Business in the Spotlight: CanYa
We’ve gone international! We’ve gone Down-Under! This week’s Business in the Spotlight is an Australian startup which is revolutionising how we find and pay for local services! We spoke to John-Paul, CanYa‘s CEO and put them in the Spotlight!
1. Tell us a bit about yourself?
I studied aeronautical engineering at university before completing a 7-year career as a pilot. I am also a technology enthusiast and app developer on the side. I founded, developed and launched CanYa with my university and pilot friends, an app that allows anyone to find, book and pay for the best local services. I realised the need for such a product when my own experience in hiring local services was poor and I felt I could create a better experience. I am heavily aligned towards affecting worldwide positive change by using disruptive technology, and CanYa is one avenue for that.
2. What is your company all about?
We believe as a company that the best experience in hiring local services is served by hiring the *best* local service, and as such we are using careful design and cutting-edge technology to bring the best out of both users and providers. Rather than being a closed and controlled market, CanYa is an open market, built on locally-generated content, and powered by its own users. CanYa is built to highlight its best providers, and in doing so, functions as a true meritocracy where the best thrive. Our vision is to provide this experience in all markets around the world, as the act of providing a service to another is as old as humanity itself and is not bounded by border or culture.
We are currently trialing CanYa in two small Australian markets (Darwin and Adelaide) before expanding operations Australia-wide. We are also in early stages to release CanYa into China and India soon; two of the largest markets for local services.
3. How important is what you do?
We believe we are doing something truly unique as the incumbents in this space either do not deliver a true open-market meritocracy, do not aspire to serve the best experience, or monetise aggressively on “leads”, where it is not in best interests to care beyond matching a provider and a user. As a result, there is still not one platform that provides the complete vertically-integrated experience in hiring local services yet. CanYa will be this.
4. What kind of do you think people make great entrepreneurs?
The best entrepreneurs are visionary and goal-orientated and these goals are usually powered by wide-reaching, social-enterprise-esque, generational ambitions, that transcend short-term selfish benefits. They must be information-insatiable, multi-disciplinary and never satisfied. They must have an ability to learn quickly in many domains and disciplines at the same time, and more important than all, possess the requisite ability to communicate and empower others with their vision. The greatest living example of all these qualities is Elon Musk, and there is nothing more genuine than his desire to make humanity powered by renewable energy and become an interplanetary species, and he will never settle until this is the case.
5. Why is word of mouth important to you as a business?
CanYa is a platform powered by people, so word of mouth is crucial; both as a function of growth, but also as a validation of its core purpose: a platform to hire the *best* local services. “Virality”, that is the mechanism of organic growth, is woven into the tapestry of CanYa, so that referring others to CanYa should feel as natural as the CanYa experience itself.
If you’re interested in putting your business in the spotlight sign up here!
