Toledo Startup: Buyvite Launches Group Payment Platform INTERVIEW

Do you have a big family? Have you ever pulled money together from your entire family to buy grandma and grandpa a cruise, a vacation or other gift? Well pulling all the money together, checking off the payments and then writing one big check or paying by credit card can be a huge hassle. Sure these days you can have most of your family Paypal you but there’s still those few that don’t have a Paypal account. This is just one of the scenarios that Toledo OH based startup Buyvite is looking to solve.

Another easy scenario is times when maybe you and a bunch of friends have wanted to pull together money to buy tickets to a concert or a basketball game. One person typically shells out all the money and waits to get paid back. No more of that thanks to Buyvite.

Buyvite members will have the ability to create a Buyvite by inviting friends and family to a group purchase. Once the requested amount is achieved, the group purchase organizer has the ability to trigger a Buyvite Code, that functions like a gift card code, that is worth the requested amount and can be used to make the purchase on any site that integrates the Buyvite API. Group purchase organizers also have the flexibility of sending the collected funds directly to any U.S. bank account for free.

We got a chance to talk to Brandi Wimberly the woman entrepreneur behind Buyvite

Interview after the break



 What is buyvite?

Using Buyvite means you never again have to front the money for your friends and family for a group purchase like event tickets, gifts and vacation rentals. Buyvite is a Patent Pending group payment platform that allows friends and family to contribute to a single transaction inside of any ecommerce cart that integrates our API.  Buyvite is essentially a group payment, payment option. We give our site members two ways to group pay, through our API or by sending collected funds to any US bank account for free. We are different from other group payment apps because we allow people to group pay directly through our partner’s ecommerce carts in real time, at the point of sale, versus on our group payment website. We also allow users to launch a Buyvite, request money for a group purchase from friends and send those funds to any US bank account for free.

Brandy Alexander-Wimberly is the founder of Buyvite. She has an extensive background in ecommerce and digital marketing at the agency level. Her experience includes creating and managing digital marketing projects and campaigns for small businesses to major brands. Brandy is a live music fan and the idea came to her after searching for a platform that ultimately does what Buyvite does. “I like to go to a lot of concerts with friends and if we want to sit together we have to buy tickets together. Buyvite gives people to ability to not only organize going to a show, but an easy way for an organizer to notify friends and collect contributions that can ultimately be pooled together to be used as a single payment on any ticketing site. It’s also all in real time so if we want to group pay for hot tickets at the point of sale, Buyvite is really the only solution that can do this. Buyvite is also a natural fit for group gifting and vacation rental transactions.”

Buyvite was built and is maintained by our team here in Ohio, but we also have put together a great Advisory Board that includes contributors throughout the country that have been instrumental in helping to strategize and launch the software.

What is your secret sauce?

Buyvite has a Patent Pending API that can be integrated with any ecommerce cart as a group payment option. Our API allows users to collect funds and turn those contributions into a token or code that can be used as payment on any site that integrates our API. So this gives us an advantage and here’s why, we can not only provide an ecommerce group payment option, but Buyvite can be integrated with any retail POS system as a group payment option too. Using the Buyvite code system is also a better way to purchase event tickets. Lots of shows and events sell out quickly and using the Buyvite Code allows users to quickly pay for hot tickets, it’s all in real time. Our API also allows us to create payment apps for shopping cart systems like Volusion, Shopify, ShopSite etc. Most other group payment platforms are web/mobile only based and users must fulfill the transaction on the group payment site. Another advantage we have is our team’s experience with building and maintaining ecommerce sites. Most ecommerce companies would prefer to have transactions take place on their site. Buyvite provides our partners the opportunity to easily leverage the power of social commerce and group payments directly on their site through our API.We feel confident that Buyvite is the most flexible group payment platform. There is not a time limit on invites or dollar amounts and you can add friends, delete friends and add money up until the Buyvite Code is redeemed. At the current time an organizer can simply cancel the Buyvite prior to using the Buyvite Code.  We have other good things to come too, stay tuned.

I’ve learned much more than one lesson building a consumer technology startup, especially in an area off the grid from any substantial tech scene. But one thing that I think is critical for the success of undertaking any kind of entrepreneurial effort is to make sure your mind set is in the right place. A balanced mix of passion for your creation and the philosophy that you’re also in it for  the education keep you going in the right direction.

Our target user is typically a group purchase organizer. Our overwhelming reaction to our SXSW soft launch was people saying, “I can use this product” or in many cases “My wife can use this product, she’s always buying things with her friends.”
So I would say our typical users are the people that like to go to concerts and sporting events with their friends and the typical organizer of a group vacation and group gift. Group gifts work great for everything from pooling money for the teacher gift to wedding gifts etc.”

Our fees are upfront and transparent. That is very important to us. We charge users 3.5% per transaction and our partners a 1.8% royalty fee via a pay-per-use model. So our partners don’t have to pay anything unless their site visitors use Buyvite as a payment option.

We just went live in public beta last week, but we have substantial milestones we are progressively working on. Right now we are totally focused on building a network of top-tier retailers that will integrate Buyvite as a payment option. A lot of sites are trying to create their own proprietary group payment options, but our solution can be easily deployed across a network of sites. We see this as an added value to consumers and partners. We offer our partners an easy way to leverage the power of social commerce and group payments and our site members now have a single way to group pay that can be used like a true payment option like Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Paypal etc. We recognize that it is not an easy undertaking, however that is also the value of our company. We’ve created a rock solid product that is easy to integrate and easy to use.

The plan for Buyvite over the next few years is to grow the company organically with strong partnerships, excellent customer service and by staying true to our company mission. Our goal is to thoughtfully and methodically grow a successful enterprise that prioritizes the experience of our partners and our site members.

We are already crafting plans for added functionality, iOS and Android apps and our POS integration.