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Written by: Jo-Anne Reynolds, CEO of SpikeBee
Jo-Anne Reynolds moved to Canada in 2009 with her then 4 year old daughter and a dream of a better life. In Canada she realized that camps were an important part of a child’s right of passage, an opportunity she didn’t have growing up in South Africa.
I looked on the Internet for different camps, innovative and unique experiences that I could put our daughter into, however, this was a very time consuming process and you couldn’t always find what you were looking for. So I decided to make my own website after chatting with other moms and realising the huge need for this type of online tool.
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SpikeBee was founded and the idea has since grown to over 200 different categories of camps, ranging from the traditional Bible Camp, Summer Camp, and Hockey Camp to the non-traditional Teddy Bear Picnic, gym classes for kids or etiquette camps for young girls. Parents are able to search by specific demographics i.e. age, location, cost, interest and date range and companies can list and manage their activities all year round.
There are only about 11% of tech companies led by female CEO’s but that hasn’t stopped Jo-Anne as she sets out to be a positive example of a strong female entrepreneur for both of her daughters now ages 3 and 10.
I feel very fortunate being able to be a positive influence on my daughters while helping people find unique experiences, and giving companies a way to better promote themselves in a global marketplace and create the awareness that they need.
SpikeBee was invited to Google’s “Hack The Gender Gap” Women’s Only Symposium at Google Headquarters in Palo Alto, California where Jo-Anne networked with some of Silicone Valley’s finest female minds. Most recently she has attended Launch Festival in San Francisco and heading off to pitch at Tech Cocktail at SXSW in early March.
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With the website launched only a few weeks ago SpikeBee is now busy filling the website with camps and classes from Calgary, across Canada, the United States with requests even as far away as South Africa. We never expected how many adult, business and fitness camp providers there were and the desire for adults to register for camps. We have a very strong interest in our website from children to adults as well as camp providers from around the world, I cannot wait to share SpikeBee with everyone.
SpikeBee was nominated for a 2015 TechRev Innovators Award by Innovate Calgary, and has been listed as one of the “cool new startups” for 2015 by Onboardly.
Last Updated on January 9, 2016
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