YouPickUp.org

I'm a strategic thinker who likes to get his hands dirty.

I believe that thinking outside the box produces tangible results. I believe that education, technology & communication will inspire creative solutions for all forms of sustainable design on a global scale.

I'm excited about the future of problem solving through innovation.

I've lived, studied, and worked in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Aix-en-Provence, France, Southeast Asia and Vancouver, where my area of expertise was in visual communication & digital media design, both as a professional and academic.

I'm agile... I've always been a lifelong learner, interested in improving and building upon my skill set, to excel in life when given the chance. I have a BA in economics from Concordia University in Montreal, a BFA in film-making from SUNY Purchase in New York and recently a Master’s degree in digital media from The Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver.

“Got a heavy sofa in the basement you want to get rid of? Don’t take it to the dump... post it on... YouPickUp.org” ”If you’re looking for an old fridge to repurpose into a flower bed... try posting a “wanted ad” on... YouPickUp.org” - we create communities of repurposing, to reduce the amount of content that ends up in the landfill. Giving away items for free on YouPickUp.org helps both parties. The donor doesn't need to pay to throw out their items in a landfill and the receiver get items for free, as long as they are willing to come pick them up. The website utilizes google maps, so people & communities all over the world could post and share their items in all languages.

Every minute, one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our oceans.The problem that needs to be solved is why do we as a civilization waste so much? Consumerism is destroying our planet. Our solution is to repurpose, recycle, & upcycle on a global scale. YouPickUp.org aims to connect people and communities globally to encourage the reuse rather than disposal of unwanted items.

Very much like Uber, Air BnB and other peer-to-peer technologies, YouPickUp.org facilitates connections between individuals anywhere and at anytime (ubiquitous). As an online classified service, the niche concept inherent in YouPickUp.org revolves around promoting the "Upcycling" of unwanted items rather than discarding them in the landfill. The global potential is to reduce waste and help the environment in all of our communities to improve our lives.

The project connects people online and/or through an app to share classified posts of items destined for the landfill. The website allows people to post pictures of items they want to get rid of. Anyone who views the post can email the postee and arrange to come pick up their unwanted sofa, for example. Alternatively, people could create posts for items they're looking for and are willing to come pick up. Charities, second hand stores, governments could even use the service. The condition is that no money is allowed to change hands. It's yours for free, as long as you come pick it up and get it out of my basement. The goal is to change people's behaviour towards recycling.

By providing a free service to help reduce landfill waste, YouPickUp.org is attempting to help educate and influence people's behaviour away from the current consumerism society towards one that will further value recycling, upcycling and repurposing to help reduce global pollution. The inherent difficulty lies in changing people's attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.

I have a 7 year old daughter. One day I decided to come up with an idea to help create a better future for her. Having a background in media and design, I decided to develop a website that could provide a small, but hopefully meaningful solution to reducing landfill waste and global pollution. Using peer to peer technology, my hope is that the solution takes off on a global scale.

The problem is the world is becoming over polluted. YouPickUp.org plans to address this problem by educating and providing a service for people to recycle, upcycle, reuse and repurpose items, which in turn will lead to a reduction in waste. The user will feel a sense of self worth by contributing to a worthy cause and help reduce waste, which in turn will lead to a reduction in pollution. YouPickUp.org is a peer to peer solution which ultimately will become self-functioning, once individuals become aware of the service. I've lived and travelled to many countries all around the world. Living in Cambodia introduced me to people who have truly overcome major catastrophes. They are also extremely happy and wonderful people, which certainly taught me about overcoming obstacles. I believe that YouPickUp.org is a solution to change the world for everyone, regardless of age or income.

I have over 25 years in web development, graphic design, marketing and the development of digital media. My partner is experienced in management and dealing with day to day operational needs. Together we are able to help provide an overview of the project's purpose. It's up to the user to decide whether they will use it or not.

In an effort to bring awareness to YouPickUp.org, I struggled with marketing. I tried Google ads. I tried designing ads and sharing information on social media. In the end, I decided to try a more traditional approach. I designed leaflets and with my daughter went door to door to hand deliver information of the community benefits of using YouPickUp.org. This effort was time consuming and physically tiring, but in the end, we received the most participation in our website through this activity.

I am currently working with my daughter's dentist to help bring awareness to the prevention of tooth decay in toddlers. His goal is to debunk the myth that baby teeth are not essential because they are just placeholders for adult teeth. Together we are attempting to develop content to help educate people in the community on the scientifically proven concept that healthy teeth are as much apart of our entire health as a healthy heart for example.

Very much like Uber, Air BnB and other peer-to-peer technologies, YouPickUp.org facilitates connections between individuals anywhere and at anytime (ubiquitous). As an online classified service, the niche concept inherent in YouPickUp.org revolves around promoting the "Upcycling" of unwanted items rather than discarding them in the landfill.

The problem is the world is becoming over polluted. Change is needed. People need to recognize that their behaviour does in fact have an effect on their environment. YouPickUp.org plans to address this problem by educating and providing a free service for people to recycle, upcycle, reuse and repurpose items, which in turn will lead to a reduction in waste. The customer will feel a sense of self worth by contributing to a worthy cause and help reduce waste, which in turn will lead to a reduction in pollution. YouPickUp.org is a peer to peer solution which ultimately will become self-functioning, once individuals become aware of the service. Social media will also be essential in educating and spreading the positive benefits of reducing waste and being more aware of our lifestyle choices. Adaptation and awareness could be redirected towards environmental causes to further assist in the education of waste reduction and how each person can play a part in helping save the planet.

The following are estimates given that the project is in a prototype stage: 20 people currently, 1000 people in 1 year & ~ 100,000 people in 5 years.

The initial goal for the next year is to have users post to the website and successfully demonstrate the potential functionality of the project by sharing items destined for the landfill, rather than throwing them away. Within the next 5 years, the goal is for YouPickUp.org to be working successfully in multiple communities across the country.

The main barrier is changing people's behaviour. Most people don't make the effort to login, write a classified ad, take pictures and upload them to the website for creating an ad of something they are willing to give away. They resort to their familiar behaviour of just throwing things out.

By demonstrating the benefits of using YouPickUp.org and showing tangibles results, people may be more inclined to change their behaviour.

We are not currently partnered with anyone.

The problem is the world is becoming over polluted. YouPickUp.org plans to address this problem by educating and providing a service for people to recycle, upcycle, reuse and repurpose items, which in turn will lead to a reduction in waste. The customer will feel a sense of self worth by contributing to a worthy cause and help reduce waste, which in turn will lead to a reduction in pollution. YouPickUp.org is a peer to peer solution which ultimately will become self-functioning, once individuals become aware of the service. In terms of cost structure, maintaining and upgrading the technology will be essential for growth. Marketing will also include large costs to provide awareness of the service and also educate the public about the benefits of recycling, reusing, repurposing and upcycling. Social media will also be essential in educating and spreading the positive benefits of reducing waste and being more aware of our lifestyle choices. Revenue from YouPickUp.org could be generated from advertising on the website or through a small fee to download the application. Donations could also be a strong source of income. Large profits could be re-invested in environmental causes to further assist in the education of waste reduction and how each person can play a part in helping save the planet.

Featured based ads, similiar to craigslist and kijiji could be used to generate income. Also, similar to Wikipedia, YouPickUp.org could have a donation-based revenue model. Given that YouPickUp.org's content is crowd-sourced, the site functions based on the collaboration of people uploading content and sharing resources. If needed, YouPickUp.org could use website advertising to generate revenue. Ultimately, selective advertising would be essential to comply with the altruistic concept of YouPickUp.org.

No funds have been raised to date. The expenses have been self funded.

Any and all funds raised would go to further developing the project and the prototype. Recently, we applied for "Dragon's Den" with a budget request of $400,000 Canadian. The funds would be used for marketing and mobile application development in several languages.

$3000 Canadian.

YouPickUp.org is applying for the Elevate Prize to further develop our peer to peer technology to bring people together to work towards a significant reduction in landfill waste and global pollution. Specifically, we would use the funds to create awareness, to developed a mobile software application in the top 10 languages spoken in the world (amounting to over 4 Billion users) and begin marketing & social media development in the top 4 languages - Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion speakers) English (983 million speakers) Hindustani (544 million speakers) and Spanish (527 million speakers). Through marketing and social media development, YouPickUp.org would use funds to create a global awareness of our services. My daughter is also the major influence for me to see YouPickUp.org succeed. I wish to do my best to create a healthy world for my daughter. To quote Solve, YouPickUp.org is looking to "impact more lives, and inspire others to tackle issues in their own communities—igniting a chain reaction of goodness across the world."

We believe we have a brilliant idea that could really help change the world. What we don't have is the experience and expertise to take this idea and develop it into a global resource to create a positive change on the world stage.

We are looking for partnerships (financial & mentorship) to help develop our goal of creating a peer to peer technology to bring people together to work towards a reduction in landfill waste and ultimately a significant reduction of pollution on a global scale.

Wikipedia, Kijiji, Ebay and Craigslist would be ideal partners given the platform similarities and their experience in providing crowd sourced content in a donation-based revenue model.