Trace Cohen's Insight

As I look over my balcony in the city right now, I can see everyone scrambling for cover due to the approaching thunderstorm. Not only is it an inconvenience, but also from a business prospective think of all the lost revenue that restaurants and retailers lose out on because no one wants to travel in the bad weather. What would it take to incentivize you to go out in this weather? Would you go out to eat if it was a few dollars cheaper, or if you got a special deal on your meal?

My friend and fellow serial entrepreneur Matt Ackerson solved this dilemma with his company Bluesky Local, which is the world’s first Slow Sales Response (SSR) marketing solution. All around the country, bad weather has been blamed for dropping sales, as much as 28% in certain locations.  As a consumer, all you have to do is sign up at your favorite participating restaurants and they will send you notifications every time they have a special deal or discount because of bad weather, slow days or holidays. It’s that simple!

Believe it or not, Matt started Bluesky Local in college! That’s right, when he was just 20 in his dorm room at Cornell, he built the initial platform himself and started partnerships with local businesses. My initial thought when he first explained it to me was that he was trying to make the world a more efficient place. In order to find out more, I interviewed him so that he could share his knowledge and experience with you.

1. You started your first company in college, what inspired you to do it and did you have any idea what you were doing?

I had little clue of what I was doing. All I thought was that it would be a fun and great creative challenge to create something that could change the world around me and do it from scratch. I was inspired to do it because I wanted to change things, and making money as a by-product was not such a bad trade-off either.

2. Being a college student, were there benefits, setbacks or any other problems you encountered along the way? How did you deal with them?

I tried to drop out of school at least once. I didn’t see the point in doing it when I was learning so much more from entrepreneurship. Looking back, there was a point… It enabled me to “safely” experiment with different start-up ideas and make mistakes. This was good in many way, but there was definitely a huge time trade-off. I’m not sure if I would make the same decision again. I don’t like playing it safe.

There were plenty of setbacks and problems to solve along the way. None of them really mattered, so long as the scope of my vision remained undeterred. The scope of your vision in life is the only thing that constricts your success.

3. A lot of companies don’t solve problems the way yours does. How would you describe the pain that you are trying to alleviate?

A business has fixed costs for keeping their restaurant or store open 6 or 7 days a week. If it’s a slow sales time, those fixed costs remain while customer traffic plummets. Bluesky Local helps business owners to get a grip on sales dips because there’s a clear pattern to when and how sales slumps occur (e.g. a Monday, a rainy day). By automatically sending out coupons to consumers it helps draw them back in during that slow period. This incrementally increases profitability and helps businesses to move more time-sensitive inventory than they otherwise would.

Check out the video below to understand the pain he alleviates!

4. Did you have a mentor or someone to talk to for advice?

Yes, but it’s important to always make up your own mind based on your own reasoning or instinct. Don’t let others overshadow your own judgment simply because they have more “experience.” Experience is overrated, just like advice. You have to live with your decisions, the advice-givers don’t.

5. Now that you have graduated, is it different to run a company? What has changed?

That “safety net” is gone. The desire and pressure to make a stable income can be overwhelming if not kept in check.

6. What advice do you have for a current college student looking to start their own company?

Do it. Stop reading this and do it.

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For more information check out Bluesky Local , follow Matt Ackerson on twitter or connect with him on Linkedin