How Earny is Winning the Startup Game by Winning Users Money

Some feelings in the world are unlike any other.Falling in love, flipping your pillow to the cool side and letting out a really big sneeze are some that top the list, yet the best of the best is undoubtedly discovering unexpected money.There’s nothing quite like finding a crumpled up bill in your pockets or purse, and Earny is aiming to recreate this feeling via an innovative new app.Based on receipts from your inbox, Earny searches for price drops on your purchases and claims the difference on your behalf.Basically, free money.The company’s CEO and cofounder, Oded Vakrat, sat down with TechDay to discuss the nuances behind Earny, how he goes about attaining new users and what we all have to look forward to next.As a young company, what have been your primary tactics in bringing attention to Earny and attaining users?Currently, we have primarily been focused on organic growth and customizing our service to give our customers the confidence to shop knowing that they will always receive the lowest price. Many customers love talking about Earny with their friends which is how we have obtained many new happy users. We also have a rewards program that has been very successful in gaining customers. When our users refer their friends, Earny gives them 5% of each of their friend’s refunds. This allows users to interact with one another and share their earnings with friends.What are you strategies in highlighting the simplicity of Earny's service via marketing and branding?When we created the Earny logo, two things were really important to us!1. Earny has no Mouth! Earny runs silently in the background without bothering our users. You only get notifications from Earny when you get money back.2. Earny also has Big Eyes! Earny's most important task is searching high and low for better prices.Beyond ease, what other value propositions do you attempt to highlight for Earny and how do you go about doing so?Earny is more than an app, he is your personal assistant. It’s important that Earny builds trust as he works hard to protect your purchases. Customer success is also extremely important to us. We have a fast turn-around for customer support and attempt to give each customer that highest level of customer support and assistance in answering questions to improve the user’s experience. In addition, Earny finds customer feedback very important. As a company, we are always trying to create a service that users are happy with. Therefore, our customers’ ideas and feedback are of the utmost importance.On Earny's website the language implies the service is driven by an individual via the repeated use of the word "I." What was the thinking behind this and how has it fostered growth?The Earny team currently consist of 20 amazing team members. Our mission is to provide Earny the tech and tools to serve our customers. The communication is directly with Earny which is why the language is driven by the usage of the pronoun I.To what extent if any does Earny require cooperation from various credit card companies?We abide by the policies of credit card companies in order to get our users refunds. Our customers love that Earny takes advantage of the price protection policies offered by credit card issuers. Also, credit card companies appreciate us because we offer their customers an added protected service.Do all credit cards work within the Earny platform currently and if not do you have plans to get more involved?We currently offer both retail price protection and credit card price protection. We cover over 30 major retailers including Best Buy, Walmart etc. We currently protect top issuers like Chase, Citibank and others.What else can we expect to see from Earny in the near future?More refunds! E-commerce is just the start! We are building the ultimate consumer advocate personal assistant. Our goal to is to protect every customer’s purchases and give consumers the confidence to shop knowing they will never overpay for an item again.