So, imagine the frustration of coming across a faulty shipping page or an error while processing an order. Nine out of 10 times a customer will close the page and go shop somewhere else — something businesses today can’t afford.
That’s why alumnus and tech entrepreneur Robert Boukine developed Noibu, an error monitoring platform that helps e-commerce shops deliver a seamless digital experience to their customers.
Boukine co-founded Noibu alongside Dan Cardamore and uOttawa alumni Kailin Noivo and Filip Slatinic. By scanning an online shop, Noibu’s platform quickly flags errors, prioritizes them by urgency and sends that information to a retailer’s web developers to fix. Potential negative customer experiences are nipped in the bud.
“Our solutions have become even more vital for these businesses because such a large percentage of their revenue is coming from e-commerce,” says Boukine. “We’re helping them protect that revenue.”
It started in 2017, two years after Boukine and Noivo, middle school best friends, graduated from the Telfer School of Management. With their heads full of ideas, the two alumni joined uOttawa’s Startup Garage program where they refined their pitch, networked with founders and advisors and met Slatinic who became their third co-founder. “Startup Garage acted as a connector for us, and it was amazing,” says Boukine.
uOttawa accelerator programs, MakerLaunch and Scaleup Garage, propelled Noibu further still. Scaleup Garage, for instance, connected Boukine and the team with three established tech entrepreneurs who served as advisors and mentors over a six-month period. “These were some pretty heavy hitters in the Ottawa ecosystem, and to be able to access them through a uOttawa program really helped us,” he says.
With the e-commerce sector showing tremendous growth, Noibu continues to scale alongside, and the platform is used by retailers in North America, Europe and Asia. The team of 50 was recently recognized with a 2020 Best Ottawa Business award, and Boukine says they aspire to be one of the great software companies in Ottawa and Canada.
And it all started at uOttawa. “The support we got from donors and advisors, as well as the financial resources, all really helped us,” says Boukine of the three entrepreneurship programs. “We left our full-time jobs to pursue this, and these programs allowed us to experiment and iterate.”
No matter Noibu’s future growth, supporting uOttawa’s entrepreneurship community remains a priority for Boukine: “When you have a little bit of success you want to be giving back. We’re extremely grateful for everything uOttawa has provided us.”
At uOttawa we are driven by the urge to challenge the status quo, the will to make an impact and the ambition to become a catalyst for change.
Our key priorities include facilitating career development and accelerating business growth. Helping students start and build up their business and social enterprise ideas through our various entrepreneurial programs is one way we’re achieving our goals.
Learn more about what we’re doing to respond with integrity and creativity to the demands of our rapidly changing world and find out how you can be part of this exciting transformation.