{"id":11209,"date":"2025-06-20T01:55:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T01:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fintechcadence.com\/?p=11209"},"modified":"2025-06-20T13:29:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T13:29:27","slug":"startup-stories-emoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fintechcadence.com\/fr\/blog-posts\/startup-stories-emoot\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup Stories with Emoot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Emoot is supporting genuine social connections and financial wellbeing through gifting & gratitude<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Built by Montrealers now residing in Vancouver B.C., Emoot was started by founders Nicola (Nik) and Adam three years ago. They bo<\/b>th worked together at lululemon on the technology team for product design and development and have been good friends and neighbours out in Vancouver. Together, they are on a mission to redefine the gift card market through personalized and social meaning while eliminating environmental waste.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

An emoot is an Interac e-transfer you personalize with text, gif, photo, video or audio recording.<\/b><\/p>

They were selected across Canada to be part of Fintech Cadence’s 2025 Innovate Financial Health Cohort (The IFH Lab), a virtual program dedicated to founders who are on a mission to help improve the financial health of Canadians and Canadian businesses. Today, we sit with both Nik (Co-Founder and CEO) and Adam (Co-Founder and CTO) to learn more about Emoot, their personal stories and what keeps them motivated in their entrepreneurial journeys.
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Tell us about your startup and what inspired you to start it.<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nik: In 2022 I found a $100 gift card under my bed, a forgotten Christmas gift, and a lightbulb went off.\u00a0 How many other gift cards were lying around my house?\u00a0 It turned out I had $500 of unused gift cards and I\u2019m not alone in this.\u00a0 Research shows 1 in 3 gift cards is <\/span>never<\/span><\/i> used, and that\u2019s millions of wasted gifted funds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Around that time, I had been introduced to the Science of Happiness and the World Happiness Report by Dr Lara Aknin, associate professor of psychology at SFU.\u00a0 Her research examines the role of gifting and gratitude to our happiness, and the importance of peer to peer support.<\/span><\/p>

Adam and I created Emoot to combine these two concepts: the importance of a meaningful gifting dynamic for social connection, and the benefit of giving cash directly to relieve financial stress.\u00a0 Guided by extensive user research, we developed a simple, innovative way to send heartfelt, personalized multi-media greetings alongside an Interac e-Transfer.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What drew you to entrepreneurship and what energizes you to pursue emoot even when things aren't going as planned?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We wanted to have full ownership to see our ideas come to life.\u00a0 It\u2019s exciting and fun to build something new! In addition, p<\/span>roblem-solving itself is energizing for us.\u00a0 We\u2019re both motivated to assess options and find a way through.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How do you interpret your success? What about your failures?<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We set goals for ourselves that are specific and realistic given our limited resources as a bootstrapped startup.\u00a0 Launching our MLP (minimum lovable product) in December 2024 did take us longer than we would have liked, but in the end the product changes we made along the way were vast improvements.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Take the initiative, try something new, and be accountable.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNik Claxton<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCo-Founder and CEO<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What inspires you when it comes to finding a solution to help the financial health of Canadians? And to follow, what unique financial health challenges or opportunities do you see happening in the Canadian market?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We\u2019re inspired to come up with ways to relieve the feeling of financial stress; whether you\u2019re saving up for something special or need help with groceries and rent, a little extra can be a big boost. For the latter, we\u2019re concerned about younger adults having adequate income to cover the rising cost of basic needs. <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What's the best career advice you've ever received?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nik: Both my parents pushed me to always \u201ctake the initiative\u201d – to show you are willing to take the responsibility, try something new, and be accountable.<\/span><\/p>

Adam: Get uncomfortable. That means you\u2019re being challenged and growing! <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What are you most proud of?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nik: I am most proud of the work-integrated-learning experiences we have been providing for post-secondary students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

When Emoot was still in the idea and research phase, we started partnering with organizations that could help us make an impact right away.\u00a0 Since then Emoot has supported over 50 students (and counting!) from across Canada through Venture for Canada, UBC, Wayble, and The Centre for Digital Media.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Our core value is social connection and financial wellbeing especially for youth and young adults.\u00a0 Through these programs we have been helping students gain hands-on involvement in the life of a tech startup, while building teamwork, problem-solving, and communications skills. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Your recent partnership with The Centre for Digital Media (The CDM) is incredibly exciting. Can you talk more about your B2B clients and how is Emoot contributing to both financial wellbeing and community support in that context?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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After working with their masters students on our Innovation Project in 2023, we helped the school launch their \u201cNourish and Flourish Initiative<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 The goal of the program was to help students feel like they\u2019re part of the community while also providing some much needed financial support.<\/span><\/p>

Students reported feeling grateful, surprised and \u201creduced financial stress\u201d. \u00a0 Funds were used for food, rent, bills, or added to their savings.\u00a0 Some students even gifted-it-forward, choosing to donate all or a portion back to the student fund to support their peers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

This ongoing program is helping reinforce the profound impact that community support and a financial boost can have on a student\u2019s well-being.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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You're aiming for global gifting\u2014how do you envision navigating cross-border payments and cultural differences in the gifting experience?<\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We invented the brand and product name \u201cEmoot\u201d based on the word \u201cemotions\u201d.\u00a0 We wanted to bake-in the feelings behind a gift and make it easier to share them.\u00a0 Gifters select from 5 core emotions: Joy & Celebration, Gratitude & Appreciation, Love & Caring, Positivity & Encouragement, Empathy & Support.\u00a0 This human-centered approach makes Emoot more universal, especially as our gifters can add their own cultural and regional elements to personalize their emoots.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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For all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there, what advice would you give to someone who is thinking about starting their own startup? What book(s), podcast(s) or movie(s) do you highly recommend? <\/b><\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Have a market in mind for your idea, understand your own personal financial implications, seek out advice from experts, don\u2019t make your startup your only \u201cthing\u201d. Understand what skillsets you bring to the table and which ones you need from others.<\/span><\/p>

As per the reccomendations:<\/b><\/p>

Adam:<\/p>