New mobile startup Loople is making it easy to find the best deals around Baltimore. SouthBMore.com caught up with its team to learn more.
What is Loople?
Loople simplifies your social life. We are a free gps based mobile app, which allows users to see all of the bar and restaurant specials around them. Also, users can filter to find exactly what they are looking for, whether it is seafood, craft beer, outdoor seating, etc. We officially launched in Baltimore in June and currently have more than 3,800 users. Everybody should check out our app to stay in the loop!
Tell us about the team behind Loople. How did you guys team up?
The Loople team is three college friends who stayed in touch and have been working on starting an idea for the past two years.
Phil DiMuro worked for Boston Beer for three years as a sales rep in the Baltimore market. Dave Phelan worked for a construction engineering company in Bethlehem, PA for three years. Both Dave and Phil officially quit their jobs to work full-time with Loople. Ryan Gutleber works for a real estate company in New York and works externally for Loople. We all bring different backgrounds and strengths to the table to help make Loople a success!
Areas like Federal Hill, Canton and Fells Point have a lot of bars and restaurants. Is Baltimore the perfect place to test a business concept like this out?
Canton, Fells, and Fed have so many different bars and restaurants, which are always running incredible specials. It’s hard to figure out where to go or find what specials are running around you. We live in Baltimore and we are still finding new places we never knew about. Baltimore is a very social city and we want to people to see everything it has to offer! It is the perfect market to prove our concept. We want to prove the model here before expanding to other cities.
What events are you working on to promote your app?
Currently, we are running a bar crawl series throughout August called Explore Bmore. The first event was last Saturday in Canton and we had more than 100 people show up. We are looking to grow that number this weekend in Fells Point. The final event will be on August 29th in Federal Hill. We are sponsored by MillerCoors and Boston Beer. We have six different partner bars in each neighborhood that will be running $2 Miller Lites and $3 Traveler Shandy’s from 12-6pm. The event is completely FREE and the first beer is FREE on us! All we ask is for people to download our app. You can RSVP at www.explorebmore.com.
How does Loople plan to grow and produce income?
The app is and always will be completely free to users. We plan to grow our users base through grassroots marketing with events and promotions, such as Explore Bmore. Also, we are focusing on creating local partnerships with businesses, such as Bmore Social and Charm City Trivia. We are finding creative ways to help each other grow. Once we have enough users, we see future revenue streams from the bars and restaraunts. They will be able to target advertise based on location, time, and demographic. As soon as we prove the concept in Baltimore, we will be looking to use the same model to grow in other cities throughout the country.
What is it like to run a business in Baltimore and be part of the emerging startup scene here?
The startup community is Baltimore has been incredible. So many people have reach out and given us amazing support and feedback. We joined ETC on Haven Street, which is a co-sharing office space with access to educational classes and mentors. Baltimore offers great opportunities for startup looking to grow and we are excited to be a part of it.
