Got Porpoise? Moncton’s Ongozah Pivots to New Business
MONCTON – One hub city startup has changed direction.
Ongozah, a company created to help non-profits manage their community resources has pivoted to become Porpoise– a mobile platform used by companies to elevate and celebrate employees who are volunteering and giving back to their community.
Like many startups, founder and CEO Topher Kingsley-Williams says the decision to pivot came after realizing where the real need was with the company’s mission.
“When we first started Ongozah we were really focused on how we make a connection between non-profits and the businesses in the community,” he says. “We had relationships with business and we would talk to them and say ‘We understand one of the biggest problems you have is finding out what’s going on with these non-profits with different community events.'”
But after talking to businesses, it turns out that wasn’t the problem after all. The team learned that in fact, a lot of employees they were speaking with were already involved in many different causes. The issue was that there wasn’t an easy and engaging way for employees to share the great work they were doing with their company.
“Then we started looking into all the research and evidence that shows how an engaged employee created a better workplace and culture inside the business,” Kingsley-Williams says. “We realized that what was more valuable to these businesses and non-profits was acknowledging people for what they’re doing and giving them a very easy way to share their experiences and share their moments.”
After discovering these findings, Ongozah started to question what their product really did for the business community and where the real value was. It was a very difficult decision to make, but they knew they had to adapt.
“What we decided was the current product as we had built was designed for non-profits and we’re trying to sell to businesses, because that’s were the market demand was,” Kingsley-Williams says. “We basically said ‘Let’s stop production on the existing product, sideline that for now and let’s build something that employees can understand and let’s do something that goes to where employees are working so it integrates with their existing workflow.'”
Porpoise’s mobile-first platform allows employees within an organization to share their moments of giving, turning it into a social experience while at the same time collecting metrics for employers.
“What we mean by that is turning what used to be a very mechanical way of recording their community involvement . . . to more of a social and emotional share,” Kingsley-Williams says. “So our primary goal is to capture the moment of that experience and then automatically add metrics to it so the tracking doesn’t feel like tracking. Essentially you are sharing your experiences and you’re sharing it with your team in a way that inspires them, not in a ways that just brags about you spending four hours [helping a cause].”
Porpoise also allows employers to easily cultivate a mission of corporate social responsibility. The platform offers a granting program, so when an employee reaches a certain milestone, the employer can give them a cheque to give to the organization of their choice.
“People today have started to see through the layers of marketing that makes up that corporate social responsibility and there’s a great demand for transparency and authenticity when it comes to corporate social responsibility,” Kingsley-Williams says. “What employers are now doing is instead of saying ‘We’re going to give $100,000 to a certain charity’, they say ‘We support our employees in what they do.'”
It also puts more power into the hands of employees.
“The employees are seeing this as a way to direct the company’s corporate social responsibility and the employers are seeing this as a way to acknowledge and reward what their employees care about an align individual values with the company guide,” he says. “The large decisions are now being made through what the trends are within their employee base and giving is being directed by individual people, not at board decision levels.”
Porpoise will be officially launching this September, but they already have some clients on board. They currently have National Bank and Property Guys signed up for pilots. They also have more in the works with Fortune 500 companies, which will be announced at a later date.
Although it’s a big change, Kingsley Williams says Porpoise is still very much in line with the values and mission as Ongozah.
“We’re not stepping away from that bigger mission. We’ve found what we think to be a more impactful route to getting people engaged in their communities,” he says.
“We’re very much plan on bringing the old concepts back into this new product, but in a way that people will actually integrate with it or use it.”