It’s not everyday that an entrepreneur names a fortune cookie as the inspiration for his business, but that is the case with
The Cookie App.
Jeff Ponders II has always been fascinated with fortune cookies. Not so much the taste of the cookie, but the odd little words of wisdom, lucky numbers and Chinese phrases that come with them. He loved the anticipation and surprise of finding out these obscure little tidbits of information, so he created a tech startup on capitalizing on that idea.
The Cookie App is a mobile app to gives users a daily chance to score a surprise deal. “You never know what you could get,” Ponders says. “But you know it’s going to be cool.”
The Cookie App greets the user each morning with an alert. Inside that alert is a prize, that could range from higher-end prizes to the more common deals with online retailers. Getting users to capitalize on the deals is where the Cookie App makes its money.
“The real value is when that coupon is redeemed and the customer tries a product for the first time or buys an extra item,” Ponders says.
The Cookie App just graduated from the summer class of
Bizdom and its one employee and two intern staff is based out of Bizdom’s offices at 1528 Woodward Ave in downtown Detroit. Ponders plans to launch the public Beta version of the service in November in time for the holiday shopping season. It will initially focus on the Metro Detroit and national brands, which should allow the startup to scale in size quickly.
People can sign up for The Cookie App's private Beta version now by clicking
here.
Source: Jeff Ponders II, founder & chief cookie monster at The Cookie App
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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