Invoke Labs today announced that myBestHelper will be the newest company in residence at its Vancouver headquarters. myBestHelper provides an award-winning service connecting families that need help with outstanding helpers in their local area.
Part of the Hoosuite fame, Invoke Labs launched in January 2013 by the digital agency Invoke Media. Invoke Labs partners with startups to build digital ventures into successful businesses.
“myBestHelper has already proven to be a disruptive force in the home care space,” said Invoke Labs’ Keith Ippel. “We’re looking forward to supporting their team as they continue on their impressive growth trajectory.”
The Vancouver-based myBestHelper is currently available in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto and has nearly 4,000 users. Whether users need to find a babysitter or hire a nanny, myBestHelper is “the smart way to access great people to help in your home.”
Having recently graduated from the Canadian Technology Accelerator 2012 program at RocketSpace in San Francisco and TechWomen Canada 2013, cofounder Alexandra Greenhill said she’s excited to be able to continue to implement lessons learned from the biggest and best tech companies in the world.
“We are thrilled to learn from the team that has propelled so many ideas from good to amazing. This opportunity will truly help myBestHelper grow on a global scale and become the next Vancouver tech success story.”
myBestHelper team will join current residents Memelabs, Quietly, and Pendo Rent. Invoke Labs works to incorporate new startups into its program at a time that works for them, as an alternative to the standard incubator group induction and graduation process. Invoke Labs alumni include social media management platform HootSuite, corporate food ordering and delivery service Food.ee, and Sprout, which provides enterprise software to maximize corporate wellness.
I met Invoke cofounder David Tedman at August’s GROW Conference in Vancouver. I got the feeling that Tedman probably didn’t agree with what could be perceived as a factory model of some tech accelerators. That is, they take in startups, throw money at their faces, take a bit of equity and spit them out a few months later after a glitzy graduation event.
In fact, Invoke Labs calls itself a “business building company”. Tedman told me that the Invoke Labs team isn’t under pressure to produce a certain amount of startups, or target a specific sector. He indicated that the team would simply select the best startups that applied to the program and that made sense for the program, and would try to surround them with quality mentors and resources on their time.
Invoke Media was founded by Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes in 2000 and is a an interactive digital agency. Invoke Media developed Hootsuite in 2009 (the company that would raise $165 million in venture capital funding four years later), and Invoke Labs is an off-shoot of Invoke Media.
“Made in Vancouver”, myBestHelper was founded by a group of experienced entrepreneurs who use technology to solve a real everyday problem and build a company that people love. Greenhill is a mother of three young kids, a nationally recognised family physician, and serves on the board of the Canadian Institute for Child Health (CICH).