For two Sioux City, Iowa-based entrepreneurs, a lot of hard work and planning is starting to pay off through a partnership with a prominent regional chain.
This week, Blake Anderson and Sean Richardson announced plans to launch their app Pushlee—which helps gas stations promote offers and deals inside stores through push notifications—at 42 Kum & Go gas stations around the region.
“Pushlee allows you to get the same perks as an individual gas station’s app, but through an all-in-one consumer app,” Anderson, a junior at Morningside College, told Silicon Prairie News.
Users simply pull into a gas station, in this case Kum & Go, and receive a push notification for some promotion. If they’re interested in redeeming the deal, they head inside, flash their phone to the cashier and walk out.
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Over time, Pushlee learns users’ preferences and what types of deals they prefer, though users also can select the types of promotions they would like to receive.
Currently users are able to use Pushlee at Kum & Go locations in Sioux City, Iowa; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Omaha; Council Bluffs; Iowa City; and Cedar Rapids. With 42 locations active, Anderson (right) says Pushlee will likely add more than 100 additional gas stations over the next month.
Anderson says the idea for Pushlee came shortly after he and Richardson helped create PushLoyalty—a mobile app that helps local businesses reward customer loyalty—which won the first Startup Weekend Spencer in June 2013.
The app is free and currently available for download in the Google Play Store. Anderson says an iOS version of Pushlee will launch in the coming weeks.
Pushlee’s co-founders will present this week during EntreFEST, a two-day conference for entrepreneurs hosted in Iowa City. Catch their session on “How To Nail The Investor Pitch” from 1:15–2:05 p.m. Friday at the Iowa City Public Library.
For more on Pushlee, read our previous coverage: “Sioux City team’s Pushlee app helps drive customers back into gas stations.”
