Pushlee allows gas stations to send push notifications to customers in a specfic geographic area with convenience store deals to drive business. 

Unless you’re craving a Pepsi or in need of a snack for the road, pay-at-the-pump capabilities have eliminated most drivers’ need for gas station convenience stores. But that doesn’t mean gas station chains aren’t hard at work trying to figure out how to drive customers back inside. 

Now Blake Anderson and Sean Richardson, the Sioux City, Iowa-based duo behind development firm RXA Technology, may have a solution. One of their latest offerings, Pushlee, allows gas stations to send push notifications to customers in a specific geographic area to promote offers and deals inside the station’s convenience store.

“Pushlee allows you to get the same perks as an individual gas station’s app, but all in one consumer app,” Anderson (right), a junior at Morningside College, told Silicon Prairie News. “You simply pull in to get gas and get a push notification. When you want to redeem a deal, you go inside to collect it, show your phone to the clerk and walk out.”

Anderson, originally a California native, relocated to Iowa to attend Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where he met co-founder Sean Richardson, who now is a Morningside alum. 

Anderson says Pushlee came shortly after he and Richardson helped create PushLoyalty, a mobile app that helps businesses reward customer loyalty, which won the first Startup Weekend Spencer in June 2013. 

The app, which uses geotracking technology, seemed like a logical next stop and Anderson says creating a product that allows consumers to download only one app helps keep the market from building similar individual apps in silos and also allows for greater collaboration. 

While the pair wasn’t able to disclose the company they’ll be partnering with, Anderson says he and Richardson (left) are “talking with one prominent regional chain and have begun implementing some of their stations into Pushlee’s platform,” which will be available soon. 

Currently Pushlee is only available to Android users, but Anderson says an iOS version is in the works.

Along with Pushlee and PushLoyalty, Anderson and Richarson are working on a number of other projects through RXA Technology, including products like Coinify and Base Huddle. 

In addition to Startup Weekends, the pair also has participated in a Swimming with the Sharks event, a competition modeled off ABC’s Shark Tank, where Anderson says they made some valuable connections but saw a need for more developers in Sioux City’s community. 

“We saw a need for help creating mobile apps,” Anderson said. “Another perk of winning first place was we got to present in front of Lance Morgan from Ho-Chunk. He’s become our business mentor and pretty active in our entrepreneurial efforts.” 

The pair also has a hand in helping organize some of the community’s entrepreneurial events through groups like Startup Sioux City and RXA Technology’s Base3 event, which took place last month. 

Credits: Photos courtesy of RXA Technology.