Walk us through what happens the first time someone opens EH! in their hometown – what do they actually see?
Jessica Glowacki: When you open the app, you land on a chronological feed of Canadians and allies, in the order they posted. It feels like walking into a room full of your fellow Canadians sharing what they are proud of, what is happening in their corner of the country, and a healthy dose of good-natured Canadian humour.
From there, you head to the dedicated Local tab and choose your own city, or honestly any city you are curious about or planning to visit. That is where EH! gets truly local: the people, the businesses, and everything happening in that town. Across the app you can discover Groups and Events, both national and local, so you can go as wide as all of Canada or as close as your own neighbourhood.
You will also spot self-identifying badges, in personal and business flavours, that members add through EH! Plus, our membership, a proud little way to show who you are. EH! is a Canadian-owned local-social network, built around Canadian community, Canadian pride, and the simple joy of having a place of our own.
You have talked about not wanting creators and small businesses to have to “figure out an algorithm” to be seen – what does that look like in practice for, say, a local coffee shop or a musician in a small town?
Jessica Glowacki: I want it to be simple: you post, and your community sees it. A local coffee shop can share “fresh cinnamon buns out of the oven at 8am,” and the people in that town see it that morning. A musician can drop a pub show into the Events calendar and land right in front of the neighbours who would happily come out on a Friday night.
The feed is chronological, and we are building filters so people can intentionally choose what they want to see more or less of. That frees creators and small businesses to put their energy into their craft and their customers. It fits how Canadians already support each other: we show up for the local shop, the farmers market, the band down the street. EH! is built to make that neighbourly instinct easy, so Canadians who want to support local Canadian businesses can find them and cheer them on.
And through EH! Plus, our membership, creators and small businesses can add a self-identifying badge and even run more than one account, so the same person could keep a personal presence as a musician and a separate one as a small business, each with its own badge, if they wanted.
After 20 years inside Reddit and Lululemon, what is the one thing about how big platforms treat everyday users that you were determined EH! would never do?
Jessica Glowacki: The lesson I carry from those years is a hopeful one. Lululemon showed me the power of grassroots community building: real communities are built person to person, neighbour by neighbour, one conversation at a time.
That belief is the heart of EH!, and it is exactly how we have grown, entirely by word of mouth. When you build for people, they feel it, and they stay. So what I set out to do is simple: treat the people who show up as the community. On EH!, your attention stays here and strengthens your own town.
We are building filters so you can intentionally choose what you want to see more or less of, which puts you in control of your feed. And we are Canadian-owned, on a clear path to full data sovereignty, because who owns the platform and where the data lives truly matters.
My 27 years in digital technology, including Reddit and Lululemon, taught me that the platforms people love are the ones that respect them and reflect their values. For Canadians, that means kindness, community, and looking out for your neighbours. We even say it right in the app: post boldly, reply kindly.
EH! has grown to over 31,000 users almost entirely by word of mouth – what have Canadians been telling you about why they are switching over, in their own words?
Jessica Glowacki: The number I am proudest of is that almost every one of those 31,000 people arrived by word of mouth, with zero paid advertising. When Canadians tell me why they made the switch, it comes down to a few things I hear again and again.
“I wanted a place of my own, something that actually feels like ours.” “I am tired of algorithms deciding what I see.” “I am done with the big US platforms and want a Canadian one.”
It really comes down to a few things. Most of all, Canadians want a place of their own, somewhere that feels like ours. They want to choose what they see for themselves. And there is a real sense of Canadian pride right now, a wish to spend our time and attention here at home.
People come for that feeling, and they stay because their neighbours are here and it feels like home. There is a real appetite for a homegrown Canadian social media app, and honestly the timing found us as much as we found it.
You have described EH! as the flagship instance of a bigger local-social model TrailMix is building – for someone just joining today, does that change anything about what they are getting, or is it still just about connecting with their own town?
Jessica Glowacki: For you, joining today, it stays wonderfully simple. EH! is entirely about your town, your neighbours, your local businesses, and your events. That promise holds.
Here is the bigger picture, and I think it is good news for you. EH! is built by TrailMix Technologies, and it is the flagship instance of a repeatable local-social platform. Canada comes first, always, and EH! is the proof that a homegrown, community-first social network can thrive here.
The company stays in Canada, which means the jobs, the investment, and the value we create stay here too, building Canadian careers and keeping Canadian talent at home. The same engine is designed to stand up for other communities and other countries over time, and all of it grows out from Canada.
You are on the leading Canadian-built social platform, backed by a model built to last. The mission is bigger than one app, and that is exactly why EH! will still be here, and still be yours, years from now.
Beyond building another social platform, what bigger mission is EH! trying to accomplish for Canada?
Jessica Glowacki: A couple of things. First, this is a moment as much as a product. There is a real movement across Canada right now toward digital sovereignty and building things we own together. Roughly $7B a year in Canadian attention, and the ad revenue attached to it, could be doing so much more for our own communities.
EH! exists to keep that value at home, where it supports Canadian small business, real connection between neighbours, and local media at a moment when so much of it is being cut or consolidated. Local voices deserve a home, and EH! is building one. In its own small way, it is Canadian nation-building, one post at a time.
Second, to anyone building outside the big tech hubs: you can do it from right where you are. We built the leading Canadian-built social platform from Parksville, British Columbia, woman-led and mission-driven, and grew to 31,000 people entirely by word of mouth. If you are a Canadian looking for a social network that feels like your own, you can download EH! on iOS, Android, or the web at ehnow.ca.
If you are a small business, this is where your neighbours are already gathering. And to the wider tech community: Canada is building something worth watching, rooted in our own values of community, fairness, and looking out for one another.
