Last week Futurpreneur Canada and Spin Master Ltd. announced the 2015 recipients of the Spin Master Innovation Fund—a program that provides $50K in financing, mentoring, and access to exclusive workshops with business leaders. Among those winners were Peter Greene and Alfred Schaefer, two entrepreneurs from Smithers, British Columbia, who started a fishing licensing and regulatory applications app for smart phones, Creel Net.

The mobile application enables users to store and purchase licenses on their phones. It’s user-friendly and utilizes search tabs and GPS. The app also has a catch log for enforcement purposes, fishing tools like water levels, charts, etc. and a voluntary section for personal use that lets you link your social media. In the backend of the application, data is collected and analyzed to create fish population estimations, such as the number of fish retained and released. It is the first application of its kind and one that these two business owners believe will be a worldwide standard within the next ten years.

What inspired Peter and Alfred to start their own business was that they both have an internal desire to improve on existing technologies. Just like most entrepreneurs, when they started their business they ran into many challenges. The two explained that their biggest challenge was gaining government cooperation. “They are naturally a slower moving entity and have a lot of bureaucratic processes; this has required us to be extremely flexible and persistent.”

Peter and Alfred intend to expand immediately into any jurisdictions that are ready for renovation and innovation. “We specialize in natural resource licencing and regulatory systems for everywhere in the world,” the pair explained. “Our plan is to approach them before they even know about our product.” Being an innovative company that always wants to be one step ahead of the game, the financing and support Creel Net has received through the Spin Master Innovation Fund will allow them to be much further ahead.

Creel Net is the only company exclusively concentrating on fisheries management and smartphone applications, and collectively they have a decade of experience in fisheries management as well as in the recreational fisheries industry. With their years of experience, Peter’s background in fish biology, and Alfred’s background as a project coordinator working on mobile apps, it’s evident on why they make a great great pair.

Creel Net’s ultimate goal is to make a product right now that the rest of the world said wouldn’t happen for another five years, and with their innovative approach to the industry, there’s no question as to why this business was selected as a Spin Master Innovation Fund recipient for 2015.

To learn more about the Spin Master Innovation Fund recipients, click here.

Written By: Lauren Marinigh, Social Media & Content Creation Coordinator, Futurpreneur Canada

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