Only in Louisville:
LocalView


Profile by Eve Lee

Imagine an app that would allow you to plan your evening in just a few clicks. Dinner reservations? Check. Find out where your favorite band is playing? Check. And hey--a coupon that’ll allow you to stretch your dollar a little more? Check!

A group of friends not only imagined such an app; they made it happen. LocalView founders Jon Matar (pictured second from right) and Eric Littleton (pictured first from left), product development guru Jay Brown (first on right) and social media/marketing/graphic designer Kaitie Vonderschmitt--hatched the idea this past January. 


“We wanted a cool app where we could see what was going on in the city, and we saw a need to have everything in one place,” says Matar. “That was kind of the original goal--to bring in all this content so you don’t have to go to multiple apps or websites to find it.” Moving quickly, the LocalView team hired Interapt, a Louisville development firm, to build it. Naturally, they called their creation LocalView as well as simple, descriptive name that gets to the heart of what the service is all about.

What sets LocalView both the app and the company apart is not only how it aggregates the information that’s already out there, but also how it attracts businesses and services and presents a win-win scenario for vendors and customers.

“[The major online discount services] Groupon and Living Social are killing businesses,” says Matar. “As a user, you buy the deal from Groupon, you pay Groupon, and Groupon pays the business. LocalView eliminates the middleman. Users go to the business and redeem the coupons right from the app.”

Instead of taking the customary 40 or 50 percent cut, LocalView takes only 10 percent--a much more digestible bite than the monster sites. “It’s a better way for businesses,” he continues. “We don’t want them to break the bank… They don’t have to wait for payments, we don’t gouge them and it’s better for the user.” Adds Brown: “You’re still getting the similar discount from the other sites, but it’s a better business model for consumer and merchant.”

LocalView established itself in Louisville back in January, and even though they love their local roots, the team is already looking to expand to the Lexington, Cincinnati and Indianapolis markets sooner rather than later. Backed by local investors and friends, they’ve managed to keep the cost of the app free to iPhone and Android users while working on an online version. Even with all this big-picture thinking, LocalView is determined to remain fiercely independent and true to its roots. “With a young company,” says Matar, “you want to see it last, and that’s all we can think about to succeed and provide value for users and businesses to draw in more customers.”

For Brown, the beauty of LocalView is in its versatility. “There’s not one part that’s more important than the other,” he says. “Some people like the food, some people like looking for something to do. The goal is to discover your city.”

LocalView is available from the iPhone and Google Play stores. For more information, visit www.localview.co



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