Link: the way the tech-driven world runs. Clink: the sounds of coins in your pocket. Clinkle: the millennium’s modern transaction system. All this app needs is your Emory email address to hit the market.
Considering that credit exchange is one of the oldest practices to date, it’s a wonder why the world has yet to revolutionize the way we transact. Lucan Duplan, a Stanford graduate with a degree in Computer Science, is changing the face of value exchange. This app CEO and founder is not only intrigued by the concept of creating a phone payment interface, but has successfully gained $25 million in seed funding from a slew of powerhouse investors, including Paypal’s Peter Thiel, a notable advocate for youth innovation.
Rather than continuing the trend of needing cash, credit or debit at all times, there now exists a more modern approach: Duplan’s approach. The new way to buy a sandwich in London using your phone, no euros or cards required.
Here’s the catch: Clinkle is trying something new, and needs your support. You can think of it as a beta test for the people. We the people. College students are Clinkle’s people.
Communications manager, Ana Braskamp, explains that Clinkle is all about the member experience. In order to prioritize its members, Clinkle’s launch is dependant upon a waitlist only accessible to college students.
The school with the biggest waitlist proportional to student body size–in Emory’s case, 1,850 students–will be the first on the waitlist that will enable the company to launch the app. According to Braskamp, Clinkle wants “to ensure [they] can roll out in the most optimal way for [its] users.” It’s not just about strategy, but fairness. Talk about appeasing the college crowd.
For some, the college market could be an obvious target. With a staff of about 50 recent college grads, college students are Clinkle’s market. Colleges are also a geographically dense niche population, Braskamp says. When a student’s life revolves around the same handful of places, this is THE target. Also, take a look around your classroom and you wouldn’t be shocked to see students’ tendencies to be quick to adapt to innovation. In our case, Apple seems to be the all-consuming trend. Our tech-savvy and wired generation is a prime market to roll out this revolutionary product.
Clinkle’s view: “We really are bringing something fundamentally different to the market,” Braskamp says. Clinkle is a holistic solution, something that allows you to accomplish all the day-to-day financial exchanges on a single platform. While competitors may have a piece of the market, Clinkle is confident that this analog wallet will be the “complete solution.”
Ready for the challenge? Read more about Clinkle and get on board as one of the 1,850 Emory students that can make this app launch. We could be the reason why things stop clinking and start linking. Join the wallet revolution and sign up today.