Hello everyone! James here, filling in for Aly while she’s off making the world a better place.
The Consumer Show is always one of my favorite events that I attend. There's something really fun about watching startups pitch their ideas to a crowd and hearing everyone’s questions to the companies. The fact that they’re B2C ideas gives it a much more fun vibe, especially because the questions asked from the crowd are (at least usually) essentially questions from the target market.
If you’ve never been to one of these events, make sure to check out http://theconsumer.show to view all of the previous ones (shameless plug, I developed that site, if you need any work done, holler atcha boy!).
Let’s get this recap started, shall we?
THE PITCH RECAPS:
TruNow
TL;DR: Get Cash back on every gas station purchase.
Walk on song:
The Deets: TruNow uses your location and shows you any surrounding gas stations near you, along with their prices for gas. Did you know 48 percent of drivers will go 5-10 minutes out of their way to get better pricing at the pump, without knowing specifically where they’re going? With TruNow, you can make informed decisions on where to get your gas the cheapest. Just take a picture of the receipt with the TruNow app, and you’ll get 2 percent cash back on your purchase (this works at the pump as well, so no need to go in).
What did they do really well? They just launched a couple of weeks ago and already have visibility of 1 million transactions a day (due to their partnerships), so they know what consumers are spending, and on what. They are hoping to use that information going forward on machine learning and AI to further the product.
What can the community help with? Feedback, feedback, feedback! Also, they’re hiring.
— TruNow —
One great thing about this app is that TruNow gives you cash back no matter what station you go to. Even though they have a partnership with retailers, TruNow is doubling down and giving cash back on stores not in their network. TruNow believes that having that customer information is more valuable in the long term, citing using that extra analytics to help the current partners.
Featured Audience Question: “How do you plan to stay relevant with electric cars becoming more the norm?”
Answer: "There are a lot of long-term drivers who still use gas, but buying gas isn’t the focus of the app, it's the goods in the store."
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Pronto
TL:DR: Hassle-free home ownership. Get professionals to come and fix small issues at your house.
Walk On Song
The Deets: If you’re a homeowner, I’d be willing to bet you’ve had to make a repair, or had to call a handyman to come and take care of something. Unfortunately, it's usually a stressful affair, with the handyman being overly busy, or unavailable, or inattentive. Wouldn’t it be nice to just text a picture of the problem and get a quote back the same or next day?
What did they do really well? 10,000 service calls in the Atlanta area so far, and they are learning how to perfect their service each time. They offer a year-long warranty on all of their work. And unlike most contractors, who give quotes scribbled on paper, Pronto has a very elegant iPad quoting presentation, which adds to the premium feel of the service.
What can the community help with? They’re hiring! Sales, marketing and developers are needed. Alsom it would be appreciated if you used their product ^^. _
— ProntoPro —
That's where Pronto comes in. To put it simply, they’re great at doing small jobs fast. Need drywall repair? They can do it. Need a window installed? They got it. Need a new room remodeled? Call a contractor. Their focus is on being able to tackle a job in a day, with professionalism and customer happiness as their main goals.
Featured Audience Question: "Are your employees contractors or employees?"
Answer: “We’ve done both, but all are 1099 right now. We don’t bid out the work to the lowest offer. We keep them very well-fed."
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SquareFrame
TL;DR: Frame the best moments of your life. A service that frames photos from your iPhone or Instagram, at affordable prices.
Walk On Song
The Deets: Picture this. You’ve just grabbed the best selfie of you and your BFF at the ultimate event of the year.. You’ve added the right filter, just a bit of tilt shift, and made sure to crop out that ghastly car behind you … perfection. But what do you do with it then? It goes on your feed for sure, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to share that with your friend and make a physical copy of it, framed perfectly on their wall?
What did they do really well? Stephen, the founder of SquareFrame, really believes it's the great relationships with their development partners that allows them to create an amazing product. Having the personal connection makes a difference, versus just having a transactional one. The support of his wife and others who have rallied around him to get it done has been monumental.
What can the community help with? Consider sending a frame to a loved one.It's half the price of flowers ;)
— SquareFrame —
That's where SquareFrame comes in. They allow you to pick a colored frame via their app, and once you place the order it is put together in their facility in Avondale Estates, Ga. Shipping is always a flat rate of $5.00 to anywhere in the continental united states. SF offers six frames sizes with five different colors and stains. The frames start off at $25 for your instagram squared photo, all the way up to 8x10s at $40.
Just to sweeten the deal, SF is heavily committed to giving a percentage of all sales to local and national efforts benefitting arts in schools and young, up-and-coming artists.
Featured Audience Question: "What's the lead time on this?"
Answer: Processing day or next day of order, ships via USPS Priority, so 2-5 business days. If you’re shipping locally to Atlanta, you could possibly have it next day, or the day after.
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Spots
TL;DR: Find yourself in the world with spots. Couch-crashing app for college students.
Walk On Song
The Deets: When you’re a college student, traveling can be a cost-prohibitive thing, so what are you to do when you only have a little bit but want to check out {your_dream_city_here}? Enter Spots, the new app that offers a solution to this, but with plans for so much more.
Currently, the app allows college students to either list their couch (or room) as a place for other students to stay. The best part about this? You can actually talk to the purveyor of the room before booking. This allows you to ask them questions about the city, as well as any events that might be going on. Of course, if you’re hosting, you can get paid for letting someone surf the couch!
What did they do really well? Connect with their customers. They've done a lot of on-the-ground promotions and outreach, which helps them hear more ideas and helps refine their app. They’ve also gone the extra mile and helped current users stay in other locations via their own networks, even helping them find a place to stay if there are no hosting users in the area.
What can the community help with? If you’re in college, download the app and get started!
— Spots —
In addition to this, we were shown the future of the app, which included much more chat functionality as well as event attendance. Imagine if you wanted to come to Atlanta to visit, and could see a map of different regions of the city as chat bubbles (think one for Old Fourth Ward, Buckhead, Midtown, etc). You could tap one of those regions and talk to people who live there to get information about those areas. Lots of potential packed in this app.
Featured Audience Question: (Note from James: I had to take a quick time-out and missed the Q&A session for this group, I'm so sorry Spots!)
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Loupe
TL;DR: Stream. Love. Buy. Right from your TV. Buy gorgeous pieces of art from your apple TV or browser.
Walk On Song
The Deets: Ever host a party, or been at one where the TV is off and everyone is hanging out … you see the big, dark rectangle staring back you ... a big, black mirror. What if you could put a stream of different art pieces on that screen, curated into playlists for any mood or event?
Loupe is making major waves on the app store for AppleTV. Being the #1 lifestyle app in 40 countries is nothing to scoff at. Founder of Loupe, Dot, thought to herself, “People stream all this music all the time, why aren’t we streaming visual pieces of art?” and brought Loupe to life.
What did they do really well? They’ve created a truly beautiful product that features options such as safe mode (for the kids!), caption mode, and much more. Having Loupe playing at a party really changes the mood of any space.
What can the community help with? Stream Loupe on AppleTV, or in your office on their Website. They’re trying to figure out how to grow their product. “Why wouldn’t you want to stream art? We’re trying to disrupt the archaic way of buying art currently.”
— Loupe —
Loupe allows the user to choose a stream of art based off a myriad of options, including color. Having a black-tie affair? Show nothing but pieces of art that have black themes to them. A great feature of this app is not only can you stream and view these pieces of art, but they’re available for purchase: All one has to do is swipe up on the AppleTV remote and the option to buy is right there, as well as favoriting the piece for later viewing.
Featured Audience Question: "Have you gotten push-back from artists who feel that it's devaluing the art?"
Answer: "There are so many artists, and so few valuable vehicles to introduce their art. This actually helps an artist get their work out more globally."
Many thanks to James Hall for helping out with my second MIA recap in the past few weeks. My favorite thing about guest-posters is getting to see how they view the event. And I love the addition of the walk-on songs to the lineup!
You can check out more about James' company, Hall and All, here.
See you all at the next Consumer Show (I swear)! ~ Aly
