Meet Chris Rickett and Darryl Julott, two inspirational professionals leading ShopHERE; a City of Toronto and Digital Main Street initiative bringing Toronto’s independent businesses, artists and local retailers online. Chris Rickett is the Director of COVID-19 Business Mitigation and Recovery for the City of Toronto and Darryl Julott is the Senior Manager at Digital Main Street. The COVID-19 pandemic has made one thing clear: we need to get businesses online. When I heard about the ShopHERE program, I reached out to our pool of talented developers to help save Toronto businesses. Within 24 hours, 70 of our developers signed up to help mentor businesses to set up and maintain online stores. ShopHERE’s goal is to bring 3,000 businesses online by the end of August with the help of incredible partners Shopify, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Tabia, eBay, Facebook, Snapchat, Schulich School of Business, Scotiabank, Juno, Government of Canada, Magnet, Ritual, TruFan, General Assembly, BrainStation, Project K(IN)D, Tribal Scale, and eShipper. Listen to the fourth installment of “Yousuf’s Adventures in Zebra Hunting” to learn more about the ShopHERE program and the importance of bringing Toronto’s small businesses online. I challenge other CEOs to step up and to help! Now is the time for us to mobilize our talent and networks to make a difference. I urge you to pledge a number of builds for the ShopHERE program and play your part. Check-out ShopHERE: https://digitalmainstreet.ca/shophere/