In less than a year, three Canadian university students, Evan Ferreira, Joseph Liao, and Hussein Tahan, have successfully sold their startup, Local Reach, to Winnipeg-based advertising technology company Taiv in a cash-and-stock deal. The company, which began as an AI-driven research idea, has quickly transformed the way bars and restaurants optimize entertainment and atmosphere.
The three co-founders, students at McMaster University and Queen’s University, launched Local Reach in an effort to improve the in-venue entertainment experience at restaurants and bars by using artificial intelligence to make live TV content more relevant, dynamic, and engaging.
“The goal of Local Reach is to optimize TV content playing in our restaurant and bar partners,” said Tahan. “We use AI to detect and dynamically switch between TV content, advertisements, and trivia, so we can optimize the engagement that customers have in our partner restaurants.”
The rapid rise of Local Reach from concept through to acquisition was supported by The Forge, McMaster’s startup incubator. The team credits the Startup Survivor program for helping shape the business through mentorship, professional guidance, new connections, structure, and real-world applications including pitch coaching. After developing proprietary AI models that had been trained to classify content in Canadian TV feeds, the team acquired their first customers in Kingston before expanding through the GTA.
“The Forge was monumental to the success of Local Reach,” said Tahan. “Before we started, none of us had any experience with startups. After The Forge, we understood everything about customer discovery, calling customers, gathering data to understand what they need, and building a business plan around that. It’s the most important set of skills you can learn, and you can use it across your life.”
As Liao explained, the concept of Local Reach was sparked by personal experience. The founders realized how jarring in-venue entertainment could be without optimization options for bars and restaurants, after an ad for a funeral aired during an otherwise lively outing to watch a National Hockey League playoff game.
“We were at a bar watching sports and we noticed the TV content didn’t necessarily match the vibe. Sometimes an ad would come on and completely kill the mood and that’s what we set out to fix,” said Liao.
The result was a plug-and-play AI device compatible with any cable box, allowing bars and restaurants to elevate their TV systems in real time.
“Local Reach offers a hardware device that you’re able to install into any restaurant and bar’s cable box TV system,” said Ferreira. “There are built-in AI models running on this device, and based upon what’s playing, it optimizes for better content to be played within these venues.”
Although the original device didn’t include music functionality, that’s set to be one of the first changes with the acquisition.
“Music functionality was something we were eager to add,” said Ferreira. “Fortunately, Taiv has just implemented this feature.”
By bringing Local Reach’s co-founders as well as some of the startup’s tech on board, the acquisition by Taiv represents a mutually beneficial strategic shift to scale and build upon what Local Reach has already accomplished.
“I think for both of us, we’re really two sides of the same coin,” Liao said. “We’re all about trying to optimize the restaurant experience for our partners. Being able to partner with Taiv, it was a no-brainer from there.”