Please tell us about yourself and your business.
Amanda Eh: Our company is called Amaze. It is a white-labeled, self-service platform that creates subscriptions for brands. I’m the co-founder and CMO, and my husband Stephen George is the co-founder and CEO. Our partner Keith Hoerling is the CTO. Simply put, our platform allows brands to create digital membership cards that live in members’ Apple and Google Wallets and enables them to offer great benefits, build their community and capture valuable data. We are super lightweight and create a frictionless experience for our customers and their members.
What inspired the activity?
Amanda Eh: During the pandemic, we noticed that many businesses closed. Stephen has a strong background in customer loyalty, and we wanted to create something that businesses could truly rely on to create sustainable revenue and connect with their consumers in a more meaningful way.
Stefano Giorgio: I was on Groupon, so I’ve been in this loyalty and reward space for a long time. We started building our platform in 2023 and made it available to our first customers in December. We started by talking to small businesses in the food, beverage, health, wellness and fashion industries. But similar to Groupon, every business in the world can benefit from using our platform. This isn’t just a rewards card where customers collect stars or points. These loyalty programs are passive (half the time you don’t even remember you’re a member) and are purely transactional. When a company has a membership, it creates a sense of belonging and community.
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How does it work?
Stefano Giorgio: Most of our customers have a virtual card located in a member’s Apple or Google Wallet. We chose to leverage the existing infrastructure and traction of these wallets (they have two and a half billion users) rather than create a brand new app. We also have a couple of customers who decided to have a physical card printed on metal with a QR code on the back. In any case, the idea is that this card is something that people will be able to show off, as a humble brag in a way. It can be your favorite sports team, a nonprofit organization you support, a trendy barber shop, an upscale nightclub, or a restaurant. The card gives you a sense of belonging and also allows companies to offer access to things a member actually wants. For example, we have a restaurant group that wanted to give their investors the feeling that they were part of something. So they gave each an investor card that gives them priority in bookings and a free bottle of wine once a month. Now, a high-end restaurant can take this concept and monetize it by having a VIP pay a thousand dollars a month for a membership card that gives them $500 in drink credit or other cool perks.
What is your business background?
Amanda Eh: My family works in the fishing industry. Our company is called Pacific American Fish Company and we are one of the largest import-export manufacturing and distribution companies in the United States. I created our DTC line and then my brother and I started a family office focused on technology investing. So I come from the investor side and now I have the founder’s hat on. So it’s a very unique experience coming from both sides.
Stefano Giorgio: I started at Groupon as an intern. There were only four engineers in the company at the time and that was before it was called Groupon. I stayed with them until the IPO. It was a great learning experience for me, obviously only being 20 years old and becoming head of global operations in three years. I have continued to invest in startups and created a few companies over the past decade. I went to Los Angeles from Chicago, where I met Amanda. We now have two children and run our business from our home in the town where Amanda grew up.
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How has your experience as investors helped your fundraising process?
Amanda Eh: It helps a lot because I understand what investors are really looking for. When I was an investor, it was all about how I connected with the founders as people. Basically, you’re investing in someone who will do the right thing. So, on the founder’s side, you want to communicate to investors that you are a compassionate person, that you are solution-oriented, and that you have the tenacity to make this concept happen.
Stefano Giorgio: Amanda and I come from different work backgrounds. Her family business had been profitable, I think, for over 40 years. They never took money from outside. No debt. Nothing. I come from Groupon where we raised a billion dollars and relied on external funding. It was growth at all costs. So with Amaze we try to balance that. We brought in some customers who wanted to drop a few small checks over the course of building the product, but didn’t actually ask for much financing. Now that we have a product, we have customers signing up and a clear go-to-market strategy, we’re raising money. And I think that gives us an advantage by not having a huge pre-revenue and pre-product consumption.
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Any advice for those looking for financing?
Stefano Giorgio: For early-stage founders, the more you can demonstrate that it’s a profitable business before accepting funding, the better position it will put you. I think taking some money is fine, but make sure you don’t let fundraising take over your focus. Allowing you to focus on the business is really important. Put your energy into the problem you are solving and building the right solution.
What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?
Amanda Eh: For me, being an entrepreneur is tied to my parents’ immigrant history. They arrived from South Korea in 1969 and built their business. So it’s really about being self-taught and creating a legacy for our children and building something that’s valuable to our community. And that’s what Amaze is all about: we give businesses the power to build better relationships with their customers.
Stefano Giorgio: When you talk about success as a founder, we define it as having customers from year one who will still be able to really benefit from our platform in year ten. And my big advice to entrepreneurs reading this is to be patient. Whatever you are doing, it will always take longer than expected. And while you may have to pivot, change direction, or regroup, you can’t give up.