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For many kinds of products, particularly fashion, Pinterest is one of a very small set of marketing tools that touches users at every point in a purchasing life cycle.
That’s also why it’s been aggressively investing in tools surrounding visual search, including a tool that would allow users to search for products with photos from their smartphone cameras. | Mobile |
Those sort of things are designed to capture the moment of an impulse purchase, increasingly offering alternative marketing products to its partners — and potentially to draw advertising dollars away from Facebook (or Snapchat).
In addition, Pinterest is also an online advertising service. | Mobile |
Something like that might generally require little overhead, and to be sure, the company is generating a lot of revenue. | Mobile |
It raised $553 million in its last financing round that valued it at $11 billion, so at face value it would appear that the company shouldn’t have any fear of running out of cash despite a lot of R&D investment and talent acquisitions — to go along with a healthy revenue stream.
What remains to be seen is whether this represents a more general trend for Pinterest. | Mobile |
Will it being to see slowing user growth similar to Twitter, or more sustained gains like Facebook? The company’s international expansion appears to be going effectively, with 80 million of its users coming from outside the United States. There are of course different cultural quirks in different countries, but there’s clear demand for a service like Pinterest.. | Mobile |
It’s not uncommon to feel a bit helpless at the end of a news binge. | Apps |
Oftentimes, the news leans toward the negative side and doesn’t offer much in the way of a solution.
But Speakable, a startup founded by Jordan Hewson, wants to give people the opportunity to do something at the exact time and place that they feel called to take action.
The year-old startup today introduced the Action Button, which is a snippet of code that lives on publishers’ article pages and gives their readers the option to take direct action. | Apps |
Speakable’s technology is able to understand the content and sentiment of an article and match it with the proper non-profit partner.
From there, users can click the Action Button to send an email to a legislator or tweet to a decision-maker or even make a donation. | Apps |
But the Action Button, and it’s subsequent actions, never take the user away from the article page itself.
Speakable also vets all of its NGO partners to ensure that they have a big impact and appropriate funds responsibly.
The company already has big-name publishing partners onboard, including the Guardian US, The Huffington Post, and VICE Media.
“My long-term vision for the action button is to be able to go after other types of content, whether it’s a YouTube video or a documentary,” said Hewson. | Apps |
“Eventually, you should be able to come across any piece of content and take action within 30 seconds or less.”
For now, Speakable is entirely free to both publishers and NGO partners while the company focuses on growing and fine-tuning the product.
You can check out Speakable and the Action Button right here.. | Apps |
The digestive tract of the ‘future of food’ does not always run smooth.
The startup behind drink-your-dinner powder Soylent has issued a product recall. | Food |
Not for its mainstay meal replacement powder — but rather for a $2 snack bar which you do still have to chew.
The Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup only started shipping the bars in August, touting the 250 calorie snack as “the latest advancement in convenient, complete nutrition”.
Well, turns out it’s an “advancement” too far for some stomachs.
The recall follows reports by customers of the food bars making them “violently ill” — with complaints including nausea and diarrhea.
It’s not clear how many customers felt sick after eating the bar but clearly enough to convince Soylent to act.
In an update on its blog detailing the product recall, the company writes: “It has recently come to our attention that a small number of our customers have experienced gastrointestinal issues after consuming Soylent Bars. | Food |
As a precautionary measure, we are halting all Soylent Bar purchases and shipments and are advising our customers to discard any remaining bars in their possession.”
The startup, which has raised some $22.3M in funding since being founded in 2013, says it has been investigating the complaints — but has not yet been able to identify a root cause.
“Though our investigation into this matter continues, we have decided to err on the side of caution and take this preventative step,” it says, adding: “We will be reaching out via e-mail to all Bar customers to offer a full refund.”
It also apologizes for “any negative experiences after eating a Soylent Bar”, and suggests customers discard any remaining bars uneaten.
The Soylent Bar’s full ingredients list runs pretty long — perhaps raising the risk of allergies to particular substances. | Food |
On its website the company does also note the bar is not allergen-free, given it contains soy and gluten.
Among its main listed ingredients are: Soy Protein Isolate, Corn Syrup, Oat Flour, Canola Oil, Glycerine, Whole Algae Floue, Isomaltulose, Isomaltooligosaccharide Fiber and Oatmeal.
We’ve reached out to Soylent with questions about the recall and will update this post with any response.
From high end phones self destructing to futuristic foodstuffs causing stomach complaints, it’s not been a pretty week for product recalls. | Food |
Nor for troubleshooting finicky problems with multi-component products — with Samsung yet to nail down the reason some of its Galaxy Note 7 handsets have been bursting into flames.. | Food |
Four digital media organizations are coming together to form a new holding company — and they’ve also raised $100 million in additional funding from Discovery Communications.
Those four companies are Thrillist (lifestyle), NowThis Media (video news), The Dodo (animals) and Discovery’s digital network Seeker (including its production studio SourceFed). | Media |
Thrillist’s Ben Lerer will become CEO of the combined organization.
Why these companies? In the press release announcing the merger, Lerer described this as “truly a ‘win-win’ scenario,” allowing each brand to operate independently while tapping into the resources of “one of the best media and entertainment companies in the world.”
“Each of our brands has found great success independently, but with consolidation of digital content companies around the corner, there is extraordinary value in all existing under one multi-brand roof,” he said. | Media |
“We will be stronger brands working together – we will have more influence; we will have better data and insights; we will be better partners to our advertisers; and most importantly, we will be substantial enough to make a real difference and stay ahead of the market.”
After the deal, advertisers will also be able to buy campaigns that run across all four properties.
While Discovery (which previously invested in The Dodo) will be a minority investor in Group Nine, it will have the option to buy a controlling stake. | Media |
Axel Springer, which backed Thrillist and NowThis, will be the second largest shareholder in the company.
Group Nine says its brands collectively deliver 3.5 billion video views each month and have more than 12 billion monthly social impressions.. | Media |
Pluto TV, a video streaming service targeting cord cutters by offering a TV-guide like experience that connects you to hundreds of online channels, has raised $30 million in Series B funding, valuing the business at $140 million. The new funding comes from ProSieben of Germany, one of Europe’s largest independent media companies, and lifestyle media company Scripps Networks Interactive. | Fundings & Exits |
The additional capital will help to fuel Pluto TV’s expansion into the European market, the company says.
ProSieben led the oversubscribed round, which also included participation from new investors Scripps Network Interactive and Sallfort PrivatBank. | Fundings & Exits |
Existing investors USVP, Sky, Luminari Capital, Chicago Ventures and Thirdwave Capital Partners joined, as well.
The company, which last year nabbed Spotify’s chief content officer Ken Parks for its executive chairman, raised $13 million in Series A funding in late 2014.
Unlike other online streaming services, which also cater to those who still subscribe traditional television, Pluto TV from the start has more narrowly focused on acquiring consumers who are abandoning their cable and satellite TV subscriptions. | Fundings & Exits |
However, instead of offering on-demand TV and movies like Netflix, Pluto TV attempts to replicate the TV experience through online streams that you can “tune into” much like TV broadcasting.
In the U.S., the company has over 75 content partnerships with TV networks, studios, publishers and digital media companies, including Sky, NBC, A&E, CBSi, Bloomberg, Paramount and others.
It’s also adding content via newcomers to the streaming video market, whose niche offerings may have otherwise struggled to find traction. | Fundings & Exits |
This is the case with the recent launch of the celeb and pop culture-focused PEN, for example – aka the People Entertainment Network, a joint project from People and Entertainment Weekly.
This area, perhaps, is where Pluto TV has the most potential. | Fundings & Exits |
Explains Pluto TV co-founder and CEO, Tom Ryan, it will be difficult for consumers to discover all the niche services, especially given “how chaotic and crowded the space has become and how high the cost of user acquisition is,” he says.
“Pluto TV has already aggregated over 5 million [monthly active users] in one place and a lot of these niche services are already looking to us to help them get their content discovered and drive users to their platforms,” Ryan adds. | Fundings & Exits |
“We believe most consumers don’t want to go in and out of different apps for their entertainment.”
To some extent, this is Amazon’s strategy as well, but with paid networks. The company now allows users to add on subscriptions to channels like Showtime and Starz through Amazon Video. | Fundings & Exits |
The difference is that Pluto TV is focused on free video, not premium channels.
Pluto TV attributes its user growth – up from 500,000 in the first quarter of 2015 – to the accelerating cord-cutting trend, as well as to distribution partnerships with Vizio Cast and the new Xiaomi Mi Box, where it comes pre-installed.
It also has apps for streaming media devices, like Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more recently, PlayStation 3 and 4.
The company also acquired Berlin-based TV startup Quazer in order to immediately arrive in Germany, while also giving it footing in Europe as it prepares to expand. | Fundings & Exits |
Including the acquisition, Pluto TV now has a team of 50 and plans to hire a VP Sales to begin building out its direct sales team in the months ahead.
Currently, the startup generates revenue through advertising, which comes through its content and device partners selling into the platform, as well as programmatic. | Fundings & Exits |
Ryan declined to discuss the revenue situation in detail, however.
“We can’t discuss the details of our financials but I can tell you that, having only started monetization less than a year ago, we and our content partners are delighted with the progress,” he says.
According to Ryan, the company plans to use the new funds to further invest in product, content and marketing, while also moving toward the goal of becoming a global destination for free television.
“With this funding and the expansion into Europe, Pluto TV is uniquely positioned to become the global OTT destination for free television. | Fundings & Exits |
That’s the goal. That’s the future of TV,” he says.. | Fundings & Exits |
Ever wonder which of your selfies is best? Tinder wants to help you figure it out, with the launch of a new feature called Smart Photos. And Smart Photos, in turn, show us just how much Tinder is a big data company, meticulously collecting information about what (and who) you like and don’t like.
Smart Photos is a single toggle in the Profile section of the app. | Advertising Tech |
When toggled on, Tinder continuously tests your various profile photos to determine which one is most popular, and automatically serves up that photo first in your ‘deck.’
Not only does the Smart Photos algorithm take into account overall popularity of your photos, but it also accounts for the swiping patterns of people looking at your profile.
So let’s say that you have one regular selfie, one picture of you sky-diving, and one picture of you with your Schnauzer named Donald.
The pic of you and the pup gets more overall right swipes than any other picture, and is served up as the first picture (or, calling card) of your profile most of the time. | Advertising Tech |
But, if your profile is about to be served up to someone who typically swipes left on dogs, Tinder re-orders your photos to show the selfie or sky-diving first to that particular person.
This is where things get really interesting.
Tinder has long been quiet about what kind of information it takes into account about its users. | Advertising Tech |
There is the obvious stuff, like gender, age, location, bio information, and if you hook up your Instagram then that’s even more data. | Advertising Tech |
But Tinder has never outright said that paying attention to what each individual user is swiping right and left on within an image.
In fact, the company has always said that the most ‘successful’ photos are the ones where you’re “being yourself.”
In testing, Tinder found that folks with Smart Photos toggled on saw up to 12 percent increase in matches. | Advertising Tech |
But the implications go well beyond more matches on Tinder.
In more ways than one, Tinder is a big data company. With millions of engaged users, Tinder is constantly trying to figure out how to serve you the most relevant matches in your area. | Advertising Tech |
And on that quest, the company is likely pulling in whatever data points it possibly can about you.
This type of information — that you hate pictures of dogs or that you tend to prefer buff, blonde guys — can be used in a variety of ways that go beyond matching you with other Tinder users.
For example, Tinder has an advertising product, where ads are served directly in the feed of folks who don’t pay to use the app (Tinder Plus). | Advertising Tech |
You could see how information about what you find attractive could be valuable to advertisers and other entities over time, especially as the world inches toward more targeted, personalized marketing.
It’ll likely be a long while before Tinder is actively using its troves of data — about who you like, and if you’re in the majority, and all your deal-breakers — to help marketers and advertisers better sell to you. | Advertising Tech |
But Smart Photos tells us a lot about what kind of data Tinder is collecting about its users.. | Advertising Tech |
Back in the days when I did a startup I almost de-railed our VC funding after discovering my passport had expired. Without it I couldn’t pass the anti-money laundering checks imposed on the fancy and overpriced London law firm we’d hired. | Europe |
Then we almost failed to open a bank account so we could actually receive the money because we were unable to fly over all of our investors from Eastern and Central Europe to pass ID checks in person. | Europe |
The takeaway: compliance is a pain in the ass.
Enter ComplyAdvantage, a London-based startup that claims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help firms manage compliance obligations and at reduced cost. | Europe |
The young company is announcing $8.2 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital, money it plans to plough into growth across Europe and the U.S., including opening a New York office this week.
Founded by Charles Delingpole, who previously founded Market Invoice, ComplyAdvantage originally launched to help a small number of businesses meet complex anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) requirements. | Europe |
It has since developed its product to also cover things like Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) lists and other risk and compliance areas that are hard to scale.
“The way organisations screen and monitor their customer relationships to comply with sanctions regulations and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing risk is fundamentally broken,” ComplyAdvantage VP of Sales & Marketing Stephen Ball tells me over email. | Europe |
“ComplyAdvantage is here to help compliance and risk professionals fix it”.
“Legacy technologies are outdated, expensive and inefficient, typically generating large amounts of manual work in the form of unnecessary risk alerts for the team to review,” he adds, citing as an example a customer having the same name as a completely different Politically Exposed Person. | Europe |
“Furthermore, the criminals are winning, with existing solutions having limited impact on actually reducing financial crime”.
That, argues Ball, has left compliance officers jaded. | Europe |
Originally attracted to the role of fighting crime, they find themselves often doing a box-ticking exercise that is ineffective but designed to keep the companies they work for on the right side of the regulators, even if that often fails too. | Europe |
Meanwhile, regulator fines are kind of expected and baked into the pricing models of financial services.
To fix this, ComplyAdvantage is betting that AI and machine learning can help compliance scale properly and says the startup is part of a “regtech revolution” that is coming to financial services. | Europe |
“ComplyAdvantage are at the forefront unleashing the power of AI and ML to change the way compliance is done,” says the VP of Sales & Marketing.
Adds Tim Bunting, General Partner at Balderton Capital, in a statement: “We believe that this is one of the few remaining large industries that is still ripe for digital disruption. | Europe |
We are thrilled to be backing Charles and his team, they are well on their way to changing the way companies can understand and monitor risk around their clients. Their mission is truly exciting, and relevant to all businesses.”. | Europe |
PlaceIQ has a new, big-name investor — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
The companies aren’t disclosing the size of the deal; they’ll only say that it’s a strategic, minority investment, and that it’s an addition to the $25 million round that PlaceIQ announced at the beginning of this year. | Advertising Tech |
Co-founder and CEO Duncan McCall told me this is part of a larger partnership, where Alibaba will be using PlaceIQ’s technology.
“I don’t want to speak for [Alibaba], but in my mind, they didn’t want to invest in a company — they wanted to find a strategic partner,” McCall said.
PlaceIQ combines location data with “first-party” data from marketers to provide a fuller understanding of consumer behavior — not just whether someone’s visited a car dealership, for example, but whether they’re actually shopping for a car, and what kinds of TV stations they’re likely to watch.
McCall said Alibaba could use PlaceIQ’s technology in a variety of ways, including marketing, product recommendations and providing data for broader decision-making. | Advertising Tech |
McCall also suggested that as PlaceIQ looks to expand internationally, it will continue to follow this partnership model.
“For us, our core value is in the data and technology,” he said. “When we want to get into [a new geography], let’s find the market leader and deploy with them.”. | Advertising Tech |
The JOBS Act was signed into law by President Obama in 2012, allowing companies to acquire funding through online portals from non-accredited investors, which roughly accounts for 97 percent of the population in the United States. On May 16, 2016, Title III of the JOBS Act, also known as regulation crowdfunding, or equity crowdfunding, was the last section to be implemented by the SEC. | Startups |
With such a large pool of potential investors looking to enter the market, it would seem that the crowdfunding and investment communities would be extremely welcoming of Title III — but it seems like the exact opposite is happening. This could be because not enough is understood about this type of crowdfunding. | Startups |
As a founder who has tried all types of crowdfunding, I’ve seen significant benefits to all platforms, including equity crowdfunding.
Equity crowdfunding shares similarities with Kickstarter campaigns in terms of how a company must spread their message to potential investors about their products in order to successfully raise enough funding. | Startups |
However, the main difference between equity crowdfunding, rewards-based crowdfunding and donation-based crowdfunding is the investor’s end goal in rewards-based crowdfunding, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. | Startups |
Rewards-based fundraising is aimed at enticing investors based on the benefits they would receive in relation to the amount they contribute.
As a founder, I’ve used this type of crowdfunding, and have helped others do so with great results. | Startups |
It’s been ideal for taking a prototype to the next level because those investing are excited about the concept they see and are incentivized to invest because they will most likely be one of the first to receive the new product. | Startups |
I’ve experienced wildly successful rewards-based crowdfunding; it’s been the reason our company could move to the next level in our development.
Donation-based crowdfunding seeks funding that comes as goodwill from the community. This method is geared toward charitable contributions rather than capital acquisition, which is the aim of equity crowdfunding. | Startups |
When investing through equity crowdfunding, an investor receives shares in the company instead of a final product, which tends to yield a greater benefit for the investor long-term. | Startups |
The way the shares are structured allows the founders to retain control of their company even after selling a portion of their equity to multiple investors across the country.
While equity crowdfunding was developed with the intention of providing significant benefits, many have professed some major concerns related to how equity crowdfunding might change the funding landscape. | Startups |
The major concerns include the numerous intimidating filing requirements that entrepreneurs must fill out for the SEC, the need for constant reporting to the SEC, the requirement that company financials be made available to investors and the review or audit of financials by an accountant based on how much you have raised.
However, others believe these requirements are justified. | Startups |
Manny Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Dreamfunded and the 2014 Equity Crowdfunding Leadership Award recipient, notes, “When a company is just starting, transparency in terms of financials is irrelevant because there is nothing to hide from potential investors. | Startups |
This is one of the various ways in which established investors are trying to maintain control of entrepreneurs and prevent them from finding alternate funding opportunities apart from the traditional methods. It makes good business sense to all involved.”
Another concern has been the liability companies might face when an investment venture, failing to generate any returns or growth, shuts down. | Startups |
A decision such as this made by founders may motivate some jilted investors to seek compensation for their lost investment. | Startups |
However, when an entrepreneur fills out a Form C, full disclosure is made to potential investors about the risks, which are associated with investing in the company.
It is highly unlikely that any disgruntled investor would be able to win any lawsuit seeking reparations as long as general risks involved in their investment are disclosed to potential investors. | Startups |
Also, investment limitations based on income level have been established by FINRA and the SEC to help investors not risk their entire pension or life savings by making one bad investment.
Another issue has been the fact that because there tend to be smaller investment amounts with equity crowdfunding, the cost of using this type of crowdfunding platform might outweigh the benefits of it, as smaller individual investment amounts may raise the amount of investors on the cap table. | Startups |
In addition, the fee charged by funding portals reduces the total amount raised. | Startups |
However, although the amount per investor is smaller, there is also a larger amount of people who are helping you watch the business grow.
For me, as an entrepreneur, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time and money looking for potential investors for my digital wallet startup who are not always readily available, in the local area or willing to invest in the idea that they are pitched. | Startups |
Instead, with equity crowdfunding, I pay a fee and then get access to more investors, which has saved me considerable time, money and effort, as well as enables me to get started on building out my company sooner.
One of the greatest benefits with equity crowdfunding is that I can set my own terms for the shares of the company, providing me with more autonomy and freedom. | Startups |
The shares sold through equity crowdfunding are limited to only one class of securities, so there are no voting rights. Instead, the investor is simply investing in the company’s profitability and success. | Startups |
This process has helped me maintain control and minimize any potential threat of investors commanding the direction of the company during the early stage of fundraising.
Some entrepreneurs have expressed their dislike of the fact that there is a fundraising limit of a million dollars over a 12-month period. | Startups |
However, it’s important to remember that this type of funding is typically only for the first round, and it can be used again for future stages of growth or other types of funding can be implemented at that point. | Startups |
Also, some of my companies started on much less funding and I was able to leverage more funding through equity crowdfunding at a later stage when I really needed a larger amount.
The second proposal is the “test the waters” provision, which allows entrepreneurs to gauge the interest of potential investors through an online portal before they take the time, effort and money to extend an initial offering. | Startups |
The third proposal is to allow for the use of SPVs (special purpose vehicles), which would help entrepreneurs keep their cap tables organized because the investors of low-dollar amounts are grouped together into one large fund that appears on the cap table as one large entity. | Startups |
These proposed fixes are now up to the Senate to decide, and it will take at least a year for it to be passed.
In the meantime, I highly recommend considering equity crowdfunding, as it has offered an additional avenue for funding without having to contend with investors who want to take over and run my business.
As an entrepreneur, I know that risk is just part of the game. | Startups |
If I always played it safe, I wouldn’t be here today, with a rapidly growing online invoicing and payments business. The risk involved with equity crowdfunding is minimal. | Startups |
What I always recommend before using any kind of funding vehicle is to do your research, understand what is involved in terms of benefits and risks and determine how you could use the funds wisely at a certain stage in your startup’s development.
Today’s equity crowdfunding marketplace also has credible platforms that are driving greater success for those using this funding source and connecting more entrepreneurs quickly to the investors they need to become successful.. | Startups |
On the heels of Samsung’s acquisition of Viv just a week ago, a new AI assistant has risen into the spotlight and is jockeying to fill the shoes of its now well-known rival. | Apps |
Ozlo, the Greylock- and Jerry Yang-backed independent entrant to the personal assistant race, is launching today on iOS and the web in an effort to give stalwarts like Siri, Alexa and Cortana a run for their money.
The new personal assistant promises early adopters a good memory, a brain full of knowledge, and an independent soul — everything you could hope for in your new binary friend.
When I sat down with Charles Jolley, CEO of Ozlo and previous head of platform for Facebook on Android, the two of us immediately had a nice laugh about the repetitive female names for assistants in the marketplace right now — Ozlo, by name alone, is already something different. | Apps |
That said, a name is one thing; the more important question is whether Ozlo is useful and doesn’t make its users want to throw their phone against a wall after use.
I’ve been using the assistant for the last few weeks and have been mostly impressed. | Apps |
The bar is still quite low for assistants and us enthusiasts have to find small things to get excited about, but that wasn’t a problem with Ozlo.
One thing in particular that Ozlo delivered well was a good memory of my previous interactions with him. For people that suffer from gluten allergies, Ozlo can digest that information and put it to use later on when you ask for a cute date spot. | Apps |
This is a feature that Google’s new assistant is heavily investing in, but after initial use, Allo still struggles with. | Apps |
When the app first dropped, I had an extended frustrating conversation trying to convince it that juice and coffee were in fact two distinct preferences rather than some weird personality tick where I can only drink coffee if juice is also present.
Jolley is insistent that Ozlo isn’t simply useful for users, but is a critical piece of the the AI ecosystem itself. | Apps |
Ozlo is a personal assistant independent of the big tech illuminati of Google, Baidu, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. | Apps |
When we met, Viv was still among its private brethren, but with the company’s new connection to Samsung, the impetus has only become greater.
Big tech conglomerates have a strong market advantage when it comes to the size and scope of their data sets. For example, much of the hype around Google’s assistant relates to its integration with Google Search. Jolley wants us to remember that bigger isn’t always better. | Apps |
These companies tend to prioritize their own services when responding to queries even if a more holistic response could come with better integrations.
Ozlo is launching integrated with services like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Zagat, Michelin, DoorDash, IMDB, Westworld Media, TimeOut, the Infatuation, and Yummly. | Apps |
He also has support from Further Food, Authority Nutrition, Gluten Free Globetrotter, Gluten Free Mrs. D, and Cookies and Kate to provide nutritional guidance.
Every assistant on the market right now could use some training in the natural language understanding department, and Ozlo is no different. | Apps |
Accuracy is improving with data and the box of potential queries is getting larger, but it is still fundamentally a box. This isn’t to say that Ozlo is frustrating to use, just important to remember to keep expectations in check. It will be interesting to see how he continues to adapt to my speaking style in the coming weeks while keeping an eye on future deep hardware integrations with AI. | Apps |
Pixel gave us a taste of that but it won’t be the end. Ozlo’s thesis requires that a world exist outside of those integrations, now it’s just a matter of watching the games play out to see if independence can trump convenience.. | Apps |
Under pressure from shoppers complaining about losing the ability to receive tips last month as the company looked to smooth out the earnings curve, Instacart said it is re-introducing customer tipping.
“After announcing this change, we heard a lot of feedback from our shopper community,” the company said in a blog post. | Apps |
“While our shoppers liked most of the changes, they did not like the fact that we were removing tips from our online platform. | Apps |
Taking that feedback into account, we have decided to continue to accept tips as part of this change.”
CEO Apoorva Mehta stressed that the decision came from customers looking to continue tipping, rather than complaints from shoppers, which he called a small group that was “very vocal” about the change. | Apps |
However, following removing tips, Instacart received some backlash from shoppers who said they were losing significant portions of their earnings. The backlash went so far as to inspire a boycott among some shoppers, though again Mehta said that this was not the primary cause for returning tipping.
“We have tens of thousands of shoppers,” Mehta said. | Apps |
“I think that a lot of times it’s the most vocal ones you hear from. A lot of times what ends up happening is that frankly we were over-communicative, we communicated for weeks before the chain before it happened. Genuinely, I think there’s always going to be the case that we can always do better, this is one of those cases where we can definitely do better. | Apps |
I hope the next time changes we carry out, we hope that we’re better at it now than we were before.”
Despite all this, Mehta said the company was clearly communicating with the shopper base what the change would be. | Apps |
But he also said that Instacart, with the change, was “getting in the way” of customers tipping their shoppers, which would have to then rely on cash in order to give a tip for a good customer experience. | Apps |
One original argument for the change was that 20% of customers didn’t tip, but that other 80% comprised a significant portion of its shopper base’s income.
Instacart has to remain competitive among other on-demand services that are looking to scoop up the same potential shopper base. | Apps |
In that sense, Instacart has to ensure that it provides a positive shopper experience as well as a customer experience, and changing a long-accustomed to model can incite a lot of backlash. | Apps |