DirtMarket founders and Brock graduates Emma Kirwin (BA \u201921) and Asad Jalib (BBA \u201920) have been hard at work building their company from the ground up \u2014 and the tech industry has taken notice.<\/p>\n
After less than a year in business, DirtMarket<\/a> was recently ranked No. 8 in the Top 100 Tech Companies to Watch in Canada<\/a> by FoundersBeta<\/a>, an online global community of founders, innovators and changemakers.<\/p>\n The annual listing is released each January, highlighting up-and-coming startups from across the world in a variety of industries.<\/p>\n Kirwin, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History in October, is the only female CEO named in the 2022 list\u2019s Top 10.<\/p>\n DirtMarket made its debut in March 2021, winning Brock\u2019s annual Monster Pitch competition, hosted by student club Brock Innovation Group in partnership with Goodman Group Venture Development and the Goodman School of Business. Inspired by the hit show Dragon\u2019s Den<\/em>, the competition sees Brock students pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges, with the winners awarded a cash prize and in-kind support services to help them kick-start their business venture.<\/p>\n After winning Monster Pitch, DirtMarket was awarded a prize pack of cash and startup support valued at $11,000.<\/p>\n The idea for DirtMarket was sparked after dirt was illegally dumped on an investment property owned by Jalib\u2019s father, whose company suffered a financial blow having the unsolicited soil removed.<\/p>\n Jalib started researching the soil industry with Kirwin and found that there was more soil excavated each year than landfill space provided. They soon realized there was an opportunity to create an online platform dedicated to the exchange of soils from excavation projects to landfill sites.<\/p>\n \u201cFounding DirtMarket and growing it to its current size in the last year has been a very rewarding and challenging experience,\u201d Kirwin said. \u201cBuilding a marketplace is a fine line of balancing supply and demand, while also ensuring a great client experience.\u201d<\/p>\n