Chris Nguyen, 27-year-old co-founder of
TeamSave.com, came up with the inspiration to found his website while planning his wedding. "we realized that one dress would cost a certain amount, but that 1,000 dresses were much cheaper. So I thought, how do I supply that volume discount to the consumer market?"
He and his co-founder Lee Liu had already successfully launched and sold their first web startup (jobloft.com) in 2007, so they began researching a new initiative. Online, they encountered a few group-buying sites (such as
groupon.com and
webpiggy.com), but say they saw gaps in the business strategy.
So last week, the pair launched TeamSave.com, which offers products and services at deep discounts for a limited time -- potential buyers are encouraged to spread the word about the sale via social networks in order to get enough buyers to make the transaction go through. Already, the site is seeing a 40 per cent increase in its traffic. Before the end of the month, the pair anticipate launching apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android -- an innovation Nguyen is excited about. "Not only will you be able to shop on your phone, you'll be able to redeem your purchase on your phone. We believe the smart phone is here to stay, so we expect that to be a big part of our business."
The company is housed in Ryerson University's spanking new
Digital Media Zone, an incubator of sorts designed to help students and graduates bring concepts to market. Nguyen says the environment there is incredibly helpful to a product like his, and also credits
MaRS for providing strategic advice.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Chris Nguyen,Co-Founder, TeamSave.com
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