Recently, the co-founders represented Canada on the global stage at an international pitch competition in Berlin, Germany. The pair have honed their pitching skills at over 20 different conferences and competitions in the past year alone and attribute their networking skills as a reason for their fast growth. “We have an amazing advisory board of 10 people who are experts in their fields, we have been part of some really great cohorts and are currently part of the Invest Ottawa accelerator which has been fantastic,” said McCarthy. “We feel so lucky that so many people are so eager to help us because they see our vision,” added Ferguson. The co-founders visions continue to grow as they work towards changing the face of sponsorship and ensuring that anyone who pays to sponsor or advertise with a team, organization, city or event gets their money’s worth and activates as many people as possible. FanSaves recently won the second
“It’s great to be growing our verticals outside of just sports. We’ve been on the front lines selling sponsorship and now we get to help teams and other organizations be right on people’s smartphones, activating people anytime of the day.”
“In this digital age, there is no reason for a business to sponsor anything and just get a logo on a jersey or banner. So many businesses are just used to it, but we’re changing the status quo. We can offer so much more,” she said. The pair recently hired three employees and plan to keep growing their team. Headquartered in Cornwall, Ontario, FanSaves is proud to bring sports-tech to a rural community, noting that being located an hour from Ottawa and an hour from Montreal is extremely beneficial. FanSaves’ platform now features 20 teams from across Ontario and the United States, including New York, Connecticut, and North Dakota. As well, an entire girls youth soccer club from Brampton, Ontario just joined the platform along with an e-sports league and multiple tourism and downtown BIAs coming on as well. “It’sgreat tobegrowingour verticalsoutside of just sports. We’ve been on the front lines selling sponsorship and now we get to help
teams and other organizations be right on people’s smartphones, activating people anytime of the day,” explained McCarthy. There are currently over 100 deals on the app from large brands to smaller more local businesses. This opens the market to mom-and-pop shops, giving them an opportunity to sponsor when they usually wouldn’t feel like it would be much benefit. “We’re living in a data-driven world and brands need to be able to track their ROI. FanSaves finally makes this possible and activates fans in the process.” “This is going back to the principle of activation. People see hundreds of logos each day, and if you ask them 24 hours later, they can’t recall any of them. They need a call-to-action. The deal is a conduit from the sponsor to reach a fan,” said McCarthy.
78
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2019
79 SEPTEMBER 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker