Residents Protecting Residents

Like all ideas, this one started with dinner with friends, sharing a home cooked meal. Jonathan had been working in SaaS for over a decade and had been selling enterprise software to the office of the CFO (Chief Finance Officer) and CCO (Chief Compliance Officer). This was an idea that came up in conversation about the challenges of finding parking and safety with road management in the city of Vancouver, a growing municipality plagued with the same challenges every municipality is facing today, more cars on the road than ever before!

The challenge? How do we discourage genuinely poor behavior that is undeniably "bad" regardless of your stance of bylaw enforcement. On top of that, how do we encourage the city to adopt a solution that is beneficial for them and for their residents?

Amicus was born from that point. The goal was clear: Improve bylaw & code compliance, increase city revenue, and foster a safer community and culture.

Amicus is shortened from the Latin word amicus curiae (lit. 'friend of the court'; pl. amici curiae). Amicus is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case.

It became fitting as our goal was to crowdsourced bylaw & code enforcement that could be deployed to any municipality and any resident across North America. From there, it was customer interviews with Councilors, City Managers, and Mayors trying to identify the typical objections and how to provide a solution that would encourage positive behaviors, reprimand negative ones, and create efficiencies for municipalities while generating revenue as a by-product.