Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, May 4, 2011 - Jeremy Gutsche, founder of Trend Hunter Inc. in Toronto, has been named the recipient of the Cisco Innovation Excellence Award. This special prize, which includes $10,000 worth of Cisco technology products and services, was announced at the Business Development Bank of Canada's 2011 Young Entrepreneur Awards (YEA) ceremony in Saskatoon. At the gala ceremony last night, Jeremy was also named BDC's Young Entrepreneur Award winner for Ontario.
Jeremy established Trend Hunter in 2008 to track hot trends in pop culture, fashion and technology. Inspired by the success of innovative sites such as Facebook and YouTube, Trend Hunter brings together a global network of 40,000 contributors and its website (TrendHunter.com) has been visited by millions of viewers. Trend Hunter collects data, hyperlinks it to research and identifies trends. The information is then compiled into reports used by large corporations to kick-start innovation. "Our level of automation makes it possible for Trend Hunter to produce ten times more data than our closest competitor, and for just one editor to manage the content," says Jeremy.
"We are thrilled to honour Jeremy for his outstanding achievements in business innovation," says Todd Madgett, Director, Small and Medium Enterprise, Cisco Canada. "Innovation is core to Cisco's business and is an important tool for all businesses looking to grow and excel in any market. Jeremy's ability to capture a global market, through his unique approach to business and innovative use of technology, demonstrates the powerful potential of innovation."
"All of our 2011 Young Entrepreneur Award winners are innovators, making it hard to choose a winner in this special category for innovative excellence," says Jean-Rene Halde, President and CEO at BDC. "But Jeremy stood out by building a culture of innovation on a sound business foundation. He also had the foresight and determination to start a virtual project that brings together people from all over the world and make it an international commercial success."
Sponsored by Cisco, the Innovation Excellence Award honours a YEA winner who has expanded his or her business through innovative practices, creativity, or originality in products and services.
