We’ve all been there — checking a text, settling a debate by looking up which actor was in that one movie or mindlessly scrolling through Instagram — and you get that pop-up: “Select a Wi-Fi Network.” Let the eye-roll commence. Of course you want to connect with Wi-Fi! Your data is at stake, but sadly, you don’t know the Wi-Fi password, or have anyone to ask, and in all likelihood the Wi-Fi is probably really slow. Tive is a startup that has built a solution that makes free Wi-Fi easy to connect to and profitable for businesses to provide. Started by U students, Tive has grown from an idea to monetizing and customizing networks at hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and more to benefit both the user and the provider. The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute awarded Tive more than $2,000 towards building a scalable cloud software product that could handle the high traffic and large demand Tive had created. “We created Tive because we hate the ridiculous process associated with logging in to free Wi-Fi networks. Recently I had to wait in line at a coffee shop to get the Wi-Fi password for 10 minutes, just to then remember how to spell ‘dinosaur,’“ said Christian Wutz, CMO and U student.
