User:Parkbenchjordan/sandbox

Parkbench, Inc. (a.k.a Parkbench.com) is a Toronto, Canada based Internet company, specializing in hyperlocal data aggregation and neighborhood-based marketing systems. Parkbench.com uses real estate and community mapping to divide cities into separate Neighborhoods, and delivers relevant content to users based upon advanced geolocation and keyword search algorithms.

A variety of localized topics such as News, Events, Deals, Crime & Safety, Schools, etc, are sourced from leading websites, parsed by location, and assigned to a local Neighborhood. The resulting “Neighborhood Pages” are then populated with this data and used by local residents and small businesses to find current information regarding their community.

Parkbench.com is presently the only multi-neighborhood website in the world that automatically aggregates all information about a neighbourhood into one place. Launched March 2014 in Canada, Parkbench became an international company after expanding to the USA in June 2015.

Origins (Summer 2013-March 2014)
Grant Findlay-Shirras and Amanda Newman had started Liberty Village Reviews in Jan 2013 as a way of promoting their own businesses at that time (Mr. Findlay-Shirras owned a Mobile Fitness business, and Ms. Newman was a Residential Real Estate Agent). Shortly thereafter, Liberty Village Reviews garnered the attention of Lori Hoinkes, a local real estate agent drawn to the hyperlocal platform, and her husband Dr. Rodney Hoinkes, a developer. Together they conceived the notion of launching similar neighborhood websites across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Development of the all-encompassing GTA neighborhood website, now called Parkbench, began in late 2013.

In March 2014, Parkbench launched their revamped platform in Liberty Village, King West, Queen West, The Danforth, The Annex, Little Italy, and several other notable GTA neighborhoods. With Dr. Hoinkes’ advanced Feed Technology now being applied across a wider spectrum, Parkbench was able to aggregate data from numerous sources and localize the information with precision.

Parkbench, Inc. currently operates as a private company. The 3 Co-founders are: Grant Findlay-Shirras, Amanda Newman, and Dr Rodney Hoinkes.

Growth
Since launching in March 2014 with only Toronto Neighborhoods, Parkbench has rapidly expanded across the Greater Toronto Area and to the other major cities across Canada including: Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Victoria, and Saskatoon. In June 2015, Parkbench, Inc. became an international company with expansion to San Diego, California.

Parkbench was recognized by Rocket Builders as an emerging technology company to watch in 2015.

Features
Parkbench.com is a Neighborhood-centric website powered by advanced Feed Technology, giving Parkbench the ability to aggregate more local content with more accuracy than any other search engine or social networking site. The site is organized through a “Neighborhood Page” format, where the home page of the site prompts you to choose a specific Neighborhood via map or dropdown, and then brings you to the corresponding Neighborhood Page. Each Neighborhood Page is populated with a collection of local resources, including the following main categories:

Events, Deals, News, Businesses, Classifieds, Schools, Crime & Safety

Each of the Neighborhood Pages on Parkbench.com are sponsored by a local Real Estate Broker or Agent, who receives the sole promotional space on that Neighborhood Page.