WhereU

WhereU
Private
Industry Local search, online business referrals
Founded 2015
Founder Dr. Dionne Mahaffey
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia
Owner WhereU, LLC
Parent The CPAI Group, Inc (founded 1997)
Website whereyoucamefrom.biz

WhereU, LLC, is a tech startup located in Atlanta, Georgia’s Sweet Auburn Historic District.[1][2][3] It develops and markets The WhereU app and the website, WhereYouCameFrom.Biz which publish crowd-sourced listings and referrals about black-owned businesses.[4][5] Their business search functionality offers a real-time leaderboard of black owned businesses across categories, ranked by peer-to-peer referral counts.[6][7]

History

WhereU was launched during Black History Month on February 15, 2016 by Dr. Dionne Mahaffey, a business psychologist and tech executive.[8][1] WhereU is a subsidiary of her company, The CPAI Group, Inc., which also debuted The Loyalty Stamp, a mobile rewards app, in 2015.[3] The annual promotional contest, the “Best Of Where You Came From Awards” was created to spread awareness and further amplify the brand of businesses listed on the WhereU app by allowing the public to nominate their favorite and most patronized local businesses.[9][6][10]

Features

The directory listings are free to business owners, who provide most of the content, and the website is supported by an advertising business model.[1] Business owners have the option of upgrading to a paid listing to enhance their profile and interact with potential customers. Businesses can also provide online deals and coupons through the site and app.[11] WhereU also offers users the ability to find businesses closest them through geo-location technology.[6] Users can refer trusted businesses to friends and family through the unique patent-pending referral function.[12]

No business reviews

Unlike other business directory apps, WhereU does not allow users to post reviews.[13][14][15] The company touts their referral feature as a more solid and proactive way to recommend businesses.[16] The WhereU app’s referral feature is based on the West African Griot tradition of spreading good news by word-of-mouth.[5][7] They believe a customer's endorsement, earned by trustworthy businesses, is a big level-up compared to a review or rating by stars.[6][3][17]

African American buying power

African Americans have buying power of an estimated $1.3 Trillion,[2][7] and although there are 2.6 million black owned businesses in the United States only two cents of every dollar that an African American spends stays in black communities or goes to black owned businesses.[18][19][20] One of the primary reasons for this lack of support for black owned businesses is a lack of access.[2][21] Consumers do not have a streamlined system for locating goods and services provided by minorities.[22] WhereU aims to assist in addressing this issue by curating as many black owned businesses on the app as possible.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "New Mobile App to Harness Capacity of $1.3 Trillion Collective Buying Power of the Black Community". Black Enterprise (magazine). Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "New app helps consumers find black-owned businesses". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "WhereU App Helps Black Shoppers Put $1.3 Trillion Collective Buying Power Back Into Own Communities". Bossip (magazine). 8 July 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "Nominate Black Owned Businesses for The Best of Where You Came From Awards". KLKN. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  5. 1 2 "10 Ways to Support Black Businesses during Black Business Month". The Huffington Post. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "New Black business app is on the scene". The Final Call. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 Staff, A. B. S. (17 February 2016). "WhereU App Inspires Black Consumers to Recycle $1.3 Trillion Collective Buying Power Back Into Own Community". Atlanta Black Star. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Dionne Mahaffey's WhereU app can connect 1.3 trillion Black dollars". Rolling Out. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  9. ↑ "Nominate Black Owned Businesses for The Best of Where You Came From Awards". KVVU-TV. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  10. ↑ "WhereU Came From app connects black consumers to local, reliable black-owned businesses for all needs". Afropunk.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "Dionne Mahaffey's WhereU app can connect 1.3 trillion Black dollars". LockerDome. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  12. ↑ "New app supports the 2.3 million black-owned businesses nationwide". Blavity.com. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  13. ↑ Georges, Nissa (8 August 2016). "How WhereU, the New Black Business Directory, Keeps Your Money Circulating in the African American Community". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  14. ↑ "New Mobile App Is Building Black Wealth Nationwide". Black News. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  15. ↑ "WhereU app helping users buy Black". Daytona Times. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  16. ↑ "'WhereU' App Helps Users Shop Black with Mere Finger Taps". EURweb.com. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  17. ↑ Bunn, Curtis (24 August 2016). "WhereU helps users shop Black with mere finger taps". New Pittsburgh Courier. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  18. ↑ "WhereU helps users shop black with mere finger taps". Urban News Service. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  19. ↑ "WhereU helps users shop Black with mere finger taps". Indianapolis Recorder. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  20. ↑ "Number of Minority- and Women-Owned Firms on the Rise". www.census.gov. US Census Bureau. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  21. ↑ "WhereU app helping users buy Black | Daytona Times". Daytona Times. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  22. ↑ "New Mobile App to Support 2.6 Million Black-Owned Businesses Nationwide | The Network Journal". The Network Journal. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
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