There are more deals and sales than you can ever know about and nowadays getting money back on purchases can be very common. The problem is that you can’t possibly be following that many sales! But Earny can. The Earny app, while connected to your ecommerce accounts, tracks all the possible deals you could get money back on and automatically gets you that refund everyone secretly hopes for. The easy-to-use app alerts of what you just saved and just like that you can go brag to your friends how much you just saved using Earny.
We spoke with cofounder Oded Vakrat and caught up with the company about their latest round of funding as well as got a better picture of the ecommerce money-back culture.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised a Seed round from Sweet Capital Ltd. and Science Inc., with participation from Jeff Bonforte, SVP, Communications Products at Yahoo, and Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash.
Tell us about your product or service.
Earny is your personal assistant that automatically gets you money back on almost every purchase you make. He is taking advantage of the price protection benefit that is offered by the major credit card issuers and e-commerce stores.
What inspired you to start the company?
It all started when my roommate Dori bought a blazer for $129 and I bought the same one for $65 less. I had to rub it in, wouldn’t you? Being a fierce competitor, Dori remembered that many credit cards offer price protection insurance, and a week after that, he proudly bragged he’d gotten $65 back. After all this, my roommates (our startup’s co-founders), and I decided to compete in the MasterCard Masters of Code hackathon in San Francisco and build a product for smart and thrifty shoppers like ourselves.
What’s your business model?
We take a small percentage of the savings we find you.
What percent of stores allow a refund with a price drop?
Most of the stores allow price match.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We plan to build a technical team in Santa Monica.
What is your favorite LA bar, when you need to kick back and relax?
I’m new in Santa Monica and trying different bars in the area–haven’t found the right one yet! For now, my favorite place to hang out is the beach.
