Jenviev Azzolin has helped develop two apps, PPLCONNECT and Hotel My Phone, which give users the freedom to connect to their smartphone from any device, anywhere in the world. | Photos courtesy: PPLCONNECT
“It just didn’t seem to make sense that we rely so much on this one device,” she says. “We have all this technology around us but we’re lost without our smartphones.”
Hoping to remedy that situation, Azzolin went to work to develop and launch PPLCONNECT, an app that enables users to continue their cellphone conversations — SMS, calls as well as the top 15 messaging applications — across other devices.
“Your friends get a text and see your name and number, but they don’t know you sent that message from a computer, laptop or a tablet,” says Azzolin. “People tell us that the app makes them more productive at work since they can multitask better because they can put their phone away and still answer their text messages.”
She co-founded PPLCONNECT with Denzil D’Sa, whom she met at Bombardier, where she worked on the launch of the Global 7000 and 8000 aircraft project.
Since launching PPLCONNECT, the company has received two Canada Media Fund awards, received funding from the National Research Council of Canada, raised private equity and been named one of Canada’s most innovative startups.
The Hotel My Phone app allows users to borrow a friend’s phone and use it as their own, for example when their battery dies or while traveling.