About Canopy

Camp season,
sorted.

We're building toward one place where families can plan and eventually enroll across every camp in their city — and modern, affordable tools for the camps that run those programs. The directories are the first piece, and Louisville is live today.

Read our story ↓

How it started

Born from a really long spreadsheet.

Picture this: it's January. You're sorting through camps for three kids, and every camp has its own registration flow and its own requirements. Different forms, different deadlines, different ways to pay. By February, you've started a spreadsheet to keep it all straight. By March, the spreadsheet has its own spreadsheet. You want to cry a little.

That was us. So instead of going through it again, we started building Canopy. Step one is live: one place to find every camp in your city, compare them side-by-side, and plan the whole summer in a single view. The rest — verified listings, family accounts, and an affordable enrollment platform for camps — is what we're building next, with the families and camps shaping the order.

1
place to find and compare
every camp in your city
0
spreadsheets needed
∞
summer memories

What we do

Building for both sides
of the sign-up sheet.

For families

Today: browse every camp in your city, compare programs, juggle multiple kids' schedules, and save what you love — all in one place instead of seventeen browser tabs. Next: family accounts that remember your plan year over year. Eventually: enroll across opt-in camps without re-typing the same information on a dozen different forms.

For camps

Today: a free directory listing that helps local parents find you, and a path to claim your listing and control what families see. Next: a Validated badge and full ownership of your page. Eventually: a modern, affordable enrollment platform — registration, waitlists, payments, rosters — built around how camp weeks actually work. We're shaping it now with 2027 pilot camps.

For everyone

The goal is connective tissue between families and camps — fewer emails, fewer phone tags, fewer "wait, which camp is on which week?" moments. The directory is the first piece. The rest is what we're building, in the open, with the people who'd use it.

What we're about

What we care about.

Simple beats clever.

If we can't explain it in a sentence, it isn't ready. The directory has one job: help you find the right camp without making you work for it.

Built for busy people.

Parents are busy. Camp directors are busier. We design for the person figuring out summer from a grocery-store parking lot, not an ideal user with all afternoon.

Camps are partners.

Camps put real care into their programs. We try to match that — with tools they can afford and a directory that sends families their way, not ours. When camps thrive, kids thrive.

Joy is the point.

It's summer camp. The product should feel like that — even the boring parts.

Where the money comes from

How this is funded. Honestly.

Canopy is independent. No outside investors, no ad networks, no data brokers. It's funded by us, two parents who saw a gap: incredible local camps and the families who love them deserved tools as modern and affordable as the rest of modern life, and that piece hadn't been built yet. So we're building it. That means every product decision gets made for the people actually using the platform, not for a board, a quarterly target, or an exit. Slow, sustainable growth is fine. Selling your attention isn't.

Long-term, Canopy pays for itself through optional, paid features for camps that want them: better tools, deeper analytics, integrations they'd otherwise have to build in-house. Always opt-in. Never the cost of being listed. We're betting that if the software is good enough, camps will choose to pay for it on their own. And parents shouldn't have to subsidize either side.

Our promises

  • Always free for families. The directory and core search will never be paywalled, never ad-supported.
  • Never your data. We don't sell it, rent it, or share it with marketers. Full stop.
  • Always your camp's choice. Camps decide whether to pay for premium tools. They're not required to in order to be listed.

These aren't aspirational. They're how the company is built.

The humans behind it

Built by parents.
Tested on reality.

Canopy wasn't dreamed up in a boardroom. It was built by two data-obsessed, community-loving parents who'd lived the planning chaos every March, and seen how much heart local camps put into their programs. They cared enough to build the missing piece for both sides. They're results-driven, thoughtful, and yes, very competitive in the home gym.

Michael
Co-creator

Michael is the mind Canopy was born from. With a PhD in nuclear physics and a career in data science, he had both the vision and the technical depth to see exactly what was broken, and build something better from scratch. He's enthusiastic, not afraid to rock the boat when something isn't right, and genuinely motivated by building things that help people. Dad of 3 and a natural social butterfly.

Kirstie
Co-creator

Kirstie is the person who thinks of everything, and has already thought three steps ahead before you've finished your sentence. A data engineer with a master's in electrical engineering, she's meticulous, blunt, and allergic to wasted time. As a mom of 3 and household manager, she has a black belt in prioritization and brings that same quiet, results-first energy to everything she builds.

Got a question?
Let's talk.

Whether you're a parent with a question, a camp curious about our tools, or anyone else with feedback, we'd love to hear from you. A real person reads every email.

Get in touch