Earlier this year, Chicago-based DealsGoRound rebranded as MyCabbage after raising $950,000 in new investment from Lightbank, I2A, New World Ventures and several angel investors. While DealsGoRound was a daily deal aggregator, MyCabbage has evolved into a way for users to save and organize coupons and deal offers. With so many offers going digital this holiday shopping season, there has never been a better time to build a hub for users to save, organize, and plan their holiday shopping and dining experiences from within one app.
If you can get behind the unnecessarily hokey branding that features cartoon characters who are super excited about saving money, the social feature set that MyCabbage is trying to build out makes sense. Users can connect the app to Facebook to schedule and share deals with their existing social graph. Across America this weekend, people are flocking to the stores to cash in on Black Friday weekend holiday shopping deals, and many are not going alone. The scheduling, deal sharing, and reservations features are perfect for families and friends who love to shop together.
In addition to sharing and scheduling deals, the app also pulls in review information from Yelp to display on bar and restaurant deals so that you can decide whether or not to buy a new deal, powered by the former DealsGoRound deals marketplace.
MyCabbage’s powerful social features and value proposition are strong, but the branding may alienate an entire market of users who are used to the slick minimalist aesthetic that is powering the newest generation of apps. According to MyCabbage, the largest demographic of users is in the 25 – 34 age bracket. The team includes people who have an impressing array of backgrounds, including University of Illinois, M.I.T., the Illinois Institute of Technology, and professional experience at IBM and Google. Luckily, the team has listed an open position as a Front-end UI/UX Designer. Even just a few changes to the overall look and feel of the app could drastically improve an already impressive feature set.
