As you may know, I’ve been on semi-paternity leave since the birth of our baby, Henry (you can see a photo of him on my Instagram page here). In this week’s episode, I’m turning it over to the Chief Operating Officer of The Rideshare Guy, Scott Lieberman, to interview the co-founder and COO, Wayne Lin, from Upside. The Upside app is insanely popular with our audience and it’s a great way to save money on gas.
If you want to save money on gas, you can use the Upside App to save at major stations all around the US.
Intro
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Today I’m talking with Wayne Lin
- Co-Founder and COO of Upside
- Talking about discounts on gas, food and more
- We’ll cover what makes Upside different from other cash back apps
Intro to Wayne Lin
- Previously worked at Google
- MBA from Wharton School of Business
- Started Upside to focus on ‘everyday spend’ categories
- Looked for ways to help people save money on basics – more useful!
What Makes Upside Different
- Useful categories, like food, gas, etc.
- Personalized offers
- Can stack with Upside – not limited!
- Stores do this because they want your business
How Upside Works for Merchants
- Merchants want to grow their businesses!
- Upside brings them new customers
- Helps get existing customers to shop more often
- Uses data to help the merchants
Future of Personalization & Data
- At first it was segmentation at a finer scale
- We’re getting to the point where we can do one-to-one personalization level
- Linking it all together – let customers make money off their own data
- Upside and other companies are looking to bring all of this together
Ultra-Personalization & Introducing People to New Products
- Getting people out of their own echo chambers is important
- Difficult problem to solve, but luckily Upside doesn’t fall into that entirely
- Randomization is key for Upside
- Understanding preferences but introduced randomness to see what you’re interested in
Challenges for Upside
- Adapting to COVID-19 era
- How to help Americans who have lost jobs save more money
- Help businesses re-establish customers, bring customers in and grow
- Need to scale in order to do all of these things
Building an App Like Upside
- If you want to build an app, we learned some lessons
- Don’t overbuild – it’s all about speed – don’t focus on perfection!
- Get feedback and improve from there
- Customer is always right – if people can’t figure out your app, make it better
How to Earn Money with Upside
- Referral program – very simple!
- Refer friends & family – they get a bonus, you get a bonus
- Every time your friends & family use Upside, you get a small percent of what they’ve bought
- You’re helping them save money, you’re not selling them anything they don’t need
Outro
- Big thanks to Wayne for coming on the podcast!
- Make sure to sign up with Upside if you’re looking to save more at the pump and while shopping
Show Notes
- Learn more about Upside
- Download the Upside app
- Instructions on using your Upside promo code
