trovi is simple. We empower you to quickly find local stuff to buy or share from one app. We get local businesses found. Increase community wealth through profit sharing.       We're only 6 months from launching, with your help!

PLEASE NOTE: we are trovi dot co, NOT trovi dot com - unfortunately, a company using malware techniques bought that name, and we are caught in the crossfire. We'll be changing our name soon!)

trovi elevates search to a local "request & connect" platform that:

• Lets you quickly find specific nearby goods & services you want from one app
• Makes local businesses easy to find on a level playing-field search engine
• Improves local economies by improving local business + sharing 25% profits
• Does it all on a private, non-tracking, ad-free platform

Simply put, trovi is designed to grow community wealth. When you can easily find nearby goods and services, local business does better, and more money stays and multiplies in the community. Then we share 25% of our profits with partner communities, for any improvements you want.

Our dream is to have the people, businesses, communities we're designed to help get us over this last hurdle to launch.

We've done a lot of work, and now we're very close – $100K and about 6 months away from launching in Portland, Oregon, and then moving to other communities like yours. All if will take is you, your friends, and their friends, to get a whole new local search engine, and a whole new type of company, going.

We’ve made it possible for everyone to help start a new kind of business by starting our pledges as low as $10 – or the cost of a sandwich!

So please read, enjoy…and then click one of those pledge buttons on the right to help start a company improves local search, grows community wealth – and respects its members. Then please share with friends.

Together, we can do this! Thank you!

Peter Herring, founder of trovi                                                                                   peter.herring@trovi.co

Shoppers: quickly find what you want with trovi
Simply “trovi” the nearby products, services, entertainment, etc., you want, when and where you want them, and specify your price range…trovi connects you to local goods, services and activities that match your requests... trovi is free to you!

Entrepreneurs, business owners: be found with trovi
When what you sell matches a customer’s search, you show up on trovi – so now, you have a level playing field on the web. No more being drowned under big box stores and irrelevant search results. Vendors pay small amounts to be found, make a sale, or send specials & coupons to customers who want them. (More info below.)    

We like to see, taste, and touch things before we buy them. So if we could find them locally, we’d buy them locally. But local search now is anything but ideal – so we resort to big box or e-commerce.

trovi lets customers quickly shop myriad businesses + micro-vendors in their area on a single app. Just enter what you want, how much you want to pay, how far you're willing to go to get it, new or used + other preferences, such as locally owned stores, gluten-free, etc...

Then...click the arrow. And…

Find the specific items or services you’re looking for – not links to websites that you have to search through, static blurbs or flags on a map. trovi inventories and schedules are current, so you get an accurate snapshot of what’s available in your community now.

Can’t find something in your price range? Put it out on bid. Looking for a special something but it’s not showing up? Set an alert, and when it shows up we’ll let you know. You can also set a recurring alert for something you want to do regularly, like – "happy hour deal within 5 miles of me every Friday at 5pm". Or search whole neighborhoods for a host of specials.

One app to find it all

trovi is a hub for any kind of search you want, all on a single platform: retail stores + service businesses, but also micro-enterprises and solo service providers, P2P, used items, sharing economy…we bring it all together.

Be Found, not Drowned

Your potential customers are searching online to find local stuff. But for small & local businesses, getting found in today's crowded web is tough, especially when you don't have a big budget and a full marketing team at your disposal.

trovi levels the online playing field, so businesses of all shapes and sizes get found. On trovi, if what you sell matches what the customer wants, you show up. No SEO, paid ads, or competing with large corporations that buy their way to the top.

Market to local + market to tourists

trovi has  “location and time-based active buyer data” that tells businesses exactly what you need to know – how many people near you are requesting something you sell. We share this entirely anonymous data with community businesses for free. So you can make smart, informed decisions – including items to stock or services to offer.

Say you run a bowling alley and trovi tells you that 67 people within 5 miles of you want to bowl on Saturday morning. You can use that information to send a special deal that trovi delivers to members who want them.

You can also join with nearby businesses to create neighborhood deals – offering group specials to locals. And remember – by local we mean nearby. So while you may have a store in Portland, a visitor from Chicago may be looking for you. trovi is perfect for tourists looking for the real local scene.

Sounds like magic! How does it work?

We provide an interface for service and retail businesses to quickly & easily get your schedules and inventories into our searchable database - we're partnering with a long time cloud inventory company to make this easy as possible, and to give you much more capability than you're probably getting from your limited POS/inventory system now. It's something we'd love to talk with you more about.

OK...so what does it cost?

trovi has no upfront charges. Businesses only pay a small amount only if you are found, or make a sale. And you pay a small amount to send coupons to people who want what you sell. That's it.

Why should you buy from the businesses in your community instead of going straight to your usual e-commerce site, or the superstore 2 towns over?

Simple: when local businesses do well, communities do well. Education, public services & your local job market all benefit from a vibrant local economy. It’s called the multiplier effect, and making it happen is the heart of the trovi vision

trovi helps communities thrive in 2 ways:

• First, by connecting local consumers with local businesses, we make sure that more of your money stays in your community.
• Second, by returning 25% of our profits to the people and businesses that helped us make them, for them to put to work doing good things for their community.

When you're on the web searching, shopping & sharing, search engines, businesses & ad companies track you, harvest your personal data & sell it to advertisers. (That data often also goes to government agencies…) Not only is that creepy, but it makes no sense. After all, it’s your data – in fact, it’s your life.

That’s not how trovi works. Why? Well, first & foremost, we are living, loving, complex people – not pieces of data who only exist to be marketed to. And we know what we want - we don't need ads to tell us. So, since trovi doesn't send ads, we don't need to track you. So your personal information stays very personal. And absolutely private.

At the same time, we all want to receive information about stuff we want. So how can we have the best of both worlds?Via a new type of data, that gets customers and business owners what they need, while protecting everyone’s identity.

trovi has very little information about our members - just an email address so we can communicate with you. We do have completely anonymous data about how many people are looking for what, when & where – and we share that data with our member vendors, so they can better serve their customers. Local businesses can use that information to send out coupons to trovi members who tell us they want deals on things they like to buy, eat, or do. trovi delivers those coupons anonymously to your in box - so your identity is never exposed, or sold.

It's your data: you should control it!

Whether or not you want your - completely anonymous - search and preference information included in the data we provide to businesses is your choice. An opt in - NOT an opt out!  Plus, when our vendors use customer data to send a coupon, trovi makes money — so we think trovi customers should, too. If your search or preference information helps a company reach the right audience, you'll earn trovi credits, which turn into real purchasing power for you.

trovi co-founders Peter, Janice, Mark and True buy local stuff, eat local food, use local services, & have experienced the frustration of trying to find local products, services & events on the web. Together, we decided that the local search experience could be far better. Being the type of people who prefer to create, not simply berate, we set out to design trovi. And in the process create a sharing, caring business that actually partners with the people & communities it serves.

Peter Herring
Peter is a dad, marketer and serial entrepreneur who likes to hike, bike, write, read, take photos and play guitar. His philosophy is that "business benefits from communities and the earth – it needs to help take care of both by working in socially just and equitable ways, care-taking the environment – and sharing the wealth with all stakeholders."
 

Janice Levenhagen-Seeley
Janice is a mom, computer engineer, and business consultant who enjoys starting projects, cooking gluten-free, reading sci-fi, and hanging out with techie people. She also runs a nonprofit called ChickTech, where she and her volunteers put on awesome events geared toward getting and keeping girls and women in high tech.

True North
True is a mom and long time entrepreneur. I am passionate about community, and exploring and strengthening connections on a deep human level. It seems our advances in technology have proven to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, we can reach further than ever before. And yet, we find now ourselves swimming in a sea of digital noise, in-your-face ads and fuzzy virtual connections. I believe in trovi. It puts the power in our hands to get the business of life done easily and efficiently, while bringing economic strength to local neighborhoods.

Mark Healy
trovi is a better commerce search system that nails all the parameters needed for exact returns of search terms: item plus location, time, price and other defining parameters – plus our approach creates a self-propagating and self-correcting system. It’s an interesting challenge and a fun system to build.

The trovi concept is fully developed; our system is designed and our prototype is built.  We're discusing a win-win strategic partnership with a cloud-based POS/inventory company to make it as easy for vendors to get their inventories & schedules on trovi. Now we just need to bring in a few more engineers to finish up the front end search.

We’ve completed market research, direct interviews & surveys – the response has been overwhelming: 100% of our survey participants responded positively to the trovi concept, with responses ranging from “likely to use” to “when can I have this?!” We have met with many business/neighborhood associations in Portland, with enthusiastic response.

Next up: a Beta test in our hometown of Portland, with more than 70 customers and vendors already signed up to take part!

At trovi, we believe in the power of community, and we're counting on that power to help us move our company forward!

To take trovi to the next level, we're asking you to help us raise $100,000 to:

Finish building our Phase 1 system (3-4 months)

Beta test in Southeast Portland: 3 months

Continue community outreach to other PDX neighborhoods

Officially launch trovi and gear up for Phase 2!

Come to your community!

USE OF FUNDS

Whether you can contribute $10 or $5,000 to help trovi get going, we want to thank you by putting your photo and a quote on the Founding Member page of the trovi site, and giving you a framable “I’m a Visionary” certificate to commemorate your generosity. If you pledge $25 or more, you also get a trovi t-shirt of your choice so you can represent trovi everywhere you go! 

Get in touch! trovi is an open communication, collaborative company. As we like to say, the best development team in the world is the world. So please, email us with your best idea to make trovi even better, and we promise we’ll  get back to you!

Here’s the rundown of the awesome rewards we have lined up to thank you for supporting the trovi vision: 

Power to the People Partner
trovi Welcome to the team! We’ll send you a framable “I’m a Visionary” certificate and, of course, keep you up to date on our progress ‘til launch.

More Power to the People Partner
You are cool. You get it, you’re committed, and we love having you on the team! You get a t-shirt of your choice, plus we’ll send you your framable “I’m a Visionary” certificate and keep you up to date on our progress ‘til launch.

Great Idea Partner
Let’s get coffee! If you’re local (that’s the Portland area), we’re talking about the real stuff, steaming in a cup. If you’re farther out, let’s do digital coffee over Skype. trovi is all about connection, so let’s connect! We’ll set a date as soon as the crowdfund is done.

Alpha Partner 
You alpha contributor, you! You’re really raising the bar with your $100 contribution – we’d like to have you on our development team! As a development team member, we’ll seek your opinions and involve you in feedback and testing as we build the system – plus you’ll be the first to use the alpha version. This is your chance to help us shape trovi as we grow it, and we’re looking forward to having you on board!

Bonus: if you are a business, a $100 donation gets you your first $125 of trovi match, sale, or coupon fees free!

Neighborhood Ambassador | Team Member
You’re way more than an early adopter – you’re a full-blown parent, helping to give birth to trovi! You want to see trovi in your neighborhood – so do we! In fact, we’re looking for neighborhood Ambassadors to bring trovi to their neighborhoods. What do you get for that? Well, trovi in your neighborhood and first bragging rights, to begin with. Second, you’re likely one of the people we’re looking for as future community outreach team members, and we’d like to talk to you more about that position with trovi. How about over lunch? If you’re far from Portland, Oregon, let’s make that digital lunch. (If ambassador is not your goal, but you have another possibility to discuss with us, lunch is your chance to do that.)

Bonus: if you are a business, $250 gets you your first $300 of trovi match, sale, or coupon fees free!

Community Ambassadors | Team Member
Your town likely has a Mayor, but does it have a trovi Mayor? It does now, if you’d like to claim the title. You’re a major contributor and we’re giving you the keys to unlock your community and bring trovi home. You can be the hero who brings trovi to your town. But there’s more than kudos in it. Fact is, we are looking for those who would like to bring trovi to their town or city, and if that’s you, we’d like to talk more about a serious team position with us. So let’s have lunch and talk about making your town a trovi town. If you’re near Portland, that’s at a local restaurant. If you’re distant, we’ll get food delivered to you before we skype – just give us your preferences. If this looks like the option for you, grab it fast – there can only be one per community! (If C.A is not your goal, but you have another possibility to discuss with us, lunch is your chance to do that.)

Strategic Partner
You just put in $1K – so we’re assuming that you truly believe in trovi! It makes sense, then, to invite you to our first year-end success party in Portland, Oregon – we’re looking forward to seeing you! Plus we’re also thinking… this is a savvy person! Likely you’re the kind of person who isn’t waiting to be told what you’ll get, because you know what you want – some way to participate in trovi and be part of our success. Let’s talk about that.

Let’s Talk! 
You not only understand the vision; you get the full potential of what we’re doing and you have a role to play in getting there. Let’s keep it short – we need to talk directly. Directly after the fundraise, you’ll have our direct line – can we be more direct? We’re looking forward to it!