Pickit allows smartphone owners to use coupons while simultaneously helping local charities.
Two years ago when James Verhoeff and Zach Christensen went on a double date with some friends, the pair realized they had forgotten the coupons they planned on using.
Having walked to Lincoln’s Haymarket district, the group decided walking all the way back to their residence hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s campus wasn’t worth the trouble. Staring at their smartphones, the pair had an idea: why not put the coupons on their smartphones?
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So Verhoeff and Christensen—students in UNL’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management—went to the drawing board. Enter Pickit, a mobile application that allows users to redeem coupons while supporting local nonprofits.
Since its creation in 2012, Pickit has grown to serve 61 merchants and 87 nonprofits across Nebraska’s capital. Due to the founders relationship with UNL, many of the merchants are within walking distance of campus. Some larger chains, such as Jersey Mike’s and Dickey’s Barbeque Pit also have joined.
“We wanted to revolutionize the way nonprofits make money by making it a part of customers’ everyday transactions,” Verhoeff (left) said. “Especially as college students, whenever we hear about a cool nonprofit we can’t write a $100 check, but we can choose where we get coffee.”
Ian Cottingham, associate director for the Raikes program’s design studio, has been with the Pickit team since the beginning. Pickit continued development in the Design Studio—a capstone course that functions much like a startup accelerator.
“This not only creates a win for the startup but also exposes students in the Raikes School who may not be planning on starting a business to many of the aspects of entrepreneurship, giving them insight into how small organizations work,” Cottingham said.
The program allows Raikes students to launch ventures and bring products to market while still in school.
“Every nonprofit has the same issues: they need awareness and they need money,” Verhoeff said. He said local businesses were excited about Pickit’s concept because many of them already donated to charities across Lincoln.
The Pickit team poses with Kim Mittelstadt (center), the leader of the Breast Cancer Relay for Life, which is one of Pickit’s clients.
Mark Shriner, owner of the Coffee House located just south of UNL’s campus, said he was the “world’s biggest skeptic” when Verhoeff approached him with the idea nearly two years ago.
But after their conversation, Shriner agreed to give Verhoeff a shot. Now a Pickit sign and QR code are visible at the Coffee House’s registers, and several baristas said they see at least one or two people use Pickit during each of their shifts.
Shriner, as with every proprietor, faces a gamble when using promotions and coupons to reel customers in. “Many of the people who use it are repeat customers,” he said. “I’m not getting any new customers (because of the app).”
Verhoeff says he still faces challenges trying to get people to use the application, which is available on iOS and Android platforms. So far, it has been downloaded more than 2,400 times and has had about 1,522 coupons redeemed from 615 unique users.
Since the fall semester started, downloads have shot up dramatically and Verhoeff says that “each week has been a record-breaking week.”
Because of Pickit’s UNL roots, students have been the driving force behind the application’s growth. The Pickit team is working on developing a “Greek challenge” through the app to allow fraternities and sororities to compete by raising money. UNL’s Greek community hosts many philanthropy fundraisers during the school year and Verhoeff believes the feature will likely be a hit.
Cottingham said he feels confident in the progress the team has made, and that they “have made many difficult decisions, had a positive impact on the community and worked harder than they ever have.”
“That, to me, is what being a startup is all about,” he said.
In the short term, the team wants to expand to 75 merchants in Lincoln and build needed momentum to move to Omaha. “We want to expand all over the Silicon Prairie,” Verhoeff said.
Credits: Product photos from Apple App Store. Team photo courtesy of Pickit. James Verhoeff photo from Omaha.com.
