Canadian app Zootly is an Uber-style booking service for movers

Two years ago, when New York entrepreneurRudyCallegariwas looking to move hisbrother's couch, he picked up his phone and searched for an app that would help him do that. When he came up empty, he sensed an opportunity.

"I naively thought two years ago there was an app for everything," he said. "Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for me, a lot of the industries that are notsexy haven't been touched yet."

Two yearslater, his ideaevolved intoZootly, an app designed to streamline the search formovers. Users tellthe app how much stuff they need to move and when, andZootlymatches them with a moving company that is available at that time and gives them an estimate of how much the move will cost.

Users don't have to book weeks in advance and cantrack the moving truck on the app.

The app is free, andZootlycollects 25% of the moving costs from the movers.

I wouldn't call it an industry ripe for disruption. It was an industry ripe for help.- RudyCallegari, founder of moving appZootly

Zootlyis often compared toUber, but unlike the ride-sharing app,Zootlydoesn't bypass existing companies in the industry but collects them under one umbrella, much like a dispatch or booking service.

It vets the companies, making sure they arelicensed and insuredand have positive customer reviews, andincludes only those that have met its criteria.

Callegarisays many moving companies have excess capacityand empty trucks on the road, and the app helps fill thosegaps.

"I wouldn't call it an industry ripe for disruption. It was an industry ripe for help, and that's where we come in,"Callegarisaid.

There are competingappsthatoffersimilar services, some of which predateZootly, such as Move Advisor,MyMoveand Lugg,as well as a slew of other apps that help with the packing and planning part of a move.

Canadian connection

One thing that setsZootlyapart is itsCanadian connection. The CEO, George Colwell, is Canadian, as are a number of its major investors. The company headquarters arein New York, but most of the development and technical work on the app is donein Kitchener, Ont.,where about half the staff work.

Colwell says he has an easy time selling the Canadian connection to investors south of the border.

"When you're talking to investment banks here, when you're talking to people in the tech sector,you don't have to explain Kitchener-Waterloo to them. They get it. They know it's Canada's Silicon Valley," he said.

So far,Zootlyhas signed up 41 moving companies in the New York area, and the company plans toexpand toother U.S. and Canadian cities later this year. The company says of the roughly 500 movers registered in New York state, only 137 meet Zootly'scriteria to be included in the app.

Mitchell Newman is president of Katz Moving, which recently joinedZootly. He says Zootly's vettingprocess helps counter the bad reputation that the movingindustry has acquired over the years.

"Moving companies have a credibilityissue," Newman said from his office in Queens. "Too many people have had a bad experience with a moving company."

Currently,he gets about 15 per cent of his jobs from the app,and that number is growing, he said. Newman says he's seen the downtime for his crews decrease because of the jobs they're receiving throughZootly.

"When you can get some help on the marketing side, it's all about volume. It's all about doing more work. Its all about keeping the trucks busy," he said.

The challenge, he says, is that his competitors are also on the app, so he still has to find a way to stand out.