The story

CraftNearby started the way a lot of good things do — as a list. The people in the Greater Toronto Area you'd actually recommend to a friend. The neighbourhood jeweller who can reset an heirloom stone. The mechanic who explains what's wrong instead of just charging for it. The Mehndi artist whose name only ever travelled by word of mouth, never by search.

That list became the idea for a directory. This is the beginning of it.

CraftNearby isn't a Yellow Pages. The goal is a field guide — built neighbourhood by neighbourhood, for the GTA's craftspeople and small businesses — that ranks people by their craft, not by who paid for placement.

What we believe

Twenty years of craft shouldn't lose to twenty days of TikTok.

The best people in your neighbourhood are often the worst at marketing themselves — because they're busy doing the work. CraftNearby exists to put them back on the map, without forcing them to film vertical videos, hire an agency, or pay for placement.

Tuvi — for the shops

Behind every listing is the person running the shop. Tuvi is the AI shop manager we're building for them: a set of purpose-built agents to help with posts, customer messages, bookings, simple books, and translation. The directory makes a shop findable; the goal of Tuvi is to give the owner their evenings back.

Tuvi is in early development — the translation agent is being built first. It isn't available yet; you can ask to be told when it is.

Who we are

CraftNearby is independent and founder-built, based in the Greater Toronto Area. No venture money, no investors, no ads. It's an early-stage project with a long-term plan — and right now the whole focus is on getting good local businesses listed.

If you're a journalist, the Press page has the basics. Everyone else — owners, partners, the curious — say hello.

The basics

Founded

Greater Toronto Area, 2026

Stage

Early. Building the first listings now.

Coverage

Greater Toronto Area

Categories

Tailoring, jewellery, mechanics, salons, home services, legal, health, events & more

Approach

Ranked by craft, not by who paid. No sponsored placement.

Funding

Independent. Founder-built.

For visitors

For shop owners

Privacy & data

Working with us

Get in touch

We read every message. We're a small operation, so please allow a couple of business days for a reply.

Email us

For anything at all — listing a business, questions about Tuvi, press, privacy requests, or just to say hello — write to hello@craftnearby.com. It's the fastest way to reach us, and it comes straight to the founder.

Where we are

Based in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. We're a small, independent operation, so email is the best way to reach us — we read everything.

Where things stand

Right now CraftNearby is one founder building something specific: a directory that ranks local businesses by their craft rather than by who paid for placement, plus an AI shop manager called Tuvi that's still in early development.

There's no payroll, no open roles, and no recruiting process yet — and we'd rather say that plainly than post jobs we can't back. As the project grows and finds revenue, that will change.

The work is the work. The point is to do it well.

The kinds of people we'll eventually need

If and when CraftNearby is in a position to bring people on, the help most likely to matter will be in engineering (the directory and Tuvi's agents), editorial (verifying and writing up local shops), design, and shop onboarding. None of these are open roles today — just an honest sketch of the direction.

Want to be considered later?

If you'd genuinely like to help build this someday, send a short note about what you'd do and why to hello@craftnearby.com. There's no formal process and no promise of a role — but good notes get remembered.

The story in one paragraph

CraftNearby is an early-stage, independent hyperlocal directory of craftspeople and small businesses in the Greater Toronto Area, designed to rank people by their craft instead of by who paid for placement. Alongside the directory, the founder is building Tuvi — an AI shop manager intended to help listed owners with posts, messages, bookings, simple books, and translation. The project is founder-built, not venture-backed, and is currently focused on signing up its first businesses.

Quick facts

Founded

Greater Toronto Area, 2026

Stage

Early. Pre-launch, building first listings.

Founder

Available for interview on request

Funding

Independent. Founder-built.

Coverage

Greater Toronto Area

Categories

Tailoring, jewellery, mechanics, salons, home services, legal, health & more

Approach

Ranked by craft. No sponsored placement.

Tuvi

AI shop manager, in early development

Press contact

For interviews, features, or questions — including the AI / Tuvi angle and local community stories — email hello@craftnearby.com with your publication and what you're working on. We aim to reply within a couple of business days.

Brand assets

Logo, wordmark, and screenshots are available on request — email hello@craftnearby.com with what you need and where it'll run.

A few guidelines if you use them:

• Don't crop or alter the logo. Reverse-out (white on dark) is fine.
• Brand colours are warm cream #f6f4ef, ink #1a1a1a, and an amber accent #c8893a, used sparingly.
• "CraftNearby" is one word, with the "C" and "N" capitalised.

Ways we'd like to work together

We're not a big platform with a partner programme bolted on — we're at the stage where partnerships are conversations, not contracts. If you're a BIA, a chamber of commerce, a trade association, an accountant, a community organiser, or just someone with a strong local network, here's where we think there's mutual value.

1 · Referral partners

If you regularly talk to small business owners, you can point them to CraftNearby — and we'll share revenue on any business you refer that becomes a paying customer. We're setting the exact terms up now (a per-referral commission, paid on real conversions); if you're interested, we'll agree the details with you directly and keep it simple and trackable.

This is the most concrete way to partner today, and it's open to anyone with the right relationships.

Interested? Email hello@craftnearby.com with a sentence about who you'd be referring.

2 · BIAs, chambers & community groups

For business improvement areas, chambers of commerce, and neighbourhood associations across the GTA, the long-term aim is to feature your members on curated neighbourhood pages and help onboard them — without charging you and without hiding members behind a paywall. We're early, so the best first step is a conversation about your area and your members.

Reach out at hello@craftnearby.com.

3 · Software integrations

As Tuvi develops, we'd like it to work alongside the tools small businesses already use — point-of-sale, booking, and accounting software. We don't have live integrations yet; this is a direction, not a finished feature. If you build software for small businesses and want to compare notes early, we'd be glad to talk.

Email hello@craftnearby.com.

If you mention us

If you reference CraftNearby or Tuvi in your own materials, please don't alter our logo, don't imply an endorsement or partnership we haven't actually agreed to, and don't use our marks in domain names you own. When in doubt, ask.

1. Scope and who we are

This Privacy Policy explains how CraftNearby ("CraftNearby", "we", "our") collects, uses, and protects personal information when you use our website, mobile experiences, the Tuvi service, and any related products (collectively, the "Services").

We are a Canadian company based in Toronto, Ontario. We act as the controller of the personal information described in this policy, subject to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Quebec's Law 25 where applicable, and — for visitors from the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland — the GDPR.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details: name, email, phone, postal code.
• Business listing details (for shop owners): trade, address, hours, services, photos, descriptions.
• Tuvi configuration: tone-of-voice samples, customer messages, calendar links, financial summaries you choose to share with the Books agent.
• Communications you send us: support tickets, survey responses, emails.

Information collected automatically

• Device and browser data (IP address, operating system, browser type, language, referrer).
• Usage data (pages viewed, searches, clicks, session timing).
• Approximate location derived from IP, used to sort the directory by your area. We do not collect GPS-precise location unless you grant explicit permission.
• Cookies and similar technologies — see Section 5.

Information from third parties

• Listing verification data from public sources (business registries, licensing boards).
• Payment information, if and when we introduce paid features — handled by a third-party payment processor. We never store full card numbers.

3. How we use it

• To operate, maintain, and improve the Services.
• To match users to relevant listings based on neighbourhood, trade, and distance.
• To power Tuvi: drafting posts, replying to customer messages, translating, tracking books, and watching competitor pricing on the shop owner's behalf.
• To process payments and prevent fraud.
• To send service emails (receipts, security notices, important updates).
• To send marketing emails — only when you opt in. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms and Acceptable Use Policy.

Legal basis (GDPR): contract performance, legitimate interests, consent (for marketing and non-essential cookies), and legal obligation.

4. Who we share with

We do not sell personal information.

We share limited data with:

• Service providers who help us run the site — for example hosting, email delivery, privacy-respecting analytics, and, in future, payment processing and AI model providers for Tuvi. They may only use your information to provide their service to us.
• Listed businesses, only the information needed to fulfil a booking or message you sent them.
• Authorities, when required by law (court order, subpoena, lawful request). We push back on overbroad requests.
• A successor in the case of a merger or acquisition. We'll notify you in advance and your rights carry over.

5. Cookies and tracking

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and remember your preferences, and optional analytics cookies to understand which listings are useful. We do not run third-party advertising cookies. Full details are in our Cookies Policy.

6. Storage and security

Personal information is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256). Production systems are accessible only by a small number of authenticated employees on a least-privilege basis. We log access. For more, see our Security page.

No system is perfect. If we ever experience a breach affecting your data, we will notify you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in accordance with PIPEDA's mandatory breach reporting requirements.

7. Retention

We keep personal information only as long as we need it. Specifically:

• Account data — for the life of your account, then 30 days post-deletion for backups.
• Any future Tuvi data — kept only as long as needed to provide the service, with details given when Tuvi launches.
• Financial or invoice records — kept as long as Canadian tax and accounting law requires.
• Analytics — aggregated and anonymised after 14 months.
• Marketing emails — until you unsubscribe.

8. Your rights

Under PIPEDA, Law 25, and the GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Delete your information, subject to legal retention.
• Withdraw consent at any time.
• Request that we stop using your data for marketing.
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format.
• Lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your local Data Protection Authority.

Email hello@craftnearby.com to exercise any of these rights. We respond within 30 days.

9. Children

CraftNearby is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have, contact us and we will delete it.

10. International transfers

We aim to store personal information with reputable providers, in Canada where practical. Some providers may process data outside Canada (for example in the United States); where that happens, your information may be subject to the laws of those jurisdictions, and we take reasonable steps to work with providers that maintain appropriate safeguards.

11. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced at least 14 days in advance by email and on this page. The "Last updated" date at the top will always reflect the latest revision.

12. Contact

Privacy questions, requests, or complaints:

Email

hello@craftnearby.com

Location

Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada

Regulator

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

1. Acceptance

By using the CraftNearby website, mobile experiences, the Tuvi service, or any related products (the "Services"), you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, please don't use the Services.

If you are using the Services on behalf of a business or organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation to these Terms.

2. What CraftNearby is

CraftNearby is a hyperlocal directory of craftspeople and small businesses in the Greater Toronto Area, plus Tuvi — an AI shop manager that helps listed businesses with posts, messages, bookings, books, and translation.

We provide a platform. We are not the craftspeople or businesses listed. Any work, services, or transactions you engage in with a listed business is between you and that business.

3. Your account

You must be at least 16 to create an account. You are responsible for keeping your credentials safe and for everything that happens under your account. Notify us at hello@craftnearby.com immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Services to break any law or infringe anyone's rights.
• Scrape, harvest, or systematically download data from the Services without our written permission.
• Post false, defamatory, threatening, harassing, or hateful content.
• Impersonate any person or business, or misrepresent your affiliation.
• Upload malware, attempt to gain unauthorised access, or interfere with the Services' operation.
• Use Tuvi to generate spam, fraudulent content, or messages that violate applicable law (CASL, telemarketing rules, etc.).

Full details: Acceptable Use Policy. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate it, with or without notice.

5. Listings and content

If you list your business, you keep ownership of the photos, descriptions, and other content you upload. You grant CraftNearby a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display, distribute, and (where needed) modify that content to operate the Services. This licence ends when you remove the content, except for back-up copies retained for a reasonable period.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your listing. You confirm that you have the right to publish all content you upload and that it doesn't infringe third-party rights.

We may remove listings or content that violate these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, or applicable law.

6. Tuvi subscriptions

Tuvi is in development and not yet available for purchase. When it launches, any pricing, billing, and tier details will be described clearly at sign-up before you commit.

When paid features become available, cancellation and any refund terms will be described clearly at sign-up before you purchase.

Tuvi generates content using AI models. While we work to keep its output accurate and on-brand, you remain responsible for what you publish or send. Always review Tuvi's drafts before they go out to customers.

7. Fees and billing

Subscription fees are billed in advance, in Canadian dollars, on the cadence you select (monthly or annually). Taxes are added where applicable.

If we introduce paid features and a payment fails, we may suspend access until it succeeds. Payments will be handled by a reputable third-party processor, so your full card details never touch our servers.

8. Intellectual property

The CraftNearby name, logo, design, copy, and all proprietary software — including Tuvi — are owned by CraftNearby and are protected by Canadian and international copyright, trademark, and other laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you rights to our marks or proprietary code beyond using the Services as intended.

9. Disclaimers

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent permitted by law, CraftNearby disclaims all warranties — express, implied, statutory, or otherwise — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We don't warrant that listings will be error-free, that Tuvi's output will be accurate, that the Services will be uninterrupted, or that defects will be corrected. You use the Services at your own risk.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, CraftNearby will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages, including loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, even if advised of the possibility.

Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or related to the Services is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or (b) CA$100.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless CraftNearby, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use of the Services, your content, or your violation of these Terms.

12. Termination

You may close your account any time. We may suspend or terminate your access for breach of these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (IP, disclaimers, liability, indemnity, governing law) will survive.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

The courts of Ontario have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any competent court to protect intellectual property rights.

14. Changes to these terms

We may revise these Terms occasionally. We'll post the updated version here and update the "Last updated" date. Material changes will be announced at least 14 days in advance by email. Continued use after a change means you accept the revised Terms.

Questions? Email hello@craftnearby.com.

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They let the site remember you between visits — keep you signed in, remember your sort preference, count visits anonymously. Similar technologies (local storage, pixels, SDKs) work the same way and are covered by this policy.

What we use

Strictly necessary cookies

Always on — they keep the site working.

session

Keeps you signed in. Expires when you sign out or after 30 days.

csrf

Protects against cross-site request forgery. Session-only.

cookie_consent

Remembers your choices about non-essential cookies. 12 months.

Preference cookies

Remember small choices you've made.

sort_radius

Your default search radius (2 / 5 / 12 / 25 km).

last_postal

Your last postal code so we can sort by your area on return visits.

reduce_motion

Honours your system's reduced-motion setting if you've opted in.

Analytics cookies (opt-in)

Help us understand how the directory is used. We do not run third-party advertising cookies. Where we use analytics, we aim to use privacy-respecting, aggregate measurement only — no cross-site tracking and no selling of your data.

plausible_ignore

Set if you opt out of analytics. 12 months.

How to manage cookies

• From CraftNearby — open the cookie banner at the bottom of any page (link in the footer) to update your preferences any time.
• From your browser — every major browser lets you block, delete, or be prompted before accepting cookies. Search "manage cookies" in your browser's settings.
• Blocking strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of CraftNearby from working (you won't be able to sign in).

Do Not Track

If your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, we treat that as a decline of analytics cookies.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page if our cookie practice changes. The "Last updated" date will reflect any revision.

CraftNearby is a directory and toolset for small businesses. This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") sits alongside our Terms of Service and tells you what behaviour is and isn't welcome here.

Violating this policy may result in content removal, account suspension, termination, and — for serious matters — referral to law enforcement.

You may not

Break the law

• Use CraftNearby or Tuvi for any illegal activity, including fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, or violations of Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
• Sell or advertise products / services that require a licence you don't hold.
• List a business that doesn't actually operate, or list someone else's business without authorisation.

Harm others

• Post content that's defamatory, threatening, harassing, hateful, or that incites violence.
• Discriminate against customers or employees based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any protected ground.
• Use the Services to stalk, dox, or surveil any person.
• Publish sexually explicit content or content sexualising minors. Ever.

Lie about who you are or what you sell

• Impersonate any person, business, or affiliation.
• Misrepresent your services, qualifications, location, or pricing.
• Post fake listings, ghost branches, or shell businesses.
• Manipulate ranking through fake reviews, paid placement schemes, or click-fraud.

Abuse the platform

• Scrape, harvest, or systematically download data from CraftNearby without our written permission.
• Upload malware, attempt to gain unauthorised access, or interfere with the Services' operation.
• Reverse-engineer the platform or Tuvi's underlying models.
• Use bots to generate fake traffic, signups, or interactions.

Misuse Tuvi

Tuvi is for legitimate small-business operations. You may not use it to:

• Generate spam, robocalls, or unsolicited mass marketing.
• Impersonate a person (including your own staff) in a way that misleads customers.
• Produce deepfakes, misleading reviews, fake testimonials, or content designed to deceive.
• Generate hateful, harassing, or sexually explicit content.
• Process personal data of people who haven't consented to be in your CRM.

How we enforce this

1. For minor or first-time issues we contact you and ask you to fix it.
2. For repeated or serious violations we may suspend the listing or account.
3. For severe violations (impersonation, fraud, content involving minors, threats of violence) we terminate immediately and report to law enforcement where appropriate.

We aim to be fair. If you think we got it wrong, email hello@craftnearby.com.

Reporting a violation

Email hello@craftnearby.com with as much detail as you can — the listing URL, screenshots, and what you saw. We review every report. For emergencies involving threats to safety, contact local police first, then us.

Our commitment

CraftNearby is for everyone across the Greater Toronto Area, including people living with a disability. We're committed to working toward the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, as the site develops.

What we're aiming for

As an early-stage site we're building accessibility in as we go, rather than claiming we've finished. The things we're working to get right include:

• Semantic HTML, clear headings, and proper landmarks.
• Full keyboard navigation, with visible focus states.
• Colour contrast that meets WCAG 2.1 AA on text and controls.
• Descriptive alt text on imagery.
• Forms with clear labels and error messages.
• Respecting reduced-motion preferences for animated sections.

Where we know we fall short

We won't pretend to be fully conformant yet. The animation-heavy parts of the homepage aren't a perfect screen-reader experience, and some imagery still needs better alt text. We're improving these over time.

Tell us when we miss

If you hit an accessibility barrier, please tell us at hello@craftnearby.com — including the page and what went wrong — and we'll do our best to help and to fix it. If you need information from the site in an alternate format, ask and we'll arrange it.

An honest note on our stage

CraftNearby is an early-stage, founder-built project. We want to be straight with you rather than claim certifications or infrastructure we don't yet have: we are not SOC 2 certified, we have not undergone a formal third-party penetration test, and we don't operate a 24/7 security team. What we can describe is how we approach security and what we commit to as we grow.

How we handle your data today

• We collect as little personal information as we reasonably can — see our Privacy Policy.
• Connections to the site are served over HTTPS / TLS.
• We rely on reputable hosting and infrastructure providers and use their built-in security features.
• We do not store full payment card numbers. If and when we take payments, they'll be handled by an established payment processor, and we'll only ever see tokenised references — never your full card details.
• Access to any data we do hold is kept to the people who genuinely need it, which today is a very small circle.

What we're working toward

As CraftNearby grows and especially before we handle sensitive business data or payments at scale, our intention is to strengthen this — formal access controls and audit logging, encrypted backups, dependency and vulnerability scanning, and independent security review. We'll update this page honestly as those things are actually in place, rather than in advance.

Found a problem?

If you discover a security issue, please tell us before disclosing it publicly. Email hello@craftnearby.com with the details and how to reproduce it, and we'll respond as quickly as we can. We're grateful for responsible disclosure.

What you can do

• Use a strong, unique password for any account you create with us in future.
• Be cautious of emails claiming to be from CraftNearby asking for passwords or payment details — we will never ask for those by email.
• Keep your own devices and browser up to date.