Seattle Culture
Seattle-Based Proxi Hopes to Replace Yelp
Entrepreneurs will tell you where to go
By Rob Smith December 6, 2022
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2022 issue of Seattle magazine.
Chelsea Roney and Melinda Haughey want to be known as more than just “the fun moms that saved Halloween.”
That’s exactly what they did during the pandemic-riddled Halloween of 2020. Inspired by a Seattle-area neighborhood parenting group on Facebook seeking information on “safe” houses for socially distanced trick-or-treating, Roney created a map based on Facebook user recommendations.
The effort went viral, with more than half-a-million page views. KING-5 came calling. So did “Good Morning America.” A business was born.
Today, that business is known as Proxi, which the pair describes as a “simple, easy-to-use collaborative mapping tool.” Businesses or individuals can visit the Proxi website and create custom maps to populate and share. Roney and Haughey have since participated in the Techstars Seattle Accelerator program, where they spent three months attending workshops and working with mentors to help scale their business.
“We immediately knew it was something special,” says Haughey, who dropped out of her Ph.D. program at the University of Washington to pursue the idea. Roney sold her home-services business. Proxi now has six full-time employees and two part-timers, with plans for exponential growth. The business has already raised more than $1 million.
Proxi software can create virtually any map, including kid-friendly breweries and wineries, iconic hotspots in Seattle or any other city or family outdoor activities. Roney and Haughey are now targeting the hospitality industry and local economic development offices as potential clients.
Roney says Proxi’s goal is to replace the likes of Yelp and Google maps. Learn more at proxi.co.
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