About Me
I’m Chris Melnick-MacDonald, the founder of Peple. I’m a technical serial entrepreneur who has founded several small businesses and start-ups. I’m a former Archaeologist and Canadian Armed Forces member. After leaving the military, I began a Geospatial Consulting firm, and I have consulted on several national programs. I helped design the next generation of Geospatial Intelligence capabilities for Canada and our Allies, created the open geospatial portal for Canada’s authoritative and foundational geospatial data, and was the Lead Architect for the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 GeoStatistical Platform. A platform which provided key infrastructure and informational products to the public, including those used by the Chief Public Health Officer and the Prime Minister of Canada.
Prior to starting Peple, I founded a company called Nowtaskr - A helping hand on-demand. A transactional marketplace connecting users with odd jobs in the Ottawa area. Due to the business model of Nowtaskr and general unit economics, the business shut down after 34 months. In the month after Nowtaskr closed, through very positive feedback from users, I began working on a platform now known as Peple. The mission of finding the right people you need still holds true.
Throughout my career, I have focused on the search and discovery of geospatial data and assets. These complex systems allow users to easily find even the most advanced data at a click of a button. When I first started my Geospatial Consulting firm, I partnered with several recruitment agencies to jointly bid on government contracts.
During these ventures, I came to a realization that the recruitment industry was utilizing a similar process to find candidates as I was designing to find geospatial data. Agencies rely on candidate databases to provide options to their clients. By taking my knowledge in the design of these systems, and applying it to the recruitment process, I could create an even better engine. This engine would increase the access to job seeker information to an even larger market at a reduced cost, a true opportunity at venture scale.
I started the Eh Founder store to help me fund my very early stage startup. Hopefully one day you can say you helped the next great startup get off the ground!