Michelle Sklar works at Poynt-a free Calgary-based application for iPhone and Blackberry smartphones that helps users locate, among other things, businesses, movies, restaurants and people. Poynt has more than five million users around the world.

You used to work with bnetTV.com, travelling the world, finding the latest and greatest in new technologies. What made you want to settle down with Poynt in Calgary?
I’m from Vancouver, I’ve lived in Toronto, I’ve spent a lot time in some pretty major city centres. I had always considered Calgary to be too small for my liking and I really began to realize in the last year and a half to two years that there were some amazing things that were happening in my own backyard. And I was feeling a little bit sheepish for not spending the time recognizing and finding ways to harness those opportunities…. There’s exceptional people and exceptional opportunities and amazing technology that’s happening in my own backyard… Poynt really kind of fit the bill for all of that.

Tell me a little about Poynt for those who have yet to download it.
It’s a mobile, local search application that really allows you to connect with the local world around you. It will either find your location or you can put your location into the app and it tells you what’s going on around you, and it helps you figure out how to engage in that world. For example, if I want to see what restaurants are around me I can go from finding that restaurant to discovering more about it. I can find it on a map, I can get directions and I can book dining reservations.

How has Poynt grown since it was launched?
Well, basically in about a two-year period we went from about 3,000 users to 5.7-million users. We’re in eight countries; we have an average of 30,000 new users a day … I think that how people use their devices has really evolved in the same period of time that Poynt has gained greater adoption. I think that location-based services have become something of an essential app, the more people understand how to use their smartphone devices.