Portland gift card startup partners with Bangor Savings to pursue statewide expansion
After launching only 20 months ago, Portland gift card startup Buoy Local has gained an important supporter in one of Maine’s largest independent banks as it plans to expand its coverage for local merchants beyond southern Maine.
Sean Sullivan, one of Buoy Local’s co-founders, told Mainebiz it has started a new partnership with Bangor Savings Bank that will give it extra marketing muscle in its effort to become the first brand Mainers think of when it comes to gift cards that support the local economy.
“We think for the long-term validity of this business, it needs to be top-of-mind for Mainers,” Sullivan said. “We see an opportunity to increase our market share in terms of gift card spending in Maine and, in doing so, helping small businesses and giving Mainers more of a personal choice for spending.”
Buoy Local was founded in November 2013 after Sullivan and co-founder Kai Smith met at the inaugural Portland Startup Weekend earlier that year. The startup sells gift cards that are currently accepted at nearly 100 local, independent businesses, mostly in greater Portland, with the goal of encouraging Mainers and others to support the local economy.
The startup recently reached what it calls a major milestone, with spending on Buoy Local cards topping $100,000 out of the more than $180,000 loaded onto gift cards so far. Sullivan said the company expects to double the latter figure within the next six months.
Buoy Local’s partnership with Bangor Savings is coming together as it plans to shift its focus from working individually with merchants, who currently pay the startup an annual flat fee to accept Buoy Local cards, to a more wholesale approach, where groups representing merchants would pay the startup some sort of fee so that all of its members could accept the cards as a benefit or add-on value, Sullivan said. The details of that wholesale approach are still being worked out, he added.
“The bottom line is, when you’re an economic development group, your goal is to bring business to your membership. You need to provide value to your members,” Sullivan said. “We can provide value to their members that is quantifiable and supports data-hungry business owners."
Buoy Local could have pursued a statewide expansion on its own, but thanks to a serendipitous series of events starting last summer, the startup will be able to use Bangor Savings’ internal marketing team to help facilitate meetings with groups representing merchants across the state.
“When you’re a young entrepreneur and you walk into a room you're a young entrepreneur,” Sullivan said, “but when you walk into a room with one of the biggest banks in the state you’re a businessman.”
Buoy Local connected with Bangor Savings last summer when it won an award from Entreverge, an award program sponsored by the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce’s group for young professionals, Propel. Bangor Savings happened to be a sponsor of the event. After meeting there, Buoy Local eventually switched to Bangor Savings as its exclusive vendor for financial services, which includes handling payment processing for purchases of gift cards.
From there, the conversation eventually elevated to how the bank could help Buoy Local expand.
“Bangor Savings is involved in a number of initiatives that support Maine businesses of all sizes,” Gregg Piasio, senior vice president and director of payroll and merchant services at Bangor Savings, said in a statement. “With Buoy Local, we see an opportunity to provide a new tool for small business customers to grow their businesses, while giving Mainers a chance to demonstrate their pride for their community. We feel fortunate to be partnering in a unique offering that fits so well with our overall approach to the Maine market.”
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Bangor Savings 'buoys' Portland gift card startup Buoy Local
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