“The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.”
— W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy
Every new SaaS is fighting the same red ocean — thin wrappers around the same AI models. Vint sails the other way: unlocking an untapped local economy, solving a common daily problem, and becoming a lifeline for SMB growth.
Vint turns one-time guests into repeat customers for local business — with universal rewards customers actually use, and privacy built in.
SMBs pour ad spend into big-tech platforms to reach customers who visit once and never return.
The average consumer holds 17+ loyalty programs. Most points die forgotten in a drawer.
Nearly every "free" loyalty app survives by harvesting and selling customer data — a growing legal liability.
Small businesses serve guests.
Corporations make customers.
Big chains spend billions keeping shoppers in the loop. Independent businesses can't. Vint gives every local business the same superpower — turning strangers into regulars. Stop serving guests. Start retaining customers.
One app that ties a whole neighbourhood together — and keeps customer data private by design.
Location-based discovery of nearby independent businesses and their live offers.
Earn Vint Coins anywhere, spend at any participating merchant — or cash out to a real gift card.
Merchants broadcast to subscribers and fulfil orders knowing customers only by an anonymous alias — Vint never shares PII.
A verified, secure check-in (QR + geo, or receipt) earns Vint Coins on a real purchase visit.
Spend coins at any participating merchant in the network, or cash out to a gift card at threshold.
Merchants reach subscribers and accept pickup/booking orders — Vint identifies you to them only by an anonymous code.
One wallet for the whole neighbourhood. Discover, earn on every visit, redeem anywhere or cash out, refer friends — no spam, no data sold.
Run your own loyalty loop: reward check-ins, turn visits into returns and regulars into referrals. Broadcast a Promo or list paid Offers (pickup & booking) — direct reach without buying ads or 30% delivery cuts.
Post-COVID, scanning to transact is second nature — zero hardware required.
Cost-of-living pressure has households counting every dollar — when saving a penny feels like a big deal, rewards that pay real money stop being a gimmick and start being groceries.
Communities and governments are actively pushing spend back to independents.
CASL, PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25 punish the data-harvesting model incumbents are built on — Vint's privacy-first design becomes a moat.
Incumbents (Fivestars, Kangaroo, Square Loyalty) are single-merchant, charge per-transaction fees, and monetize data. None offer a privacy-first, cross-merchant neighbourhood currency.
| Stream | What it is | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — $99/mo | Loyalty + Promo (info-only offers) | Recurring |
| Tier 2 — $199/mo | Adds the Offers / booking marketplace | Recurring |
| Offer service fee | 2.5% on paid pickup/booking orders | Per transaction |
| Breakage | Unredeemed coins reduce payout liability | Margin |
Predictable monthly pricing — no per-customer charges, no ad auctions. The flat 2.5% applies only to completed paid orders. For most merchants, a few recovered repeat visits cover the subscription.
We don't wait for a big market to work. Every merchant runs a self-contained loyalty loop with their own customers from day one — and brings those customers onto Vint, so our acquisition cost stays near zero.
The merchant rewards a verified visit with coins.
Coins pull the customer back — repeat visits, higher lifetime value.
Referral codes turn regulars into a free acquisition channel.
New customers join the merchant's loop — and the neighbourhood's.
Merchants never receive customer PII — a CASL/PIPEDA-safe design incumbents would have to rebuild from scratch.
A shared neighbourhood currency gets more valuable with every merchant — density is the moat.
Flat subscription + a low 2.5% on paid offers, vs per-transaction fees and 30% delivery cuts.
CASL-safe merchant messaging is a real SMB pain we remove.
In active development now.
Full build specification complete.
Compliance review underway.
Landing live at onvint.com.
A working product is the next milestone — not the next research question. The spend now is about getting it in front of merchants and customers.
A single merchant's loyalty loop is profitable from day one — no waiting for scale to justify the spend.
In-store QR + sign-up bonuses convert a merchant's existing regulars into Vint users — keeping customer-acquisition cost near zero.
Business associations give trusted, low-cost merchant distribution, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
As loops overlap in a district, the cross-merchant wallet compounds value — a bonus on top of unit economics that already work.
MVP: loyalty, discovery, Promo & Offers, payments, cash-out. Launch the first neighbourhoods.
Sharpen the engine: acquisition funnels, UX/UI, codebase hardening, merchant analytics, and AI in new product development.
Vertically integrate the money layer: a registered marketplace processing pickup payments in-house, and native gift-card issuance — capturing the processor & issuer margins we pass to third parties today.
Partner APIs (POS, city apps), multi-city expansion, fraud tooling.
A rewards currency that keeps money — and loyalty — local.
Every neighbourhood, its own economy. Stop serving guests. Start retaining customers.
The product is being built. This round is primarily to market Vint and drive awareness — getting merchants and customers onto the network, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
We've built the hard part. Now we need a few good people. Which one is you?
I've built the machine that finds shops and brings customers back. You're great at the part I'm not — turning a "maybe" into a "yes," and turning our story into the money to grow. Be an A-player at it, or lead a team of them. We start small: sign 5 shops together, then talk equity.
We're raising our first round to bring Vint to life. Join our monthly note, watch the loops turn, and let's talk when the time feels right.
Run a local shop in Calgary? Be one of our first 25. Three months free, we help you spread the word, and you help shape what we build.