Des Moines startup Bawte deals with what happens after a consumer purchases a product.
For nearly two years, co-founder and CEO John Jackovin has been working on Bawte, a company that launched its new iOS app and web platform Wednesday.
Previously, the Des Moines startup focused primarily on serving brands and manufacturers, but now Jackovin says the company is refocusing to appeal more to the consumers doing the purchasing. Specifically, Bawte has shifted its focus to serve everything that happens after someone buys an item.
Thanks to our sponsor
“We went out, as most people do, with a bunch of assumptions,” Jackovin told Silicon Prairie News. “We quickly realized that our assumptions were not right for how people wanted to use the product and how they actually used it.”
Jackovin says that the brands Bawte was working with weren’t moving fast enough to make the app’s predication on those companies viable. So a switch to a consumer-facing market, where success didn’t depend as heavily on brand participation, seemed logical.
As an application, the relaunched version of Bawte functions fairly similarly to how it did previously. Users launch the free iOS app, tag a product they’ve recently purchased by scanning its UPC code and have the opportunity to take a photo of the product, input its serial number and save a photo of the receipt.
“Where we really found the biggest opportunity for us was in supporting consumers after the sale,” Jackovin (right) said.
After its updates though, Bawte now functions as much of a customer service tool, handling the difficulties that transpire when a washing machine leaks, a coffeemaker breaks or any myriad other problems occur with a product.
“We’re taking that first ‘Oh, shit’ moment off the plate of the consumer and letting us handle it,” Jackovin said.
He says that a big part of Bawte’s new role will be to serve as liaisons for customers having trouble with a specific product. For example, if your washing machine is leaking, Bawte will contact the manufacturer, research the specific model and come back with an array of potential solutions.
“We’ve dealt with Whirpool before so we know where to go and what to do, what the process is for getting things done, as opposed to a consumer who may deal with Whirlpool support one time in their entire life,” Jackovin said.
Bawte officially launched in May 2012 and by June of that year, Jackovin was working on his startup full-time.
Many of Bawte’s offerings—like product manuals, instructional videos and product recall information—are still available through the new iteration.
Since then, he and long-time business partner Tom Love have sold another of their product’s, Big Blue Window—an ecommerce retailer for window grilles—to focus their efforts fully on Bawte.
“The businesses that I’ve started in the past that have actually worked have really focused a lot on customer service,” Jackovin said. “We kind of got away from that with Bawte, but we kind of realized that’s where the opportunity is.”
While Jackovin says the team still hasn’t fully formed a monetization strategy for Bawte, he says a number of strategies surrounding brand collaboration have been discussed. As of right now, however, Bawte wants to start by seeing “how its initial brand group gets value” from the app, Jackovin said.
The startup now has a team of nine, which includes a number of part-time developers.
Credits: Photos courtesy of Bawte.
 |
 |
 |
