Tech entrepreneur recognized by CEO Publication

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on December 17, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

A Lethbridge technology entrepreneur has been named one of the Top 20 dynamic Chief Executive Officers in Canada by The CEO Publication.
Colin Moreland’s downtown company has only been in operation for 19 months and his accolade comes after MPP Software Solutions was named 2021 Business of the Year in the innovation and technology category by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce in October.
Moreland spent 30 years in Calgary before moving to Lethbridge six years ago with his wife who is the Chief of Family Medicine Obstetrics for the South Zone of Alberta Health Services. Before starting MPP Software Solutions, he worked at the University of Lethbridge and did private consulting.
His company has five full-time employees and seven part-time contractors and he is looking to “ideally” double his staff at a minimum the next year.
“We are resource constrained more than anything else right now. We’ve just signed some new agreements through the consulting arm of our business for over a quarter of a million dollars for next year and that’s just one of the irons in the fire currently,” said Moreland Monday at his downtown office.
A 10-year cancer survivor, Moreland is a strong supporter of women’s and amateur sport and is founder of Lethbridge Sports which provides a platform for Lethbridge athletes to tell their story.
His company has several key products including Eligere, which is soon to relaunch as trustedshare.com.
Eligere is an app that allows people to privately book their properties for rentals. It takes a different approach than the AirBnb and VRBO models which operate in the open marketplace and addresses some of the issues of renting to strangers who may not care about respecting a property.
“It doesn’t mean if people use it I don’t want to be compensated but I care about who goes there and I want it to be the trusted friends and family who I believe are going to take care of my property and that I want to enjoy using that space,” Moreland said.
MDGuest is a home and sharing platform that is exclusively for Canadian physicians that enables them to share and exchange with, or rent properties to fellow medical practitioners.
In collaboration with local realtor David Agema, he has developed an app to streamline property viewings. Just Ring the Bell co-ordinates realtors, home sellers and prospective buyers who after being properly vetted can view properties at a time which is convenient to them and the seller. Interested buyers are given a code for a smart lock box, which is changed after every visit, and get 60 minutes to do their own tour of a home. Not only does this service provide a convenience for all three parties, but in the era of COVID-19, it enables contactless home viewing.
“My number one emotion is surprise,” said Moreland about hearing of his honour.
“We are a small company and to have been recognized is fairly significant at the stage of growth we’re at. So that was fantastic, Moreland said.
“A lot of the ingredients are here” for Lethbridge to be a technology hub, Moreland said.
“There is the educated workforce, there’s no reason that people need to finish their degrees, their programs at the college and university and leave town to find work. They see the opportunity to stay here and find a high quality job. So we’ve actually partnered with University of Lethbridge and had a number of our staff come through there either intern or co-op programs and learn our product to help us grow.”
Moreland said he has a similar partnership with the University of Alberta in Edmonton with development staff there.
“The skilled resources are here if we can catch them before they feel they have to leave town to pursue a career in technology. Then all the other factors of Lethbridge advantage, as I’ve heard it described, apply – the short commute times, the smaller centre,” he said.
The sense of community is also a strong attribute, according to Moreland.
“The way that the business community helps lift each other up rather than try to squash the new guy, all these things make this a very attractive place to do business compared to some of the other cities that I’ve worked in around North America.
“Lethbridge has a lot of the pieces to be really nice to live and operate,” he said.
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