PPLCONNECT is a six-person start-up from Montreal, one of the spate of new companies riding the mobile app wave, hoping to be the next Vine or WhatsApp. Being a Quebec company, they are natively bilingual, giving them a leg up in French-speaking countries, including the exploding African mobile markets.
PPLCONNECT is also the name of the company’s inaugural product, an Android app that can port users’ conversations seamlessly between smartphones, computers and tablets, using both SMS and messaging applications. Once the app is downloaded and installed on a smartphone, the user can log onto their computer and have all their texts and calls live on both devices.
The company’s second app, “Hotel My Phone,” is billed as a solution to a dead phone battery or forgetting your phone. Available for both Android and iOS operating systems, Hotel My Phone lets users borrow a friend's phone and use it as their own by temporarily checking in on the other phone’s app, accessing the user’s own contacts, texts and calls.
The company’s cofounders, Denzil D’Sa and Jenviev Azzolin, are swimming in familiar high-tech waters. Both come from backgrounds at Bombardier Aerospace, where she managed the launch of the Global 7000 and 8000 business jets, and he managed the international marketing programs there, as well as at the Canadian Space Agency. Jenviev oversees the company’s strategic direction, new opportunities and user growth and engagement. Denzil drives the management functions and company culture, while leading technology and innovation. His official title is the executive “In Charge of the Impossible,” charged with leading a team in delivering breakthrough solutions.
“We started with nothing but a business plan. We were told ‘there’s no money in Montreal,’‘No one will invest,’‘You’re trying to do something impossible.’ And yet,” Denzil said, “we have been named one of Canada’s most innovative and promising new startups.
“Being an entrepreneur means you have the power to do something no one has ever done before,” he added “It’s an incredible feeling, and I would recommend it to anyone who can and is willing to go for the stars.”
PPLCONNECT:
Ambitious Technology
By Manny Frishberg