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Toronto Startup Picatic Launches; Protects Event Organizers By Crowdfunding Tickets

Toronto startup Picatic has an excellent proposition for event organizers,”Never lose money on an event again”. They can guarantee this proposition for event organizers that use their platform for their events.

Picatic’s EventTilt platform is a crowdfunding site to fund events. Users take to the traditional crowdfunding model and essentially purchase tickets early for an event that an organizer has posted to the site. If the event gets enough early tickets from the crowd, those that crowdfunded the event will receive discounted tickets based on their contribution. Should the event not get enough commitments than the user’s card isn’t charged and everyone walks away happy.

With EventTilt event organizers can finally host events without worrying that they won’t sell enough tickets to break-even or make the profit they expected. The platform eliminates all of the financial risks of hosting an event by offering a preset number of early tickets at a discount. Once discounted tickets are sold the event Tilts and tickets go back up to full price — the event is on! For events that don’t Tilt within the time allotted, EventTilt will refund buyers 100% of their ticket price.

Just like other crowdfunding sites Picatic can also offer other incentives to those that purchase their tickets early. Incentives like early admission, VIP access,T-shirts and other swag can be used as incentives to the buyers.

“EventTilt is changing the way we plan and market events. Our goal is simple, create a platform that not only ensures events get the funding they need to be successful but also helps organizers engage with their most loyal supporters.” CEO and Co-Founder Jayesh Parmar said in a statement.

There are a few other crowdfunding startups in the ticketing and event space like GigFunder and Queremos. While many view Picatic as a way to eliminate risk for event organizers, others wonder if it’s worth backing or committing to an event that may or may not happen.

Picatic has raised $200,000 in seed funding and their site is up and running.

Linkage:

Check out Picatic on the web here

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Share Your Docs With QR Codes Using Canadian Startup: TagMyDoc

Canadian startup TagMyDoc has introduced a new way to share documents. With the use of 2D tags (QR Codes), users can now share documents from DropBox,Box and Microsoft Office. The easy to use tagging system can be added to virtually any document including Word, Excel, PDF, Images, PowerPoint, Open Office and more.

TagMyDoc works exactly as you would expect it to. You add the tag to your doc and anyone who has access to the QR Code can scan the code and instantly retrieve a virtual copy of the document on their device.

TagMyDoc is perfect for offices. They can post signs, posters or memos with a group of TagMyDoc QR codes and then employees can download the documents when they scan the code. It’s also great for people trying to link information to others. For example a lost dog poster could now contain the important bullet points on the sign, with the QR code linking to more information.

Their system would also be great for events, conferences and even school assemblies where people could scan a QR code to get more information on a topic from a speaker. The QR codes could easily be added to paper event programs and eliminate extra paper for descriptions, white papers and other supporting documents.

Not only is TagMyDoc an greener way to share documents, it also makes documents social. End users who scan a QR code for a document can also elect to follow the document. Users can make comments on documents and follow the document to see additional comments. This is another great feature that could be utilized in big group settings where if one user had a question about the material in the document they could share that question and then the answer would be shared as well.

TagMyDoc is connecting readers, authors and documents in a whole new way. TagMyDoc is like the social network for documents.

Linkage:

Check out Tagmydoc here at tagmydoc.com

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Montreal Startup: GigTrip Social Meets Music Tourism INTERVIEW

Canadian serial entrepreneur and startup aficionado Jean-Pierre Levac is working on solving the pain points involved in musical festivals, tours and shows. To do this right, Levac found early on that all three stake holders would need to be involved. Musicians, fans and venues. Without all three pieces in the process one stakeholder would end up with an unfair advantage, while another may be left out in the cold.

Levac has spent much of his career in the IT Industry, with the last fifteen years spent in startups. He’s always been interested in the music business, but not necessarily the way everyone else is. Levac wants to take his skill sets and those of his co-founder Artem Mindrov, and fix the back end of the music industry.

Levac and Mindrov are attacking the fan angle first. To that end they are looking for beta testers, especially people who attend music festivals and make travel excursions out of them. To us it seems that there are so many people out there attacking the event discovery problem from the aggregation side, Levac and Mindrov seem to be on the right track to integrate all three stakeholders before the events pour into search engines and aggregation apps.

We got a chance to talk with Levac about what they’re working on at GigTrip. Check out the interview below:

Mediaton & Arbitration Go Online & Social With Toronto Startup: eQuibbly

Move over Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown, when you have a dispute now, you don’t need a tv show, a judge or a lawyer. Now you can settle your disputes in an online forum called eQuibbly.

eQuibbly is an incredible idea founded in Toronto by Lance Soskin, a lawyer, investment banker and now entrepreneur.

The concept is pretty easy to grasp. eQuibbly is an online forum where two people can post their legitimate disputes. Those involved in the dispute can choose to post their dispute in a private room with just the two parties, an arbitrator or a mediator or, they can take it to the people, socially. The idea behind the public forum isn’t to bash either party but rather to get feedback and constructive ideas on how to solve the dispute.

With eQuibbly, no matter what your dispute is, you can take it to the platform and get people to give their ideas for resolution and then the public can vote on them. Did the plumber do a bad job on your shower and you want a refund? Did the dry cleaners rip your favorite blouse? Is the dog next door barking and driving you crazy?

Both parties in an eQuibbly dispute can state their side of the story and offer resolutions. Then get help from the crowd. It’s a lot easier, and even more fun than wasting lots of money with lawyers and courts.

We got a chance to talk with the team from eQuibbly about this great new Toronto startup. Check out the interview below:

Montreal Startup: MatchFWD Socially Connecting For The Job Market

MatchFWD is a startup based in Montreal that is hoping to change the paradigm in the job hunting game. They want to cut out the middleman by leveraging social media and sharing. MatchFWD provides a platform that allows hiring managers to share new job opportunities with people and then down the social landscape, in a word-of-mouth style that will hopefully connect good candidates with great jobs.

MatchFWD works both ways though, job seekers can leverage the same social media networks to promote themselves to potential hiring managers and jobs. The pinnacle of MatchFWD is when, through social networks, a person that’s seen and shared a job can connect a person that’s looking for a similar job.

While recruiters are sure to frown on the concept behind MatchFWD the power is granted back to the people and the hiring becomes a smoother process. Also, hiring managers benefit by seeing the real time recommendations that are coming through shares.

MatchFWD is using the sharing economy to disrupt the job changing experience and make it a more level playing field. Job seekers will love this platform because they won’t waste their time applying to blind box ads where recruiters are just fattening their talent pool.

The startup launched this sharing platform back in March even before Washington DC based startup “Barrel of Jobs” launched. Barrel of Jobs is also using the social economy to help place candidates but in a different way.

We got a chance to interview MatchFWD co-founder Phil Gauvin about their new approach to the job hunt. Check out the interview below:

Canadian Startup: BufferBox Had Amazon Locker Idea A Year Earlier, INTERVIEW

By now we’ve all hearda bout Amazon’s new locker service. Amazon Lockers is a system of lockers at public locations that Amazon customers can use for picking up their packages in a safe, secure and more private area. These lockers are a great idea for people who aren’t home and can’t get home for a daily delivery, and also can’t get personal deliveries at work. They’re also great for those of us that shop for nosy kids and spouses around the holidays. Of course you can read between the lines for other reasons that you may not want your Amazon shipments going to your house.

A Canadian startup called BufferBox, actually had the idea a year earlier. The difference between BufferBox and the Amazon Lockers though, is that online e-commerce channels outside of Amazon can use the service.

When BufferBox co-founder Mike McCauley first heard about Amazon Lockers he was disheartened and felt their idea had been ripped off. He was later able to turn it into a much more positive spin when he said: Amazon “put credibility behind the technology,” McCauley said. “Now there’s a big new market Amazon has created. Because Amazon controls 30% of the e-commerce market, you need a third party to offer the service for everyone else.” to the Wall Street Journal

We got a chance to talk with McCauley ourselves about the service that could easily be utilized by the other 70% of the e-commerce industry.

Check out the interview below:

Canadian Startup: SWVLE Talent Discovery Tournament Style INTERVIEW

Talent discovery is a tough nut to crack. How can you judge whether someone is truly talented or not. There are a few startups in the talent discovery space and most of them are based on recommendations. Now of course recommendations are great, especially if you can get top shelf people in your industry to recommend you, but how can you tell your personal story?

You can make as many self YouTube videos as you would like, and those are great, but the next question then is how much talent do you have over the next guy?

SWVLE, a new startup brewing in Nova Scotia, is tackling that problem in a head to head, video to video bracket system. It’s like an all out talent tournament.

In terms of talent you can be talking about the next marketing rockstar or the next actual rockstar. When you use SWVLE it doesn’t matter what kind of talent you have you can put yourself up against someone else in your space, and let SWVLE work it’s magic.

What magic is that you ask? Well we needed to find out so we went right to the source and we interviewed SWVLE co-founder Sam Doyle. Check out the interview below:

Toronto Startup Venio Is All About Healthy Meals & Healthy Lifestyle INTERVIEW

Toronto startup Ven.io is all about healthy meals, and healthy lifestyles. This new meal plan startup, helps users set up structured meal plans that are personal, scientific and valuable.

Setting up your meal plan via Ven.io is a simple three-step system that learns your habits, tastes and dietary needs. This is a really great platform for those who have regular dietary constraints like diabetes and lactose intolerance. Ven.io can give you great suggestions for every meal that will help you reach all of your goals.

The Ven.io team is an international tapestry of talent. In fact in our interview below they answered the questions about where they were based by saying they were Georgian and Iranian, and yes the headline is correct they live in Toronto. Their marketing guy Karim El Rabiey suggests that it’s this patchwork of different nationalities that creates a special flavor (you see what we did there) for the Ven.io team and the Ven.io product. They actually have one of the best about pages we’ve seen in a while, you should check that out here.

We got to interview El Rabiey about Ven.io and how they’re unparalleled in the world of specialty meal planning platforms. Check out the interview below.

Save Your Dog From The Heat With This Canadian Entrepreneurs App And Invention

Aaaron Starkman, an entrepreneur in Toronto, has created a very useful invention for dog lovers everywhere. The invention came out of a close call with Starkman’s own dog Hefty.

Starkman told the Toronto Star, that he had gone into the store for what he thought was going to be a quick two minute in and out trip. It was also pouring down rain when he went into buy a camping stove. When it was all said and done the trip into the store had taken 20 minutes and when Starkman came out it was bright and sunny.

Hefty wasn’t so bright and sunny and had been trying to get out of the car. Luckily for Hefty and Starkman, Hefty survived the 20 minutes in the car. Starkman immediately went to work on a warning device for dog owners. Starkman did make sure to tell the Toronto Star that he was in no way advocating to leave dogs in the car or other heat situations, but when something occurs he’s hoping his dog collar monitor can help.

The high tech collar is really rather simple. It consists of a few LEDs, a coded chip, a thermistor and a SIM card. The dog collar uses the sim card and telephony to send a text message to the owner when it gets too hot for the dog. If the dog is stuck in the car or perhaps if the power goes out in the house and the dogs temperature rises, the owner is notified by text and can immediately fix the situation.

The project was developed in conjunction with a team at Rethink an ad agency in Canada where Starkman is a partner. The dog lovers at Rethink quickly embraced the side project. They also created a campaign called “Doggy Havens” which included a web presence, and an advertising campaign. Through “Doggy Havens” pet owners can find dog friendly stores where they can take their pets inside, outside of traditional pet stores, to escape the heat or just take along as a shopping buddy.

As for the dog collar, Starkman and Rethink plan to take it to Kickstarter, where I’m sure it will be warmly received. After that they plan on selling the collars for $20 which is a great price to save an animals life.

Linkage

Source: Toronto Star via Mashable

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Meet TellBob He’s A Canadian Startup Rewarding People For Taking Surveys On Their Mobile Device

Getting customer feedback can be tricky. Almost every kind of survey engagement tactic has been tried time and time again. It’s hard to get someone to take a survey for a chance to win $10,000 or even a free meal the next time you visit a restaurant. Companies need this valuable data, and the survey platform that can pull it off is going to win.

That’s where TellBob comes in. This Canadian based startup with a really cool name is all about having customers take surveys on their smartphone and then getting rewarded instantly for participating.

So TellBob isn’t really a guy named Bob in fact it’s two guys Trevor Howie and Dan Renaud. They came up with the idea back in 2007 after visiting a Home Depot and thinking how great it would be if you could get some kind of instant gratification for completing their customer service survey.

With TellBob’s reward program the customer is rewarded instantly and they can save or trade their rewards with their friends and even share the entire experience on Facebook. It’s a win for their survey customers as well. TellBob can give back some great information and even confirm that the person completing the survey was actually at the location.

We got a chance to interview TellBob, well actually Howie, check out that interview below.

Interview With Canadian Startup Hashcaster

Back in June we brought you this story about Canadian startup Hashcaster. Hashcaster provides a curation, and measurement (analytics) platform for event coordinators to manage their social media graph. It really comes in handy when gauging the effect of marketing, press and media efforts on behalf of an event just about any size.

At Social Media Camp in June not only was Hashcaster used by the event organizers but they also received a “Coastie” for “Most Innovative Social Media Product or Technology”.

Event organizers everywhere are counting on social marketing efforts more and more everyday as traditional marketing has fallen to the wayside. Organizers need to be able to capture tweets, likes, and mentions and then aggregate them, and analyze them to make sure the cohesive message is getting across. They also want to know who their top influencers are and what kind of impact any paid social marketing may have had.

All of these things are why Geoff Clendenning and Paul Vet created Hashcaster.

Now social media dashboards are nothing new but this particular use case is. Hashcaster also takes into consideration that the social graph of a particular event is going to swell as the event draws closer. When you’re at a popular event, especially one with a social media focus, tweets, likes and mentions can come in a matter of seconds.

We got a chance to interview Clendenning about Hashcaster, check out the interview below:

Toronto Startup: ShopLocket Easily Sell Anything INTERVIEW

Ever had something you wanted to sell on the internet? Sure you have. Maybe you thought signing up for ebay, setting up an account and then trusting Paypal was too much of a pain in the butt? Maybe you wanted to sell your item on Craigslist but you didn’t want to deal with 100 emails telling you they would send you $10,o00 for your $400 item. Well if you thought online selling was a pain, ShopLocket could possibly be the cure.

ShopLocket is a Toronto based startup which promises to make listing your item online as easy as embedding a YouTube video anywhere. You can embed it on your Facebook page, Tumblr, Posterous,Blogger, WordPress, other web page, blog or anywhere else that you would like. If you don’t know how to embed a YouTube video, no worries ShopLocket will teach you how to embed your item.

There are three easy steps to listing an item on ShopLocket, just create your sale, share it and sell it. You can sell whatever you want. Got some old baseball cards? Sell them. Have an old cell phone? Sell it! Want to teach guitar lessons, no problem. Best of all there is no coding required.

As for payment, yes you can trust the overlords at PayPal but they also use the new payment service Stripe as well.

We got to talk with ShopLocket and their truly innovative service in the interview below:

Canadian Startup: Growple Challenges You To Grow Together Interview

While things seem to be falling apart for Waterloo Canada’s biggest company RIM, a new startup wants people to grow together. Their startup Growple is all about making challenges over anything and everything and either challenging yourself, your friends or new acquaintances using Growple’s mobile platform.

The challenges can be anything from “I challenge myself to lose 30 pounds” or I challenge Mike to pick up the girls number across the bar. Challenges are more fun when their done together. Making new friends and growing socially is more fun when it’s surrounded by challenges.

The team behind Growple is frustrated about how people claim to be “social” and how they try hard to stay connected rather than actually being connected. It’s another one of those startups that takes the virtual world and brings it to the real world, bringing the online world off line.

We got a chance to interview Growple’s co-founder Kevin Kim. Check out the interview below.

Toronto Startup: Spongelab Is All About Science And Education INTERVIEW

Sponeglab Interactive, a Toronto based educational startup, celebrated their one year anniversary last month of their free online science education platform called Spongelab.

“In one year, we’ve grown from beluga to blue whale,” says Dr. Jeremy Friedberg, lead designer and co-founder of Spongelab Interactive. “As Spongelab expands, we can better provide state-of-the-art online science education technology to anyone in the world – at no cost.”

The online science learning solution now reaches users in 151 countries and its user registrations continue to grow at a rate of 40 percent monthly. Spongelab’s targeted audience of teachers and students have accessed over 1.5 million pieces of educational content thanks to an expanding library of over 800 games, images, videos, lesson plans and more.

The site now boasts over 800 different pieces of multimedia and interactive content. They’ve also created a variety of educational games like like Dragon Breeder (learn genetic inheritance through dragons breeding!),Knowledge Mine (biology trivia mixed with gem-busting puzzle elements) and the award-winning Build-a-Body (a drag-n-drop human anatomy app), along with hundreds of other interactives all playable for free online.

We got a chance to talk with Spongelab in the interview below: