Why Different is Good: Part 2
Posted on 02 November 2012. Tags: apps, future, strong, tech, Technology, Women, women 2.0
It should come as no surprise that in the worlds of IT, computer sciences and, my personal favourite, business, there’s no shortage of women who want to hear about the success, hardships, and advice from other females like them. The last list of “Women-in-Tech” quotes were well received and so we knew we had to [...][Read More]
A Stroke of Luck
Posted on 11 February 2013. Tags: challenges, Karla Stephens-Tolstoy, Life, Oskar, overcome,stroke, Tokii, triumphs
“Life is 10 percent circumstance and 90 percent how we deal with it.” ~ Michael Durrant And let’s face it. Everyone “deals with it.” You can run from it, but eventually at least one “it” will find you. “It” is the toughest of life circumstances. “It” can be the times we don’t see in our [...] [Read More]
The Social Media Model And What It Means For Tokii (Presence And Patience)
Posted on 30 November 2012. Tags: Angry Birds, Karla Stephens-Tolstoy, linkedin, pinterest, Social Media
It might not be your social media presence that will sink or float your boat, but rather your absence.
By Karla Stephens-Tolstoy (Founder & CEO, Tokii)
Tokii has been in business for more than 18 months now, and we’ve been running a social media campaign since its inception. It didn’t take a rocket scientist on staff to determine we needed to rev up our engines by launching a social media campaign, and we’ve done just that. We’ve focused on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. [Read More]
The Long Road to Overnight Success:
Posted on 08 May 2012. Tags: advice, Communication, Couples, Love, relationships, social media, success, Tokii
Case Studies for LinkedIn, Angry Birds, and Pinterest By Kevin Sawyer FOREWORD BY KARLA STEPHENS-TOLSTOY I know from plenty of experience that million-dollar companies don’t get built overnight. They need lots of time, love and tenderness, as well as a people who willing to forego sleep, sunshine and family to get the job [Read More]
Tokii’s Advice To Online Dating: Be More Like WoW
Posted on 29 March 2012. Tags: Communication, Conflict, couple, Entertainment, Infograph, Relationship, relationships, Technology, Television, Tokii.com
Online dating has been a fact of life for singles in the western world since the 90’s. It has thoroughly and permanently changed the lay of the land when it comes to courting, dating and even marrying that soul mate you’ve always been after. But let’s face it: the scene has gone stale. The novelty [Read More]
Understanding Love, Relationships and Sex is Only a Point and Click Away: People are going online to get it on
Posted on 05 March 2012. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Couples, Internet, Relationship, Sex, Technology, Tokii
In the late 90’s, as soon as Ethernet cables started sneaking their way into dorm rooms, forward thinking offices and basements the world over, the internet has been front and center in love lives. Where once there were blind dates set up through friends, dawdling drawn out phone calls, and love letters, there is now [Read More]
Happy Anniversary Al
Posted on 18 February 2012. Tags: Anniversary, Family, Marriage, Tokii
Be honest, at some point you chased this wonderful guy, or maybe he chased you! The point is you caught him or let yourself be caught! At some point you made a decision to enter into life with this guy, and when you did you had some good reasons. Like most people you made sure [Read More]
Love Potion Number 9!
Posted on 16 February 2012. Tags: Business, Communication, Couples, Internet, Online, Relationship, Technology, Tokii
You met online, fell in love, and maybe you got married, and now what? How do you keep your relationship energized, growing and fun? Bloomberg Business Week dated February 13-19, 2012 has an article entitled Technology: The Perpetual Love Machine. We were intrigued to read that Zoosk, co-founders Shayan and Alex Mehr are exploring ways [Read More]
Ellen DeGeneres Misguided Opposition
Posted on 09 February 2012. Tags: Celebrities, Communication, Entertainment, Gossip, Television
Ellen DeGeneres and her routine might not suit everyone’s taste, but recent attempts by activist groups to have JC Penny remove her as their spokesperson are backwards and ultimately ridiculous. We wonder, are there really 1 million moms in the One Million Moms group so hell bent on opposing Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson for [Read More]
Santa’s Little Helpers
Posted on 18 December 2011. Tags: Christmas, Entertainment, Holidays, Internet, Life, Tokii
Our Tokii team works as hard as Santa’s team of elves, often in the background and all year long! At Christmas time, we took the opportunity to mention them by name in a little poem that hints at their responsibilities and it was our way to thank them for their devotion to the company. No [Read More]
Confessions of a Stats Junkie
Posted on 28 October 2011. Tags: Entertainment, Life, Technology, Tokii
I’m a stats junkie and I love to examine and analyze the stats about Tokii. One of the cool things we’ve been doing recently is sending out surveys to our users to get more information about who our members are and the relationships they are in. And even though we had to entice some of [Read More]
Bridging the Divide Between Technology and Relationships
Posted on 18 October 2011. Tags: Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Relationship, Technology
While technology and communication have practically been best friends with every advance, technology and romantic relationships have always had a more tenuous coexistence. As technology has in many ways enhanced these relationships, every advance seems to also take away from the all-important face-to-face time. This is especially true in recent years as social networks are [Read More]
From Telecom to Shirtless Photos
Posted on 29 September 2011. Tags: Communication, Couples, Family, Life, Living Together, Relationship, Tokii
Most of my career has been in the field of telecommunications; not relationships, nor couples therapy, and certainly not sex games. I went from my early beginningsas an installer/repairman to becoming a CEO and chairman of several wireless companies in various countries. That was an exciting growth journey that I relished and felt privileged to [Read More]
A Voyage into the Unknown
Posted on 22 September 2011. Tags: Communication, Entertainment, Relationship, Technology, Tokii
When we came up with the idea for Tokii a few years ago, we knew we were breaking new ground and hitting an online sector that was untouched. While dating sites such as eHarmony, Match, and OkCupid along with countless others, saturated the new relationship area, any Google search relating to relationship help and advice [Read More]
Play Meets Technology with DiscoveryGames
Posted on 14 May 2011. Tags: Entertainment, Technology, Tokii
Remember when you were a kid it seemed you could play for HOURS without getting tired or bored? Even on the hottest summer day you were happily oblivious to the river of sweat and complaints gushing from the adults nearby. In those moments you were completely immersed in the experience of slaying dragons or maybe [Read More]
Tokii’s first Silicon Halton meeting
Posted on 13 April 2011. Tags: Business, Entertainment, Tokii
Last night, the Tokii team and I were excited to go to Silicon Halton for the first time. Having never been to a meeting prior I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was thrilled to learn that Silicon Halton is a networking group dedicated to connecting local technology businesses and creating relationships. The Tokii [Read More]
Tokii Beaver Swag Gets Around
Posted on 06 April 2011. Tags: Tokii, Travel
Not satisfied with the 103 countries that have found Tokii, our swag is now literally on the move around the world! Fresh from his debut at SXSW our special swag, the Tokii Canadian Beaver, hopped a plane with Tokii fan, Bob Embleton, and has so far made stops in Montreal, New Brunswick, and Paris! Thanks [Read More]
Tokii Launches the World’s First Relationship Management Platform
Posted on 10 March 2011. Tags: Business, Tokii
Hello Tokii Fan, Finally, the big day has arrived… Tokii has launched! If you spend any time online you probably already know that LinkedIn is for the people you know, Facebook is for the people you used to know and Twitter is for the people you want to know. Tokii is turning social media convention [Read More]
Venture Capital 2.0
Posted on 01 March 2011. Tags: Business, Tokii
Canadian VC’s on Tech Start-ups and the Changing Climate for VC Funding in Canada Deloitte, one of Canada’s leading professional service firms, which conducts an annual Global Venture Capital Survey, published some disconcerting numbers last fall when they released the results of the 2010 edition. The survey measures the opinions of VC’s from around the [Read More]
Start Me Up: Tokii Lounges @SXSW
Posted on 16 February 2011. Tags: Buisness, Entertainment, Technology, Tokii
Chasing a dream and seeing it through to execution takes hard work, focus, and a LOT of caffeine for the many long nights slogging through the details. Can there be anything harder? Yes… raising funds to advance and evolve your already amazing product. Considering only about three percent of start-ups actually get venture capital funding, [Read More]
Tokii Gets Its Game On: Social Gaming Trends
Posted on 19 January 2011. Tags: Communication, Entertainment, Technology, Tokii
This February – just in time for Valentine’s, Tokii will be testing its Love Games with select couples from across North America, and we’re feeling pretty confident that they are going to “love” our games. And not just because we love playing them. Online social gaming has grown rapidly since the first few games appeared [Read More]
Start Me Up
Posted on 05 January 2011. Tags: Business, Holidays, Internet
My New Years’ resolution? Reflect. Reflect on life, love.. work. That last one always lingers. Reflect on the web and how businesses have evolved and adapted to become the cross-platform, real-time, interactive experience we demand today. Some sites made a difference. They got it right. Was their success the result of timing? When consumer-generated solutions [Read More]
Something Tokii This Way Comes, Pt. 1: Practice What You Preach
Posted on 15 December 2010. Tags: Entertainment, Internet, Tokii
Old Spice’s YouTube campaign successfully launched the company’s modern take on their classic masculine brand with a personalized twist: they used social media to connect and interact with their audience to discuss and promote the brand. Launched as a TV ad, and instantly taken viral on YouTube, the commercial has over 140 million impressions online [Read More]
Game On: The Art Of Healthy Competition
Posted on 13 December 2010. Tags: Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Life
Do couples who play together stay together? According to a 2009 study conducted by Kelton Research, they at least want to give that theory a try. Eighty percent of respondents said they would enjoy playing video games with their significant other, with the biggest allure for 61 percent being the fact that video gaming is [Read More]
Ten Questions Web CEOs Need to Know
Posted on 30 November 2010. Tags: Business, Communication, Entertainment, Internet, Technology
As if running a start-up everyday, being hands on and dealing with a myriad of revenue, growth, development, budget, talent, PR, IP, creative and branding issues and opportunities, isn’t hard enough for a CEO to handle. Mary Meeker poses a set of Ten Questions Web CEOs Need to Know. (Actually, not sure why these are [Read More]
Trading Face Time For Screen Time
Posted on 29 November 2010. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Relationship, Schedules, Technology, Tokii
As a freelance journalist I’ve reported on a lot of things – fashion and beauty, arts and entertainment, travel and lifestyle trends. But it’s two subjects I’ve written about in particular that I’m pondering as I type this – technology and relationships. See, I’ve spent a lot of my career so far reporting on technology [Read More]
How did Farming Become Fun?
Posted on 23 November 2010. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Technology, Tokii
Last month, a story surfaced about a Florida woman who shook her baby to death for interrupting her game of Farmville. The story said her addiction to the online social-network-based game is what led her to lash out irrationally. But this is a sign of the ego-centric state of online social gaming. Where is the [Read More]
Mobile Apps Required for Living and Loving
Posted on 23 November 2010. Tags: Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Technology
While listening to Fountain of Wayne’s Traffic and Weather, I started to ponder “likely pairings.” Like mobile apps and Tokii – they belong together as well. As KDST points out in her Top 11 Reasons Mobile is a Must post websites are also expected by consumers to have killer associated mobile content. Also with the [Read More]
Sexless Marriage Stats Help Tokii Spark the Big Idea
Posted on 17 November 2010. Tags: Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Love, Tokii
There are times in an innovator’s life when you kinda want to bang your head against the wall and say we need the BIG IDEA. It just happened to be staring us in the face one morning in The Globe and Mail. We were sitting around the table when we read the staggering stat – [Read More]
Beta Testing at the Dinner Table
Posted on 16 November 2010. Tags: Communication, Entertainment, Tokii
“How was my day? Great. I wrote a game about sexual inhibitions.” Writing content for Tokii‘s UnWrapped* games can dig up some interesting info, and having a girlfriend to share it with can sometimes be the best part. It’s these moments where the pre-beta testing for Tokii’s UnWrapped games is taking place. Researching and writing [Read More]
Tokii and Dating Sites: A Different Kind of Part
Posted on 10 November 2010. Tags: Couples, Internet, Relationship, Technology, Tokii
In 2010, the online dating industry has been in a bit of a slump. Admittedly, there has not been much innovation in this sector these days. Howaboutwe.com has recently gotten some attention because it is the only “new” and “interesting” thing to happen to online dating and the big irony in all of this is [Read More]
Invest in Your Marriage
Posted on 09 November 2010. Tags: Conflict, Couples, Finance, Marriage, Relationship, Tokii
I read this fact that startled me — $175B on divorce a year in the US! What a waste of money – as I am a bit of cheapskate myself. But it brings up a bigger question on the investment side of marriage. Studies show the biggest indicator of a couple that avoids the divorce [Read More]
Turning Pay Walls Into Pay Bridges
Posted on 08 November 2010. Tags: Entertainment, Tokii
Coming from a TV newsroom, I know the value of good content. Not only good TV, but valuable online content that people want to read. While I in no way believe I could’ve gotten away with charging people to read the 15-20 news articles I cranked out per day to satisfy the .com masses, I [Read More]
Tokii Offers both Social and Intimate Online Relationships
Posted on 02 November 2010. Tags: Communication, Internet, Relationship, Technology, Tokii
How intimate can your online social relationships get? When I say intimate I mean deep, real, authentic and open. Tokii asserts that they can get as intimate as you want. Intimacy is actually the goal @Tokii. Like most things in life you have a choice. And at Tokii its no different. You get to choose [Read More]
Does Sexual Health Equal Relationship Health?
Posted on 01 November 2010. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Couples, Health/ Beauty/ Foods, Life, Love, Marriage, Relationship, Tokii
45 Million Americans in sexless marriages was the statistic that sparked our imagination about products for couples. As we started to dig into this issue, we found out that health played a huge part in the nature of a couple’s ability to be intimate. This research data was compiled in year one (2008) of our [Read More]
Why A TradingPost?
Posted on 29 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Relationship, Tokii
Everyone trades. In Wall Street 2, Gordon and his son-in-law to be traded to get Gekko’s estranged daughter back in his life. Let’s understand the art of trading by taking each word separately. Trading: By any other name, it’s negotiations at a basic level. I’ll give you ‘this for that’. And ‘this & that’ can [Read More]
Mixing The Real (Life) With The Virtual (Facebook)
Posted on 28 October 2010. Tags: Business, Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Technology
If you’ve logged on to Facebook in the last few months, you’ve probably noticed that every once in a while, a little section called Photo Memories shows up in the corner. Released this past May, the section meant to invoke warm and fuzzy feelings has been met with a bit of hostility because of one [Read More]
Follow the Yellow Brick Road?
Posted on 27 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Entertainment, Internet, Technology, Tokii
If only it were that easy and the road was laid out for us to get to Oz… Little did we know that deciding to go into the relationship business would send us into an extended incubation and validation phase (Steven Blank,2010 ) Because we were intent on challenging conventions by building a profitable “social” [Read More]
Not your normal convention (or why my handheld device vibrates but is no longer a mobile phone!)
Posted on 26 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Gossip, Internet, Relationship, Sex, Technology, Travel
The annual hallmark convention for the latest technology innovations is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I’ve attended the CES in the past as well as numerous GSM (mobile) forums worldwide and in January 2008 when I walked through the convention doors, the sign that greeted me was Welcome to CES. I felt at [Read More]
Executive Blogging: It’s The Icing On The Cake
Posted on 20 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Entertainment, Life, Relationship, Technology, Tokii
We have some things to say. We think this is a great forum for us to let you know who we are, what we stand for and to give you a preview into our opinions, philosophies, points of views, perspectives and ideas. We feel strongly about communication and building relationships in the social world. We [Read More]
All Roads Lead to Tokii
Posted on 19 October 2010. Tags: Relationship, Technology, Tokii
The Tokii story officially began in May 2007 but the seeds were sowed in November 1998 when Tokii’s founders met and built their first business together – Oskar – a new kind of wireless operator in the Czech Republic. Really, a New Kind? What’s so unique about a mobile operator you ask, especially since we [Read More]
What Shall We Name The Baby?
Posted on 19 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Technology
Sitting in the darkness of the theater while the brand consultants present their “dog and pony” show, we listen, absorb, judge, pronounce after them, reject and let a few brand names resonate. We like one name in particular. The name is Toki. We like the sound. We like the letters. We like that it is [Read More]
Tokii Knows What Men Want
Posted on 18 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Couples, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Love, Marriage, Relationship, Schedules, Tokii
Men are full of surprises. Often painted as sex-driven, and lacking in emotional capacity, sometimes guys get a bad rap in the relationship department. Revealing new research from an online survey is showing that many guys are actually looking for more. They just needed a way to get the conversation started. Tokii, while emerging from [Read More]
Top 11 Reasons Mobile Is A Must
Posted on 18 October 2010. Tags: Business, Communication, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Relationship, Schedules, Technology, Tokii
Launching Tokii without a mobile app version would be short-sighted. Sure, the Internet is the source to find almost anything, but the way people access the net is changing rapidly. I spent the last 15 years of my career in mobile, and I am passionate about making our mobile experience awesome. So in an effort [Read More]
Get Funding Without Getting Bitten
Posted on 18 October 2010. Tags: Business, Communication, Entertainment, Finance, Internet, Life, Technology, Tokii
Remember the first time you went to the beach after seeing Jaws? You know your not likely to get bit, but paranoia creeps in that you may be the unlucky one who is torn to pieces. When I think about our plan to solicit financing from VC’s, I can’t help but think “I don’t want [Read More]
Getting Any Snooki Lately? Our Target Is 
Posted on 18 October 2010. Tags: Business, Celebrities, Communication, Couples, Entertainment, Family, Internet, Life, Love, Relationship, Technology, Television, Tokii, Traditions
Hearing the stories of 20-something university students changing the way the world connects, from their dorm room, I guess 40 is pretty ancient for a CEO of a social media start-up. I get social media. I Facebook. I blog. I tweet. But one thing I can never be is a digital native. No, those of [Read More]
Founder’s Secret Success Formula Revealed
Posted on 16 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Conflict, Entertainment, Life, Love, Relationship, Tokii
Health, Determination & Creativity are my values. They reveal themselves best through how I behave, the decisions I make and my actions. They remain at my core even when I am most stressed. Let’s just say they have been and will continue to be the secret sauce to my success. Emotional and physical well-being is [Read More]
Founders Get NYT Bestseller List Shout Out
Posted on 16 October 2010. Tags: Communication, Entertainment, Life
Stan Slap is “the guy” who wrote the book”Bury My Heart at Conference Room B”. It recently made the New York Time’s best seller list and what’s cool about that is the Tokii co-founders are sharing in the glory of it all. Stan acknowledges Al, Karla and Regina in the opening notes of Bury My [Read More]
Founders Want Like-Minded Funders
Posted on 14 October 2010. Tags: Business, Finance, Internet, Technology, Tokii
SAI writes a compelling piece and has a glossy study with back-up data about what founders care about when choosing investors. See checklist – Valuation – Yes; Dilution – Yes; Control – Yes. Of course, all of the “concerns” aka worries cited are the things that make us responsible entrepreneurs. But who are we at [Read More]
Social Media Laggards And Luddites
Posted on 02 October 2010. Tags: Business, Communication, Entertainment, Internet, Life, Tokii
Here is some good listening and good viewing even though by the time you see it much of the data and tidbits might be ancient history since it’s an August 11th release. Qualman lists all of the stats on his blog for better cutting and pasting for business cases. Hard to believe that Social Media [Read More]
