Member Article

Innovative app set to boost leisure sector

A Sunderland based entrepreneur has offered her support to the North East leisure sector, after developing a free app to allow shops, restaurants other businesses to offer last minute deals.

Helen James came up with the idea after realising that local businesses had little means of alerting the public to last minute availabilities. The Drop Your Hat app allows businesses to post deals at the very last minute, to tempt potential customers, who are then given a code which they then use to book their deal.

Gospelware developed the app, which differs from other sites by allowing businesses to end the offer once they reach maximum capacity, solving the problem of overbooking.

Helen, who is based at the Software Hatchery at the University of Sunderland, currently works with businesses in Sunderland and South Shields, but is already planning to roll out the service across the UK as it grows in popularity.

Businesses currently subscribed to the service include Customs House theatre and cinema, Tribeca Hair Design and French restaurant D’acqua, with Helen looking to sign up hundreds more over the next two years.

Helen, who has a background in market research, came up with the idea while living in Argentina with her boyfriend, Anthony Sweeney, and returned to the North East last year determined to make it a success.

She said:“During my time in Argentina I noticed that, despite there being a lot of tourists roaming around, there were lots of restaurants that were left empty by the evening.

“Apart from staff tempting people in with things like free drinks at the door, there seemed to be no way for them to do any last minute marketing.

“It was on returning to the UK that I realised that there was a gap in the market for an app that
provides businesses with an immediate way of promoting last minute offers to fill empty spaces.

“It’s also great to be able to support businesses on a day-to-day basis during what is an extremely difficult time on the high street.”

Sunderland Software City was able to provide Helen with support in the form of market research
and technical due diligence, as well as help her to source start-up funding from the Business and
Enterprise Group and Entrust.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .