Hello, Dolly! This St. John's startup had a role in country superstar's viral meme

If you're on any form of social media, you've probably seen the #DollyPartonChallenge, even if you didn't know that's what it was called. 

Last week, the superstar country songstress made a post that's turned into a template: Four pictures, stacked together, that poke fun of the different personas people have on social media sites.

It went viral. Celebrities, regular citizens, even museums created their own.

But the original was published through a St. John's-based startup.

HeyOrca helps big brands keep track of online content. Parton's team uses it. You can see HeyOrca's name at the bottom of the original tweet from her Twitter account.

"It's a testament that you can build something significant here," said HeyOrca CEO Joe Teo. 

"You can be a company here, in Newfoundland, but still have a global impact on pop culture."

'Served with Newfoundland hospitality'

In 2019, more than a million posts were scheduled through the HeyOrca platform. 

It has 15 employees and almost 500 users around the globe, mostly in the United States. 

"We always say we're a world-class software served with Newfoundland hospitality," Teo said.

The HeyOrca platform lets social media teams collaborate on content. There's a calendar that shows planned posts and a messenger where team members can discuss possible edits. They can preview before publishing and do that from HeyOrca's site instead of having to log into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. 

The company started in 2015 when Teo noticed companies were using spreadsheets to talk about social media plans and he figured there had to be a better way. 

HeyOrca is part of the growing startup community in St. John's. Like many of the other company founders, Teo believes tech will help diversify the province's economy and significantly contribute to the province's GDP in the next 10 years. 

"We really believe in the concept of community over competition," he said of his fellow founders. "If we work together, a rising tide lifts all boats."

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