I’ve been meaning to write about the startup investments I’ve made to date; somehow I keep putting that off. Anyway…
Investment #3 for me, PromoBoxx, just popped up on TechCrunch today, so I thought now would be a good time to mention it.
As Sarah Perez nicely summarizes:
Today, brands spend nearly $30 billion each year supporting retailers with offline materials, including in-store signage, yellow page ads and newspaper ads. But almost none of that marketing money is spent online, even though 90% of all products are still sold through physical stores.
That’s where Promoboxx comes in. Using its online service, stores can set up retail promotions in minutes, with sweepstakes, coupons, giveaways and other promotions that aim to drive foot traffic to stores.
It’s a great niche, and a great team. These guys are doing it right — it isn’t about marketing gimmicks; rather it’s about engaging customers with brands they already like, and in many cases giving them a great reason them to shop in their local store rather than just order online.
Very excited to see how they grow this company. I know they’d love it if you’d take a minute to send them a “congrats” on closing their big seed financing round by stopping by their blog or via twitter.