Aamjiwnaang member wins top prize in Bears’ Lair TV season
By Sam Laskaris
TORONTO – Though she had been selected as a contestant for a national reality business competition, Chelsee Pettit was debating whether to actually take part.
As it turned out, Pettit, a member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation, made a wise decision to compete on the second season of Bears’ Lair TV. That’s because she ended up being the grand prize winner of the show, which featured Indigenous entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges.
Pettit, who lives in Toronto, operates Aaniin Retail Inc., an online store that sells various Indigenous products. The Ojibwe word Aaniin translates to ‘Welcome’ in English.
Pettit was awarded $100,000 for being the grand prize winner of the show this season. She also previously received $10,000 for being the winning contestant during one of show’s previous episodes.
Bears’ Lair TV was screened on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network during the months of June and July. All of the episodes can now be streamed on APTN lumi.
Pettit had to travel to Vancouver to film episodes of the show.
“It was like the busiest time of my life,” she said. “I almost didn’t go several times that week. I kept going back and forth. So, I wasn’t really thinking about the moment. I was thinking I have so many things to do. I have to memorize a pitch. I have to go up and be on TV now. I had so much to do.”
Pettit was told that 18,000 people had inquired about participating on the show this season and that about 9,000 applications were sent in.
From there, 18 contestants were chosen to take part.
“Just to get into the final episode was way beyond all my expectations,” Pettit said. “But to win it was just unbelievable. It was a really crazy experience.”
The judges on the show were rather impressed with Pettit’s company.
“I think what they really liked about my business was that not only is it helping my business as an Indigenous entrepreneur,” she said. “My brand focusses on Indigenous languages and visibility for Indigenous people 365 days a year through our apparel brand. But because I am also a retailer, I am able to help so many other Indigenous businesses as well. I think that’s what really won them over.”
After being the winning contestant in one episode, Pettit advanced to the show’s semi-final stage, which featured six entrants, in another episode. And then she qualified for the season finale, which consisted of four competitors.
“You can take feedback and alter the pitches,” Pettit said. “But I was very informative with my pitch so I didn’t really change too much of mine. I just kept doing it over and over, which was great because I feel I got better and better each time that I did it.”
Pettit grew up in Sarnia, which is adjacent to her First Nation. She has lived in Toronto since December of 2020. The following June, she came up with her business idea. She managed Aaniin Retail via a Toronto store for about two years. And then she operated the business through a pop-up store in Mississauga last November through December.
Aaniin Retail is now exclusively online.
“My goal now is to basically scale my e-commerce platform to $1 million in sales and then start to look at coming back to brick and mortar after that happens,” Pettit said.
Bears’ Lair TV is similar to the popular Canadian TV show Dragons’ Den, which sees entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of wealthy Canadians, who decide whether to buy into their company.
“Instead of giving up equity to the business, it was a cash prize,” Pettit said. “The show gets sponsors in order to give out the large sum of money. I took $110,000 home which was amazing… And I didn’t have to give up any equity to my business. So, as an Indigenous business owner, it’s very important for me to keep my company 100 per cent Indigenous-owned, and the winnings from the show allows me to do that for a lot longer.”