ProMotion Rewards

ProMotion Rewards LogoLauren ProMotion Rewards

Promotions Rewards’ co- founder Lauren O’ Reilly is the winner of the LEO Dublin city Women in Business Rising Star Award 2022. ProMotion Rewards allows you to earn points for scanning your shopping receipts, buying from their partner brands, for answering surveys, reaching the weekly step goal, and referring friends. Founded by Lauren O’ Reilly and Bidemi Afolabi, the entrepreneurs raised €725,000 in pre-seed investment. The company currently employs three full time staff. 

Making Connections that Led to Business

Lauren studied Pharmacy in Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 2021 as a Pharmacist (BSc, MSc, MPSI). It was here that she met her cofounder Bidemi in 2016, who was also in Lauren’s Pharmacy class.

The enterprising duo had an interest in entrepreneurship and technology and whilst finishing their degrees, completed and won the TCD Tangent LaunchBox Accelerator programme in 2020. This equipped them with a lot of tools and resources they would later use to develop what is now ProMotion Rewards.

“Our backgrounds in science, data analysis and research, combined with my co-founder’s expertise when it comes to technology has been a winning combination when it came to developing our product, from conducting initial market research, right through to bringing our product to market.

Using such a broad range of skills every day since first starting work on ProMotion Rewards is what I love most about setting up my own business. I love that I get to not only wear my science hat when it comes to the product, but also use everything from linguistic skills, to management skills, to accounting skills and more, as we have navigated the world of building a start-up from scratch. Thankfully, we got a lot of support from different organisations, from Tangent in TCD, to Dogpatch Labs, to the Local Enterprise Office and also New Frontiers in TUD Blanchardstown. All of these programmes and resources equipped us to deal with the challenges we would inevitably face as start-up founders.”

Becoming Self Employed

Hailing from an entrepreneurial family herself, it’s only natural that Lauren gravitated to starting a business.

“My Dad, Michael, is an entrepreneur, and so was my Grandad, Donal O’Reilly. Although when I was younger I thought my Dad was crazy working until all hours of the night, I now see myself somewhat mirroring that same entrepreneurial spirit. I have always loved to create, and have always been a creative person – whether through writing, or music, or maths and science, creating and problem-solving are where I find flow, and owning your own business gives you a lot of creative license, and space to innovate, learn and grow. It forces you to pack such a huge amount of learning into a short space of time, and to think outside the box, while bringing a lot of value to the world.” Lauren tells us.

Standing Out from the Competition

ProMotion Rewards is completely consumer-centric, which means they create a massive amount of value for consumers themselves, and in turn, for the brands trying to serve them better.

“We reward consumers for every shopping receipt they scan, as we believe that wherever value is created, value should be received. As a result, we create holistic consumer profiles, which allows Consumer Goods brands to target consumers with offers based on their purchase behaviour and propensity to buy. We also allow them to use this data to go deeper, performing qualitative analysis (surveys) based on purchase behaviour.”

Challenges & Opportunities

“The biggest challenge to date was in the early days of ideation, when we had built a very, very basic version of our product, but had invested a lot of time and energy into getting to that stage, before realising through subsequent user research that we needed to pivot.

We also have had incredible opportunities to date, with the most recent and most notable being our most recent fundraise of €725k, which provides us with the opportunity to grow and scale ProMotion Rewards, and bring more value, to more people and brands.” Says Lauren.

Using Research to Change the Business Model & Target Market

The team have changed both their business model and target market in the last two years.

“It really came down to extensive research, speaking to our users, speaking to our customers, and also help from some incredible mentors and advisors we have met along the way, who were, thankfully, very blunt and honest with us. Sugar coating feedback does not serve a start-up – we always appreciated the candid, straight-to-the-point insights our advisors gave us. We have been very agile as a team and tried as best as we could to be practical about obvious and necessary changes to our business plan and business model. Maybe that’s the scientist in us!”

Stand Out Moment

Although there have been many, there are a few that particularly stand out in Lauren’s mind.

“When our customers and potential customers validated what we had proposed as being their problem statement, and came onboard as initial clients.

Another pivotal moment was when we saw hundreds of people download the app, through word of mouth, and organic reach, with zero paid marketing spend, when we first launched. Even when we were still in beta, people were organically finding and using our app, and happily snapping receipts. We knew we were onto something then.”

LEO Supports Received

The team have benefitted greatly from LEO Dublin City supports, from training to financial;

  • Start Your Own Business Course
  • Mentoring
  • Global Ambition Seminar
  • Feasibility Grant

 “The LEO helped us when we needed it most – prior to our fundraise, we needed to prove our model with an MVP that worked. We received the feasibility study grant and this was exactly what we needed to get us to the next stage. I also have joined the LEO Dublin City Women in Business Network, and have made some wonderful contacts through the network, and look forward to future events in 2023. I am also so grateful to have received the “Rising Star” award this year.”

2023 & Beyond

Lauren & Bidemi see ProMotion Rewards being the Global Consumer Rewards solution, democratising data for both brands and consumers and helping to shape the brands of the future.

“In the next 12 months we have plans to expand to other markets, and are excited to be adding to our brilliant list of brand partners we have on the app, allowing us to provide our app users with even more value & rewards.” Lauren explains.

Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs

“Don’t wait until you have the “perfect” business plan, or “perfect’ MVP before you take the next step, before you meet an investor, before you launch (there’s no such thing, anyway). Feedback will come thick and fast, and you’ll learn from it, but you’ll learn nothing from agonising over a project that you keep to yourself, that’s 80% of the way there, trying to get it to 100%. You could get it to 100% of what you consider to be “perfect” only to realise you’ve built the wrong thing. Build, get feedback, iterate, go again, and never stop talking to potential customers/users. This was a tough lesson for me to learn, having always been a high-achieving, type-A person, but a very important lesson that I often have to remind myself of.”

ProMotion rewards Co Founders

Contact

Dogpatch Labs,

The CHQ Building,

Custom House Quay,

North Dock,

Dublin 1

Email: info@promotionreward.com

Website: www.usepromotion.com