Photo credit: Agata Atmore
Christopher Bent was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. After winning at the MIT Creative Arts Competition in 2018, he relocated to Montreal to be part of the creative and entrepreneurial ecosystem that exists here.
Chris’ company Piccles is taking online meetings and events to a whole new level. This creative engagement tool is adding more fun and interaction to virtual gatherings by letting audiences of any size draw their thoughts and feelings and then giving them an opportunity to visualize the collective sentiment together.
Soon after relocating here in Montreal, Christopher Bent found out about YES and since 2019, he has been receiving guidance from his YES Business Coach, Robert Therriault. At the time, his goal was to enter the Live Events industry, yet when COVID-19 hit, the pandemic subsequently wiped out the market and cancelled essentially every in-person event. Working to adapt, Chris and his YES Business Coach created a strategy to quickly pivot in this new landscape.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. “Everyone was thrown into virtual events all at once,” Chris says. “The bar was low, yet we were doing something new and different. The challenge we faced was that our market wanted something proven, not the new and different ‘nice-to-haves’ like we were offering.”
Chris is more comfortable in the creative side of the business, which was balanced by his YES Coach’s help to establish a sustainable business model. The words “but are they going to pay…” still echoing through his head.
“Navigating the business world during a pandemic is hard,” he continues. “Our recurring YES sessions felt like escaping a storm and pulling our ship into a calm harbor to catch our breath and make a plan before heading back out into the hurricane.”
And they stuck with it, surviving without any outside funding and having their first profitable month in November!
Exercise your creativity with this custom Piccles activity that Chris created for the YES community.
For more information on Piccles, click here.