Nik Rajkovic/Miranda Richardson / news@whmi.com

A holistic maternal wellness collaborative in Brighton called Whole Mama Michigan took home the top prize of $5,000 in the Lake Trust Foundation's first-ever shark tank-style entrepreneur pitch competition Wednesday night.

"These are businesses that are kind of in that zero to five-year mark. You have some businesses that have just started, like months. They're infants. You have some businesses that have a new business a year. You have really seasoned pitch participants and you have people that have never pitched before," said Nicole Paine, business development manager at Lake Trust Credit Union.

"What I love about this is it's a cohort. They're a group and they're moving together and supporting each other. That's where the magic happens, is in the network and the support that the entrepreneurs fill."

All of the contestants were selected from the Lake Trust Entrepreneurship Institute, a free online business program at Cleary University.

"They are able to apply what they learned in the program to the pitches. To speak and articulate their business model. Their cash flow. Their path to success. And they are so passionate about their businesses," Pain told WHMI News.

"When you see entrepreneurs get excited and passionate, you know they're going to make it. They have that 'it.' Every single one of these have that 'it' and they're going to make it.

Winners:

$5,000 - Whole Mama Michigan (Brighton)

$3,000 - Da Bomb Taco food truck (Detroit)

$1,500 - C'Mon Betty food canning (Ann Arbor)

Audience choice- $1,000 -- Reed Walker Design Collective interior designers and historic preservation (South Lyon)

More information is linked below.

Photos from Lake Trust and WHMI's Miranda Richardson