Textured hair salon L&M Hair Company took home the top prize at a business competition focused on women-owned businesses.
Melody Brown, owner of L&M Hair Company was selected for the $20,000 top prize that will go toward growing her business. The salon, which has multiple locations, specializes in services for textured hair and offers mentorship and coaching to other practitioners to start their careers.
The competition was held Nov. 16 at Providence Park, where 10 finalists made their pitch to a panel of five judges. More than 200 businesses submitted applications and the finalists were picked to present four-minute pitches.
“We congratulate Melody and her team at L&M Hair Company on winning the grand prize. Their pitch was inspiring, and we are so glad to help them grow and expand,” said Rachael Sampson, national director of KeyBank’s Key4Women program. “Women business owners and leaders positively impact our economy and communities in powerful ways every day, which is evident based on the strength and diversity of the applications we received.”
The competition was part of the Key4Women program from the Ohio-based bank. This was the first time the event has been held in Oregon. It has been held in Seattle and Cleveland in the past.
Along with KeyBank, the event was held in partnership with Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon, a nonprofit that works with entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses, and the Portland Thorns. Half of the participating companies were established businesses, and the other half were startups.
Runners-up received $8,000 each and were: Ventura Home Loans LLC, a home mortgage company; and Prelude LLC, an eating disorder treatment and recover community.
The remaining finalists were:
- Amza Superfoods, a Tibetan snacks and breakfast food company.
- Blue Elderberry Farm, a nonprofit farm that offers workforce development projects to promote environmental restoration economy and careers in agriculture and horticulture to Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
- Crisp NW, a chain of fast casual salad restaurants.
- El Paraiso 100% Natural, is within M&M Marketplace and sells fruit cups and fruit and vegetable juices.
- Yuri’s Certified Childcare, a Gresham child care center.
- Sauvie Shrubs, makes a line of fermented drinking vinegar concentrates.
- Breakaway BookKeeping and Advising, which offers accounting, controller and fractional CFO services.
You can watch a recorded live stream of the event on the MESO website.
