Unless you have full backing from a large VC firm your startup is probably struggling to get funding. So every penny you save is welcomed until your internet startup takes over the world. Sites like Anyperk, are able to provide some help by offering discounts to affiliate partners for different online companies.
Anyperk specializes with web service providers from around the world and they give considerable discounts for these services.
Choosing The Startups
Anyperk gives this service for startups based on the type of funding they have received. When you sign up you have to wait until you are approved. This process generally takes less than a day and once you get your confirmation you can start using the deals. Currently they offer deals from 80 different web service providers with products that are very useful for internet startups. The service is free for companies and their employees are also able to get discounts.
The Perks
The benefit of having all these companies in one site is you don’t have to go searching for discounts all over the internet. The companies are categorized according to their field and all you have to do is click the company of your choice and see what kind of discount is available.
Some of the companies offering the discount include:
- Financial – Braintree, seededition, inDinero
- Entertainment –seatgeek, startstreet
- Analytics – optimizely, MixRank, Leftronic
- Marketing – breadpro, nsphere, curebit
They also have development tools, lifestyle, hiring, productivity, customer support, fitness and travel as well as others.
The Downside
The downside of Anyperk is they are only using web service companies. Although they have 80 companies you might have a hard time recognizing some of these businesses. The growing pain of a startup is major corporations are hesitant in signing up which in turn slows your growth because customers are not familiar with your offering. This however doesn’t mean a small company can not provide quality and reliable service.
The Competition
The market for this type of service is growing. Companies are specializing in different segments of the market such as CEOs, executives, employees and businesses of all sizes. Founderscard is geared towards the very high end of the market focusing only on CEOs. They offer discounts for luxury hotels and elite status programs for airlines.
Betterworks on the other hand has an approach geared to everyone and they have many popular on and offline retailers as their affiliates including gyms, restaurants and financial institutions.
Anyperk And Y Combinator
Anyperk was founded by two engineers and a designer. They are Taro Fukuyama, Atsu Takahashi, and Sunny Tsang. Atsu Takahashi was a co-founder of an ad-network company which was acquired by Japanese company KDDI for $19 million. Y Combinator is the latest company to invest in Anyperk.
They specialize in small investment in startups with stakes of 2 to10% and providing resources for the next phase of investing from larger firms all the way to acquisition if necessary.
Targeting small startups is great idea. If a company relies on you during their developmental stage you have a very good chance of retaining them as they keep growing.
