If I had the funds and inclination to be a serial entrepreneur or very early angel investor, I’d like to think I’d come up with great ideas. I have previously commented that I really wish I’d thought of GroupOn, Open Table and a couple of FourSquare apps. Well, another one of those great ideas wandered across my computer screen a couple days ago, CardStar. CardStar is a mobile phone app (currently supports Blackberry, Android and that thing with the bad reception) that allows its users to store loyalty program information on their phone. So that’s your Giant Eagle (grocery) Advantage Card, your Blockbuster card, your Best Buy card, etc… I carry my Advantage Card (or did when I lived in Pittsburgh), but while I WOULD like to get the deals associated with the others, I have a firm no clutter policy. That’s why I think this thing is genius.
In addition to thinking that it’s something I would use, I can see at least two reasons it’s a good business:
- It’s easy to monetize. Charge the businesses that plug-in to that service each time a customer uses their card. You don’t even have to charge them much, perhaps base it on the average purchase size at the company (e.g. Best Buy would get charged much more then Giant Eagle).
- It’s growth pattern is easy. It can spend the next few years going from only having some of those loyalty programs on its system to having nearly all of them. Then it can become the way all loyalty programs work (or at least all the ones that don’t have enough backing to have their own app).
Well done founders, sounds like a good company to me.
