The battle is on. Things are heating up. And our final 6have been chosen.
We met one-on-one with the 2021 OKGN Angel Summit’s finalists to hear their insights into the Summit and their pitch for the top spot.
Meet Joe Tolzmann, founder of RocketPlan in Vancouver. He’s created a platform that consolidates and streamlines the process for the property restoration and claims cycle. We recently caught up with Joe to learn more about his inspiration behind the idea, his experience as an entrepreneur and his plans to go the distance in the Summit.
What problem were you trying to solve when you started RocketPlan?
The property restoration and claims cycle are very inefficient and wasteful. I experienced this pain firsthand while I was running a restoration company—the complexity of the industry and dealing with multiple stakeholders where everyone relies on a piece of information that comes from someone else—and I saw an opportunity to solve this problem. Property damage is sudden and unexpected so there is no real plan and everything happens on-the-go. There is a massive amount of data that needs to be captured to assess the damage before any work even begins. It becomes a big bottleneck.
Why should your clients be excited about RocketPlan?
We focus heavily on user experience. We want to provide a solution to the people who are already performing certain tasks without requiring them to learn something. It’s actually the job that they’re already doing, we just want to make it easier—more comfortable, efficient and attractive to the clients they’re working with.
What kind of expertise is your team bringing to RocketPlan?
Our founding team all comes from restorations backgrounds, so we’ve been in the industry long enough to have experienced these challenges firsthand. That’s why we started solving this systematic issue in the industry.
How do you see your company growing?
Given the huge demand in the industry, we’re focused on scaling up and ensuring we achieve that growth through easy accessibility of the product and user experience. This will allow us to capture and penetrate the market, which is in dire need of this solution.
If you were to win, what would you do with the investment?
To accelerate product development and customer acquisition. We’re looking to create a solution that can easily capture the data and store it in one central source of truth and automatically convert and distribute it to the various stakeholders in the claims cycle. Winning the investment will help us speed up our timelines towards that goal.
What has this experience taught you about the entrepreneurial journey?
Going through OKGN Angel Summit was an incredible experience. Meeting other entrepreneurs and investors—learning about their experiences—has taught me that no matter what industries, verticals and stages we’re at, we entrepreneurs have a passion and drive that brings us all together. It creates a real sense of community. I’ve also learned that it’s not about solving one problem, it’s about creating an environment of constant growth in yourself and in the company.
What surprised you most about participating in the OKGN Angel Summit?
The level of perspective, intelligence and contribution from everyone involved in this process from entrepreneurs, investors, and organizers, has had a significant impact on my company. I’m happily surprised how much practical value I’ve received from interacting with everyone and how impactful the Okanagan community is for entrepreneurs such as myself. I plan to stay connected with everyone I’ve met throughout the Summit and continue developing new opportunities.
What advice would you give to the participants of next year’s summit?
Be prepared to learn from the experience. It’s incredibly valuable to hear different perspectives from different entrepreneurs, from investors and from the organizers. The whole process, and how it works, is incredibly valuable for growth.
For tickets, more information, and a complete list of the participating companies, please visit www.okgnangelsummit.com.
Connect with Joe. Learn more about RocketPlan.
Meet the other finalists:
The Final 6 | TechBrew Robotics’ Mike Boudreau >>
The Final 6 | ENJINE’s Jin Choi >>
The Final 6 | Streamline Athletes’ Brett Montrose >>
