5o9 Inc. looks to link consumers to merchants

BOULDER – The wall between merchant and consumer may be getting lower, much lower. That is, if a new company in Boulder has its way.

Can you imagine driving down U.S. 36 and you get a pang for a hot cup of coffee. You use your cell phone to find the nearest Starbucks, and the store instantly sends you a coupon?

This scenario is very close to becoming a reality. In fact, by the end of March a new company, 5o9 Inc., which provides software designed to “improve the mobile experience” will begin selling its wares.

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Liz Coker, who handles marketing for 5o9, says it’s all about merchants understanding who the customer is, what kind of device they are using and where they are.

Coker uses herself as an example – in regard to wine shopping.

“A wine merchant can send me a coupon for a kind of wine I like on my desktop at home,” she says.

The software allows the merchant to know she’s on her desktop (versus her cell phone) and where she is (from GPS or cell tower triangulation).

It sounds a little bit like Big Brother is watching.

However, Coker says the consumer has a privacy option to let merchants and others know their information.

“The consumers we’ve done research with say they’re satisfied with the privacy issues,” she says.

She adds that 5o9 has included privacy controls so consumers can choose where their information is given.

“I can decide if I want a merchant to call my cell phone so I can get a call that tells me about a sale at a wine store. Basically what we’re doing is delivering the who, what and where data to a Web server, so it can get data from point A to B, so someone can use it,” Coker says.

Peter Cranstone, a co-founder, says, “It’s all about improving the mobile experience and blending content … with contact.”

Coker says the company has two types of customers, content providers and businesses with mobile workers.

On the content provider side, Coker says a company with a Web site that wants to deliver local information such as ad-based Web sites, social networking sites or search sites would be interested in the software.

She says companies with mobile workers can better handle customer relations by knowing a customer’s location and what kind of communication device that customer is using to input transaction data.

“The commercial and marketing applications are huge, and potential customers like what they’re seeing of it,” Coker says.

She says 5o9 is talking to local and national companies – and a few in Europe.

“We’re talking to portal companies, multinational companies that handle directory assistance and those that have call centers. We’ve also talked to some navigation companies, some browser companies and the very large digital media arm of a TV network.”

She says 5o9 is currently focusing on companies that have the “most immediate needs.”

Coker wouldn’t share specific financial information, but did say the virtual company is self-funded. It has filed for patents and is in the process of trying to close its first deal.

5o9 has approached venture capitalists in Colorado and on both coasts, and they have expressed “a lot of interest and are looking at the option,” she says.

As for competition, Coker says no other company has its kind of software.

“Some are doing the who, some are doing the where and what, but nobody is doing all three like we are,” she says.

Cranstone, Coker and Kevin Kiley started the company in January 2006, and all three have high-tech backgrounds.

Cranstone, a former commercial airline pilot, is the founder of four technology companies. Coker has 24 years of marketing, sales, operations and management experience. Kiley has been in data technology for more than 25 years.

“We’re a nice little team that complements each other,” Coker says.

5o9 will begin sales at the end of this quarter and have a formal launch of sales in July, Coker says.

5o9 Inc.

Virtual offices in Boulder

303-938-1769

www.5o9inc.com

Peter J. Cranstone, Elizabeth A. Coker, Kevin J. Kiley, co-founders

Employees: three

Primary service: mobile device software

Founded: 2006