As I’m sure you’re aware I love stories. I believe that stories are the best way to excite and engage people no matter the relationship and definitely the best way to teach.

Today’s story is from Arthur Bart-Williams, a client whose startup involves a masterful story-telling platform.

Arthur’s story is proof that a great idea is worth pursuing—even when there is a six year lag between first thought and market testing.

From Arthur…

I founded Canogle in late 2010. The name—from the words, “can” and “ogle” and pronounced kan-og-uhl—means to look without restrictions; to be fully immersed in and a part of a particular world.

Canogle is a platform on which to tell a story.

People love stories; stories about the natural world and places they visit and stories about things, happenings and the brands they love.

They want curated stories, but they also want commentary from their peers and the Canogle platform provides both.

The idea first surfaced in 2004 when I was honeymooning on Maui and Jess, my wife, was using a paper map to navigate and to note interesting sites.

She said she was paying more attention to the map than to the things around her and I thought someone ought to come up with a way to know about sites as you pass them.

By the time we got home, I was excited enough to write the first version of a business plan and convince my brother to develop a prototype.

Then life happened. We had a daughter, I co-founded Combase, which was acquired by ViaNovus and then by Sword Group, fielded a few of life’s curve balls and had another daughter.

I was inspired again while watching a Silicon Valley technology show called “Press: Here” in mid-2010 and decided to find out if anybody cared about my idea.

I told one friend about the project, her eyes lit up and she introduced me to her friend who introduced me to the Executive Director of the Muir Heritage Land Trust, which became our first beta.

Image credit: Canogle

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at 1:15 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: Arthur Bart-Williams, Canogle, serial entrepreneur, startups, stories
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