In a nutshell; commuting sucks. It’s uncomfortable, long, and boring. Whether you drive or you take transit, it’s just not enjoyable. Public transit is doing the best that it can but it’s tough trying trying to move that many people all at once every day. We just want to come in and help them fill some of the gaps. We want to find a solution that allows us to work harmoniously with the existing transit infrastructure and provide relief to businesses and their employees.
What was the Inspiration behind Hop In Technologies?
We use to work 9-to-5 jobs and honestly, we just hated the commute. Boyd used to drive across the 401 and Erich took two buses and a train to get to work every day. We started to notice that by the age of 24 we were already getting a little stale. We loved our jobs but travel times drained us.
How did meet your co-founder?
We met in grade 9 actually. We had a few classes together but we were never really close until after high school. We had some mutual friends and started to hangout more. One night we were talking about starting our businesses in the future and really just vibed. We have been planning to start something together since we were 20.
How far is your startup currently?
We are pretty well operational now. Although any good startup is always iterating and improving. We ran a couple of successful pilots this summer and are working on some bigger contracts now. We are also in the middle of raising our pre-seed round.
Do you have any tips on cofounder relationship?
Talk to each other. Hangout together. As cofounders you need to have alignment. We box and workout together, we go out to eat, we pretty much do everything together. Most importantly though, we dedicate time every day to just talking openly. It could be about business or even something personal, but we make sure there are no secrets between us.
Any advice when it comes to team building?
It’s all about culture. Alignment again is key. Your team needs to be in sync. They need to know what’s going on and how their work is helping the company. We do weekly stand ups where everyone can talk openly about what they’re working on and talk about any successes or concerns. We also try to do something fun every month or two if possible to build that bond.
What resources do you find useful for your startup?
There have been so many already. We have an amazing support system, stemming from our parents, to our mentors and all of the programs that help us out. We are at the YSpace incubator right now and Dave Kwok is building something really special out there. The Legal Innovation Zone has been amazing for us as well and Nafis Ahmed was one of our earliest mentors. And of course there’s the Next 36. That program presented opportunities for us that we never thought were attainable. It’s a tough program but the knowledge and support gained from it is unmatched.
Pivoting is key in startups. Often times, the idea you start with doesn’t end up being the one. Talk about your experience with pivoting.
We have pivoted seven times now haha. We initially started as a P2P hitchhiker app, and it was immediately scrapped. There were a host of issues that we just never considered. From there we just kept iterating. The point at which we really hit our stride was after talking to Zain from Fiix. It seems a little silly now that we never realized it but he basically told us to listen to the market. He told us to talk to our customers and see what they wanted. Ever since we started doing that we have seen demand grow every day.
Where can our audience learn more?
Visit our website: https://www.hopintech.com/
Follow us on social media!
Our handle on Instagram & Twitter is @hopintech
On Facebook & Linkedin find us at Hop In Technologies
Lastly, send us DM’s personally! We want to hear about your commuting stories and we want to know how we can help!