{"id":327213,"date":"2010-02-16T14:16:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T19:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/?p=63601"},"modified":"2010-02-16T14:16:24","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T19:16:24","slug":"kashless-acquires-mercata-patents-from-vulcan-rolls-out-new-group-buying-site-tippr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/327213","title":{"rendered":"Kashless Acquires Mercata Patents from Vulcan, Rolls Out New Group Buying Site, Tippr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Internet<\/a>, e-commerce<\/a>, startups<\/a><\/div>\n

\t\t\"Tippr\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGregory T. Huang wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s the pocket aces of IP in group collective buying,\u201d Martin Tobias tells me.<\/p>\n

Tobias, the Seattle entrepreneur and investor who heads up the online community site Kashless<\/a>, is talking about his latest strategic move. His company has acquired the patent portfolio of former Bellevue, WA-based dot-com Mercata from Paul Allen\u2019s Vulcan Capital, and is using the technology to power a new group-buying website called Tippr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The intellectual-property portfolio consists of more than half a dozen granted patents, with a couple dozen more in the works, covering areas like price optimization, demand curve modeling, and buyer-seller interaction models. Financial terms weren\u2019t disclosed, but as part of the deal, Vulcan Capital now has an equity stake in Kashless. (Tobias says Tippr is a separate entity, but it is part of the Kashless family of related sites.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly an interesting move for Kashless, which started in 2008 as an online recycling classifieds site<\/a> and has recently focused on promotions for local merchants to reach customers. Tippr<\/a>, the new site, features deals from local stores—restaurants, cafes, entertainment sites, museums—where you can buy discount vouchers online. The key is that as more people sign up for a deal, its value gets better. So 10 people each may buy a $22 hot dog voucher for $10, say, but if 50 people buy it, the voucher becomes worth $30. That\u2019s called an \u201caccelerating deal,\u201d and Tobias says his newly owned IP covers that type of dynamic price adjustment based on demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patents provide a really deep well for us to tap into unique and powerful features,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve thought pretty deeply about how someone does a fast follower in the collective buying space. One thing you need is super strong IP.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Tippr is available to consumers just in the Seattle area, but the plan is to expand to 20 cities in two months. That sounds awfully ambitious, but Tobias says he has already made progress in hiring sales people in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Boston. There are currently five advertised open positions in the company.<\/p>\n

Besides the challenges of expanding geographically, the main question would seem to be why group-buying should take off now, when it didn\u2019t back in 2001, when Mercata shut down. Tobias says with the rise of e-commerce, and sites like Yelp and Craigslist, consumers see going online as their first option for deals and such—and online marketing is much more viable in 2010 than in 2001. \u201cThe numbers are here now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, Tobias emphasizes the value of Tippr for local businesses, many of which have been suffering a 20 to 30 percent decline in revenue during the current recession. \u201cThis isn\u2019t pay per click, or Google customer acquisition. This is, ‘How do I get the customer to walk in my door,’\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Tippr faces stiff competition from other group-buying sites around the country like Groupon, based in Chicago, LivingSocial in Washington DC, and BuyWithMe in Boston (which just raised $5.5 million last month<\/a>). But Tobias insists that he now has obtained a competitive edge. \u201cNone of those have IP protection,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I do.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Internet, e-commerce, startups Gregory T. Huang wrote: \u201cI believe it\u2019s the pocket aces of IP in group collective buying,\u201d Martin Tobias tells me. Tobias, the Seattle entrepreneur and investor who heads up the online community site Kashless, is talking about his latest strategic move. His company has acquired the patent portfolio of former Bellevue, WA-based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}