Georgian College

MARCIA WOODS Part-time faculty, Business and Management CEo of ei ei eat Download the app or visit eieieat.com to learn more. One fall day, Marcia Woods wanted to go apple picking. She recalls her search to find which varieties were in season and where to find them took far too long. That's when she got the idea for ei ei eat, an app to make it easier for shoppers to find local food anywhere – raw, ready or served. Ei ei eat, whose web app launched in November, connects people and places in the local food ecosystem. App users can get a daily fresh report delivered to their email telling them what's in season and what's available in real time from ei ei eat's community of restaurants, producers and retailers. Marcia ran a Kickstarter campaign last winter. She says two great things came of the campaign despite not meeting her lofty goal. She connected geographically with the app's future users and she attracted a significant investor. "Done correctly, you can get good feedback quickly and learn whether your value proposition has traction," she says. And traction it has. Ei ei eat had thousands of pre- registrations. Part of what differentiates it is its cross- verification process. If a restaurant says it serves a particular kind of beef, that beef farmer has to verify it. Marcia is being mentored by Marc Castel through Georgian's Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre and works closely with the college's food entrepreneurship showcases. "Food is so much fun and social. It's the signature of a region," says Marcia. GEORGIANVIEW 2015 16 CRoWDFUNDING CRoWD-PLEASING IDEAS

• Cover