Barbara Corcoran Unveils The Winners Of Annual OnDeck Seal Of Approval Contest

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