Being able to drive larger numbers of people through your business' doors by offering specific deals to groups has long been a common practice, but now an Ottawa startup ViiMe has brought this concept to the platform of an application. Here is how it works, businesses post deals on the application, nearby ViiMe users can browse businesses that are offering deals for specific nights and then invite their friends to join them. When they arrive at the restaurant or bar or wherever is offering deals they simply show their server the coupon code they receive from the app to get the deals offered.
ViiMe has turned customers into recruiters for the businesses they want to get deals from. It works well for everyone. Not only do businesses drive more people through their doors every night, but customers also get great specials or free appetizers or drinks etc. The more people that you can bring out with you the better the deals everyone is going to enjoy and the more money the restaurant or bar will end up making that night. ViiMe offers businesses and customers a unique situation in which everyone wins.
Founders Arian Panah and Sunny Lo are Graduates of the Ottawa Founder Institute. The idea behind ViiMe is to help people get out more to socialize without having to break the bank to do so. The initial idea for ViiMe started to form in the minds of Panah and Lo when they were in college at the University of Ottawa. Both of them were very active with clubs and other university organizations and as such they helped organize a number of events out and about in Ottawa. “We realized these business owners were willing to give us a better deal for the event if we brought more people to them,” Panah says.
The cool part about ViiMe is that the app allows businesses to track loyalty and reward customers who consistently come to their restaurant or bar with unique deals and specials just for them. The application also gives businesses data on which offers are popular and which ones are not. This helps restaurants and bars push the offers and promotions that are really working for them and tweak the ones that are not working as well so that they can see more return and drive more traffic through their doors.
Panah says that the offerings ViiMe offers are far more dynamic than the ones set up by big players such as Groupon. He claims that a number of business owners have complained about the small margins that Groupon forces upon businesses that post deals to their site. Businesses pay one flat subscription rate to be on ViiMe and for users on iOS the app is free. The application will soon be coming to Android operating systems at the end of the month. Panah says the startup plans to implement a few in-app purchases and advertising to supplement the startups income.
Currently, ViiMe has 20 Ottawa businesses using their service and they do not plan to exclusively work in Ottawa. After seeing how things go in Ottawa the startup plans to expand their operations to larger North American cities. The startup has received support from other Ottawa tech players such as Vicki Iverson who sits on the team's advisory board. Iverson is the co-founder of Iversoft Solutions and also acts as the company's chief technology officer.
The future is bright for ViiMe the Ottawa startup. They have support and guidance from other tech professionals and a great idea that currently isn't being done in the way that they are doing it.
