The idea for two William Woods MBA students, one a graduate and one a current student, had a humble beginning.
“I had a $200 Southwest Airline voucher and over 6,000 Chipotle points that expired over the pandemic,” said Jordan Williams, a graduate of the WWU MBA program. “I wanted a solution to the problem of expiring points and vouchers.”
So along with current William Woods student Julian Taylor, Williams created Veeper. Now the start-up has secured its latest success with a big win in an entrepreneurial competition.
Veeper recently won a $100,000 cash prize in an entrepreneurial competition sponsored by Render Capital. Render Capital is a venture capital firm based in Louisville, Kentucky that annually invests $100,00 in eight startup companies in an effort to grow the Louisville startup ecosystem. 302 startups applied and Veeper was one of the winning eight startups to receive $100,000. The winners are required to locate to within the Louisville region and Render Capital and its network of partners will provide tailored support for the companies it invested in.
“The $100,000 is important for Veeper as it provides us with the capital we needed to complete development on our Shopify app, build a new website and start testing our digital marketing strategies and campaigns,” said Williams. “Winning this competition also gives us strong validation going forward and momentum moving forward in our efforts to raise $600,000 for our Pre-Seed round.”
Williams gives the financial planning class that he took when getting his MBA at William Woods credit. The class helped him to create his proceed plan and understand how much everything was going to cost, including preparing an application and building a real business that is hiring employees and that is growing at the rate a startup should.
“It helped me figure out how much money I needed to raise in order to be successful and to achieve the goals I want to achieve over the next year or so,” said Williams, a 27-year old from Bristol, England who worked at William Woods as the graduate assistant for the golf team while earning his MBA.
Veeper is a shopify app that tracks customer spending habits to find the best discount that prompts them to buy more. This means each time a shopper adds an item to the cart they will see their discount increase. The mission is to make the internet free of universal promo codes.
The impressive, ongoing success of Williams, Taylor, and Veeper has been a source of pride for their professors and instructors at The Woods.
“Jordan [Williams] and Julian [Taylor] are shining examples of the excellence related to our student’s entrepreneurial spirit in the MBA Program,” said Dr. Thomas Trice, MBA Program Manager and Associate Professor of the School of Business and Technology.
For more on the William Woods MBA Program, please visit:
https://www.williamwoods.edu/academics/graduate/business_graduate/mba.html