Well, not exactly.  When Paul Wagner opened his wine bar in Portland, Oregon, he quickly became frustrated with the leading digital city guide (won’t mention names here).  The frustration woke him up in the middle of the night, he went to his computer, and thus began Forkfly.com.  His vendor’s system was too complex: Too many options, too little measurement and too slow on the customer service.

Since Paul was the customer, he had a head-start knowing the stresses of being a retail merchant and trying to track advertising and promotion dollars.  A manager needs to be able to easily and – with mobile device alerts – instantly offer deals and then quickly analyze them to see what works and what doesn’t.

As often happens, it wasn’t easy to get started.  He had trouble finding a good local developer for the application, but widened his search and located one in Argentina.  Paul travelled there, spent some weeks working out the first product, and came back ready to “fly.”  The concept is simple: Offering the merchant a chance to “fork over a good deal on the fly.”

As fast as communication moves and as quickly as consumers look for something new, Forkfly is in a great place to grow.  Forkfly is deployed in new markets via publishing partners.  For example, Forkfly is presently deploying San Francisco via their partnership with the San Francisco Bay Guardian.  Did I mention that Forkfly has a lot of really nice people too?

Forkfly offers consumers amazing deals and in-depth information on a number restaurants, events, entertainment and shops in their zip code.

by Thubten Comerford and Michael Coates

This interview is sponsored by Startup Business Credit – Business Credit Spot.