'Rooting for one another': Alberta entrepreneurs vying for $110K on APTN's Bear's Lair

Two Indigenous business women who are appearing on APTN's new competition show Bear's Lair say they won just by being surrounded by so many inspiring people.

The show, filmed in Vancouver, offers three competitors a prize of $10,000 per episode. Winners then go on to compete for an additional $100,000 grand prize.

All of the main judges, called "bears," are Indigenous business leaders and seven of 18 competitors live in Alberta.

"Everybody was rooting for one another," recalled Mallory Yawnghwe. "I also feel like I did win, just being there and being able to build relationships."

She runs Indigenous Box in Edmonton. Her episode aired on Sunday. She didn't win a prize, but feels great about the experience anyway.

"I was pretty emotional, as you can tell in the first episode," she told CTV News Edmonton.

"I think it's really powerful to see something that was made for us, space that was created for Indigenous entrepreneurs, in a way that brought Indigenous values to modern commerce."

Yawnghwe started her home-based, curated-subscription business in 2021 and moved into a bigger space near the Edmonton International Airport earlier this year.

Friends encouraged her to sign up for Bear's Lair after seeing ads online. She submitted a video application at the last minute and was glad she did. The show is not just awarding money but "creating community," Yawnghwe believes.

Matricia Bauer, who owns two businesses in Jasper, had a similar experience.

"I was rooting for my competitors as much as I was rooting for myself," Bauer said with a big smile in an interview with CTV News Edmonton.

Bauer runs Warrior Women Inc., which offers Indigenous-led tours in the national park, and she recently launched IndigenousBitters.ca.

Being around other Indigenous entrepreneurs, some of whom she said are millionaires, fuelled a sense of community and belonging for Bauer.

"(The people involved with the show) are not just making their lives better, they're making their communities better and the people around them. So it was really exciting to be on a set that was entirely Indigenous," she explained.

Bauer's episode will air on Sept. 25, so she's not allowed to say what happened.

Bear's Lair airs Sundays on APTN from Sept. 11 until Oct. 16.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson