Edmonton’s Avenue Magazine held its annual Top 40 under 40 Awards Tuesday night and Todayville’s technology partner, Raoul Bhatt, was a member of that illustrious group. As someone no longer in that particular age demo, it’s a humbling experience to sit in the crowd and listen to the incredible achievements of these serious over-achievers.

Raoul and his team brought to life our Todayville vision over the past year.  It’s been quite an undertaking, more than anyone realized. Who knew it could be so challenging to create a technology platform that allows us to connect an entire community so we can all publish to the same platform?  Raoul is one of our province’s top software and app designers.

In his own words, “My greatest interest is in taking a concept and developing that idea into a business, whether for profit or not for profit, that people want to be a part of; inventing a product, bringing it to life and making it excellent. To make the experience so exceptional that people will buy it, or download and use it. Either way, it’s rewarding.”

Raoul is an accomplished artist/designer and photographer. Always a self-starter he studied countless design books and Internet digital design tutorials, and by the age of 14 was putting his skills to good use creating posters for local nightclubs. At the same time, he was coding thousands of scripts for a variety of businesses. In the years since, Raoul has worked with some pretty cool companies including Twitter, Yahoo, Bosch, the Oilers, Wrestlemania, and a bunch of police agencies in Alberta including the Edmonton Police Service.

Raoul’s first company FireText enjoyed wide­spread usage in stadiums, nightclubs, even with artists like Mark Anthony and Fall Out Boy. In 2005, it was used as the text to screen provider for the Superbowl and used on location on more than 60 giant screens at MET Life Stadium in New Jersey. Heady stuff before social media hit its stride.

In 2010 he developed then Canadian National Games brand for Special Olympics that was used across Canada and helped the United Way’s Tools for Schools initiative during the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Hats off to you Raoul on being one of the 40 smartest and brightest in our northern city.  We’re proud to have you as a key player on the Todayville team!