste too good, so they developed their recipes and opened up a shop in L.A., last year. Since then, they've opened five more shops. Next step: add ecommerce to their Shopify site.

Health & Beauty: EZ Lite Cruiser

The two co-founders rebranded an existing product: a lightweight, low cost, foldable motorized wheelchair. They landed an exclusive marketing agreement for the product. On their website they incorporated videos for customers to get a feel for the product, and a considerable amount of Shopify apps.

Music: Output Sounds

Successful music composer creates REV – the world’s first collection of virtual instruments that can be played in reverse. In real-time! Since launch, REV has been used by famous musicians, film producers and the like.

Everything Else: Drones Etc.

Main idea: sell drones that can attach to cameras like GoPros. Biggest fans:  real estate agents who love using it to survey properties. It sound like a winner already. Six employees at the moment, hard working on developing accessories for the drones.

Electronics & Gadgets: Zoom Hash

It sells electronic cables and graphic processing units  for cryptocurrency mining hardware. Their products allow customers access to the very first ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) mines for alternate currencies like Litecoin and Dogecoin. The company has 3 employees in the U.S. and 10 globally.

Canadian winner: Polar Pen

It’s a fully magnetized pen that can be used as… pen, stylus, compass or toy. Founder launches successful Kickstarter campaign and raises $400K for 20K pens. Now, the product is sold in 90 countries.

That's about it, here's an infographic with all the info you need to know. Any favorites? You might want to take a look at our Shopify review as well.

Shopify and Huffington Post's build a business competition

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