Originally published on Crain's
You may have already heard of Grabio, a Chicago-based iPhone app that uses GPS to connect buyers and sellers more efficiently than Craigslist.
Grabio ensures users are connected to buyers and sellers who are truly nearby, eliminating the frustration that comes when you realize that that "Chicago-based" seller on Craigslist is really in Romeoville. Or Bolingbrook. The service also tries to one-up Craigslist by paying $5 to any user whose item doesn't sell in a month.
This spring, the startup received attention when it began using an API that plugs it into Best Buy's inventory. Grabio then runs an algorithm that matches its users with sale items and other products of interest from the Richfield, Minn.-based electronics chain and pinpoints the location closest to the user.
This is all well and good, but with so many consumers already overwhelmed with countless apps, who really wants to run one more constantly?
Now, Grabio founder Horatiu Boeriu says, the app's Wish List function lets you close down Grabio entirely on your phone, but as you move around the city, it continues to track your location and provide bulleted updates about nearby Wish List items.
(For example, say you were interested in Cubs tickets for Sunday and were running errands all over town Saturday. You could fire up Grabio at any point and check a list of other users looking to unload tickets near any of your errands.)
It all sounds a bit like Groupon Now — except, Mr. Boeriu says, it's far more effective because it's more targeted.
"Groupon doesn't have enough information about its users, so you wind up getting a lot of offers that don't really apply, like hair removal for guys," he says. "We're trying to make it more targeted and focused" — the "holy grail," he says, of location-based commerce.
After launching a year ago and amassing some 26,000 listings nationwide, Mr. Boeriu is also taking the gospel of focus to heart, renewing a commitment to grow the Chicago market before going elsewhere.
"We made a fundamental mistake" in launching too widely, he says. Today, he has about 10,000 users nationwide and is aming to hit that number in Chicago in order to create the size necessary for a robust marketplace that can grow exponentially.
"Craigslist also went city by city," Mr. Boeriu points out. "It's easier to be focused, and you're also creating hype, as word of mouth spreads and people wonder when it will come to their city."
In the meantime, he's also going after area universities, starting with Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. next month.
Mr. Boeriu says Grabio hopes to grab 3,000 student users within a month of launching, because students are eager to find an efficient marketplace for textbooks and school sports tickets.
Up next: colleges closer to home, including DePaul Unversity, and possibly more APIs with major retailers ranging from Wal-Mart to Whole Foods. Then, when the time is right, Mr. Boeriu says Grabio will resume expansion to other cities.
"We definitely want to go to cities like New York and San Francisco," he says.
