and its popularity has allowed it to stand
as its own company. Managed by Ward
and his business partner, it is now based
in Guelph, Ontario.
Building this application transformed An-
imikii, allowing Ward to explore the tech
world beyond web design. Developing
software became just as important. Ward
soon created a content discovery engine
called ContentGems with two co-founders
based in the U.S. and Canada. LikeYikeSite,
it is now a separate company, running in-
dependently of Animikii. Although YikeSite
and ContentGems started as side proj-
ects, both go hand in hand with the work
that Animikii does on a day-to-day basis.
“More and more organizations are lever-
aging technology, in particular social me-
dia. We can provide an extra level of care
and attention as an Indigenous technology
company,” said Ward, adding that Animikii
is uniquely positioned to lend a hand. Its
five-member team (plus a handful of con-
tractors), some of whom are Indigenous,
comes from various professional back-
grounds. From front-end design and con-
tent strategy to back-end development,
Animikii is equipped with the best people
for the job. In fact, RobynWard is the com-
pany’s content strategist.
“It is an exciting time right now in Canada
for the Indigenous movement,” Ward said.
“There's a lot of activity going on. I just
wanted to build a team that could support
these other organizations the best way
that we know how and that is through
106 business elite canada
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