ReapSo is a mobile app that delivers coupons and deals to customers based on businesses they rate highly.
The app launched in February after seven months of development in Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Farmington HIlls and $575,000 in capital investment. The founders are currently seek more funding.
StartUp The Conversation is an occasional series on Deadline Detroit that features local startups and small businesses. Deadline Detroit submits questions and businesses respond in writing.
What does your company do?
ReapSo lets people win deals from businesses they choose. With ReapSo, you "play" for deals, instead of "pay" for deals.
How do you pull that off?
ReapSo is a mobile app available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (Android coming later this year). ReapSo users play a slot machine-style game to win special deals from businesses they choose. The user can increase the chances of winning deals from merchants they like by ranking them with gold, silver and bronze medals.
They can assign a zero percent chance to merchants they don't like by sending them to the doghouse. All other merchants remain in the field and have a modest chance of showing up on the game. The user reveals the deal they've won through a digital scratch off on their phone or tablet. When the user goes to the business that provided the deal, they simply bring it up on the ReapSo app and redeem it. A killer deal called the Golden Peach rewards users who've patronized a business nine times.
How will you know it's working?
We launched our product just over a month ago and almost 10,000 rewards have been distributed. Several hundred of them have been redeemed, saving people thousands of dollars. We have identified that our users are engaged, and we are working on growing the user base to a tipping point where ReapSo will become a local and ultimately national household name.
How will you make money?
We generate revenue from merchant partners. Our success is aligned with their success. When users redeem rewards, merchant partners pay us.
What change are you hoping your company brings?
Saving money is a hassle. We make it easy. You shouldn't ever have to pay for your deals or clip coupons to get discounts. ReapSo does not supplant any marketing or advertising approaches, it makes them better for both merchants and consumers.
We do not require the deployment of any infrastructure in our partners' locations. Our technology enables merchants to deliver their deals through all major media channels (i.e., print, e-mail, social media, and television) and receive feedback on effectiveness. Since our product is fun for users, extremely affordable for merchants, infinitely scalable, and provides previously unavailable feedback on the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, we believe ReapSo will reinvent the deal delivery segment.
Why Detroit?
We want to help reinvent Michigan, and that starts right here. Our app was developed in Detroit. We are former automotive engineers and corporate restructuring guys. We're problem solvers. We want to help businesses grow and people to save money. If it works here, it will work everywhere. We want to help put Detroit on the map as a major player in mobile technology development.
Who are the brains behind the creation?
Bill Wildern and Steve Valentine are the co-founders and inventors. Jeff Heng is employee number one and director of IT and sales. Atomic Object is our development team.
We have an army of inspired early adopters that are helping us get the word out. Every day is a process of running tests to see what works and what doesn't (for app development, advertising, merchant and user engagement, etc.). We learn from our mistakes and leverage our successes. It's a roller coaster ride with people we enjoy being around!
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