Kevin Flood and Mike Harty: Shopow

Kevin Flood and Mike Harty, 22 & 23
Company: Shopow
Web: www.shopow.co.uk

Kevin Flood (pictured left) and Mike Harty (pictured right) were straight out of university when they started Shopow, but didn’t let this stop them raising £380,000 to develop software, and £500,000 to fund the launch and marketing, from investors. Angels were won over with the concept, which is a ‘social shopping engine and community’, in which users can compare prices from thousands of stores, find reviews and rate and comment on stores. Since its launch in May 2010, the business has already achieved revenues of over £3m. Co-founder Flood says the main challenge so far has been “educating traditional bricks and mortar retailers as to the advantages of engaging socially and using multi-channel services to grow their sales”. However the pair are confident they can achieve a ‘critical mass’ in the UK this year, and are looking to expand into the USA and mainland Europe imminently.