JunoWallet: A 21st Century Spin on Gift Cards- “Must Have App”

JunoWallet is a San Jose based start-up whose co-founder, Chris Sweis, lives here in Chicago. JunoWallet is an app available for Android, iPhone and iPad devices that literally is giving away value to its users- just for downloading the free app. Using it is a snap- upon activating your device and downloading the app, you get an icon in your app section that says “JunoWallet”. When you fire it up, you are greeted with a list of all the places you can go and get free money to use at an establishment. Yes, it’s that easy. What makes JunoWallet a killer app and so successful is that it operates on the assumption that a vendor is interested in attracting someone to their business, getting them in the door and converting them into a customer. Based on where you live, you will get a list of hundreds of businesses eager for you to check them out and there are no annoying coupons to clip or forms to fill out. You literally walk into a business, pull up the virtual Gift Card on your device, and redeem it by pressing a button that says, “Redeem now”. The business then verifies the information and you get your free merchandise! As co-founder Sweis says, “We are in a recession and the user’s first experience with Juno Wallet is that we are giving away free stuff. The gift cards are a buying incentive for consumers and we are the incentive.” In a word, brilliant. The business model is dependent on the end user actually going out and using the virtual gift cards so the process is entirely win-win for consumer and business- the consumer gets something for free (often a discount off a service or product) and the business gets a chance to impress a new customer and hopefully treat them right so they come back again. For someone like myself who loves to eat out, JunoWallet is a blast. I have more choices for food on Juno Wallet than I could ever spend–and it is fun to fire it up and see what new offers have shown up in the app. To see exactly how this works, check out the video below: