Colin Davison operates in stealth mode. Jodi Sinden emerged alive from the Dragon's Den.

Both are aspiring young Canadian entrepreneurs who are turning heads, winning awards and showing Canada's business community what its younger generation has to offer.

Davison, recently named the National Best Business Award winner by the Toronto-based Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF), is well on his way to taking his Calgary-based Stealth Acoustical & Emission Control Inc. to a $10-million company by March 2009 - and his business, which designs and engineers acoustic emissions services primarily for power generation and gas compressions, is just two years old.

A national charity, the CYBF provides young Canadians with startup financing of up to $15,000, mentoring and resources to create their own business. Many of the candidates, ages 18-34, have a great business idea but are unable to access funds through other traditional sources.

Photo by She Was Stunning
Stealth Acoustical and Emission Control Inc. founder Colin Davison made the most of the assistance he received from the CYBF.

"It's a very niche market; there are various acoustical consulting firms and various manufacturers," says Davison, who was turned down by several banks before going to the CYBF. The foundation's $15,000 loan enabled Stealth Acoustical to buy its first piece of equipment.

Sinden, whose Homebox filing system brings a fresh look to eliminating clutter, snagged an initial award at last year's National Stationery Show in New York as the best new desk accessories product. She also successfully caught the attention of the business moguls on the CBC-TV reality show, The Dragon's Den, where five business leaders decide whether they'll put their own money behind an aspiring entrepreneur's product.

This year, her Toronto-based Sinden Home company went on to win with the CYBF Ontario Best Business Award.

Sinden says she first joined a Toronto business incubator and developed multiple versions of her Homebox prototype before she approached the CYBF. "I wanted to borrow money to launch the product," says Sinden. "What that entailed was ordering initial inventory, paying for a tradeshow plus all the promotional materials for the tradeshow."

Her filing system, an embossed faux-leather box that retails for $30, is filled with nine pre-printed storage folders to organize everything from career and education to health and finances.

The loan enabled her to go to the National Stationery Show in New York and the rest, as she says, is history.

"That started a snowball of sales in Canada and the U.S. First, it was picked up by small retailers, then the TV shopping networks and now the chains," says Sinden.

Both Davison and Sinden credit the CYBF, whose 2008 awards were handed out earlier this year, for making their dreams come true.

Since its founding in 1996, CYBF has invested in more than 2,400 young entrepreneurs, whose businesses have generated more than $267 million in sales revenue, $63 million in tax revenue and created more than 13,000 new jobs.

"Really, the CYBF and the BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada) were the only two financial institutions that came to the plate and believed in us," says Davison, whose company now employs 40 people with a small manufacturing plant in Winnipeg and another manufacturing operation, as well as a sales office, in Denver, Colo.

Photo by Forrester Fotographic
Jodi Sinden’s Homebox filing system has been a big hit since her Sinden Home company product won honours in New York.

"Two years ago we started with two people," he adds. "Our plans are to be a $20-million company in five years and that would take us to between 75 and 100 staff members."

But it wasn't just the $15,000 loan - or the CYBF national award - that made Stealth Acoustical the $5-million operation it is today.

It was the mentorship that was instrumental in helping Davison to grow his company.

"Having a mentor has been absolutely invaluable. That's been a critical difference," says Davison, pointing to the knowledge he received on how to grow a company.

CYBF's Ontario director Shelley Marinigh says every person approved for startup financing is assigned a qualified business mentor, who works one-on-one with the young entrepreneur for a minimum of four hours every month for the first two years of operation.

"These mentors are hand-matched to the young entrepreneur, matching the skillsets of the mentor to the youth who require those specific skillsets the mentor has," she says.

Sinden says the mentorship, in particular, provided a boost to her own business.

"Besides the loan - which itself was good as it's very difficult to get financing without a long history and my business was new - the value from the CYBF has been the mentor," she says.

"It's really helpful in a small business to have somebody like that, with business experience, to share their knowledge with me."

Stealth Acoustical was also named as the 2008 Alberta Best Business winner. But as the national winner, Davison's company was awarded $20,000 to expand the business.

He says the honour hasn't changed the way he does business - he still invests 12 to 13 hours a day on his business and five to six additional hours on weekends.

And he allows that the day of the CYBF award was the first full day he had off in five weeks.

Other 2008 CYBF award winners are:

* CYBF British Columbia Best Business Award Robert Kenfield, Vancouver; DreamLife Design Inc. (Visualization tools for architectural design and new property developments.)

* CYBF Central Prairies Best Business Award Jason Moniz, Winnipeg; South Sherbrook Therapy (Specializing in the prevention and care of musculo-skeletal injuries and disorders.)

* CYBF Québec Best Business Award Jean-François Veilleux, Quebec; Nutra-Fruit Inc. (Makes and distributes functional foods made mainly from cranberries.)

* CYBF Atlantic Best Business Award Bang and Kim Dao, Halifax; Talay Thai Restaurant Ltd.

Meanwhile, another young Canadian entrepreneur is capitalizing on people's love for sweets.

Joseph Moncada, a student in the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, owns and operates Sweet Tooth Candy Emporium, a network of stores and kiosks offering rare, retro and imported sweets from around the world.

Named the 2008 National Student Entrepreneur Champion by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) Inc., Moncada will move on to represent Canada at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards to be held in Chicago this fall.

ACE is a national charitable not-for-profit organization that works in partnership with business and higher education.

Sweet Tooth Candy Emporium, which started as a summer project through the Ontario Government Summer Company Program, now employs more than 25 people and has grown to include three stores.

Moncada wins a cash prize of $10,000 and was chosen from the six regional champions.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)