Forkfly: Merchants forking Over a Good Deal on the Fly

Portland Oregon-based Forkfly is a social commerce company that offers consumers mobile coupons, promotions and in-depth information on restaurants, events, entertainment and shops through the use of location aware applications, social media and strategic marketing.

Paul Wagner CEO founded Forkfly on January 15th 2009. Paul came up with the idea after having trouble editing a CitySearch page for his restaurant, Alu. “I was trying to do my CitySearch profile for two hours,” says Wagner, “and thought there had to be a better way.” As a result, Forkfly was created, and with help from his partner and friend, Marc Dooley, Forkfly’s COO, Paul launched the company in Portland.

According to Forkfly, the idea is simple: “Offering the merchant a chance to “fork over a good deal on the fly.”

We started off as a simple couponing solution for the iPhone, in fact we were in of the first couponing apps at the app store. Since then we’ve gone through quite an evolution…. We now build software for the publishing industry. It allows them to basically bring advertisers back into the local fold through this technology that we built.

From Forkfly’s blog:

While Forkfly is not a daily deal centered business (Only 7% of our revenue) we have put the time and attention to build a platform that utilizes the relations of the publisher/media companies. Forkfly utilizes the wholesale platform, merchant to customer communications and retention in real time, and hundreds of free and every day deals for end users.

The frequency of more and more people buying and using Smart Phones means more people are consistently “plugged in” and the success of daily and on-going deal platforms is sure to only increase. The real question for merchants and publishers is not if you’ll sign on, but when and with whom.

Mr. Wagner recently gave an interview to Startup Weekly and he can certainly explain his business far better than I can. So watch the video and learn how Forkfly came to be and what the company is all about today.

Source: Startup Weekly, Wikibin, Forkfly