By Hamzah Malik – Drench Founder & CEO
Drench started with the sole purpose of helping people find the best deals based on their location. I wanted a fun, impulsive app rather than a boring ‘bargain bin’ type approach major competitors had adapted. It was with this purpose I set out to build an app that would send offers based on a user’s location, within 5 metres.
The first thing I did was sketch out exactly what I envisioned, and sense-check the technology. Was it even possible to make an app like this without killing someone’s battery life? Difficult for sure, but I soon found out it was far from impossible. I assembled a team from existing developers and designers from my agency, Regent Branding, and gave them a clear brief using Trello to track progress.
Before long we had a rudimentary prototype, which sent ‘drenches’ to people based on their general locality. This evidently wasn’t good enough, as the whole point of the app was an instant impulsive offer when out and about in town. So we refined the technology, with wave after wave of release, before we settled on an algorithm that worked flawlessly.
I tested the app by myself for 3-months, jotting down pain-points and driving around my city at 2am to see if drenches would trigger the moment I entered geofences. I tasked a designer to come up with a logo, and the ‘colourful splash’ effect really took my liking, as it stood out but also showed Drench as a vibrant, fun and exciting app. Perfect brand positioning for a challenger app entering a heavily guarded market dominated by industry Goliaths.
The trademark for ‘Drench’ was also granted after some objection, and before long we were ready to go. I personally knocked on restaurant doors for months, convincing them to sign up to an app with 0 users, as to me it would be catastrophic if users signed up to the app and saw no offers on there- I would lose them forever.
After a lot of rejection and restaurants shutting the door on me, I managed to sign up my first 10 businesses. From there, I promoted the app on Instagram and facebook, using paid ads and influencer marketing. Before long, the downloads starting flowing in, and I had over 2000 users on the app, with 80% of all offers being redeemed everyday.
From here, it was restaurants that approached me to be on the app, which was a great reversal, and I had more leverage to ensure the offers put on the app were truly brilliant.
We have a long way to go, but so far Drench has exceeded my expectations in terms of how much people enjoy using it, and the scope of services it offers, as we’re planning to move into events, retail and leisure.