Upcoming trend of reward-based start-ups
The past few years have seen a massive demand for reward programmes. These applications may have had a subliminal presence before, but now have gained immense popularity. Owing to the heavy usage of these mobile applications, the trend of money-saving was built up within the student community.
Here are three such reward-based platforms that target students in both universities and schools.
Lock and Stock
‘Lock and Stock’ is a free app that is mainly aimed at the digital wellbeing of students. The students get rewards for not using their phones while engaging in various activities such as studying, doing a sport or watching a movie. It is also a platform where students have access to numerous opportunities such as internships and scholarships by top universities from across the globe.
Hussain Ali Asgar, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at ‘Lock and Stock’ stated, “We believe that ‘Lock and Stock’ is a company built by the students and is for the students. Everything we do is student-centric. Our team focuses on three main issues that a student faces. First, students cannot spend a lot or have a fixed budget for spending, so we brought out offers. Second is jobs and internships. With the cooperation of our corporate partners who were interested in hiring student interns, we rolled the jobs feature out. The third is with university tuition fee (which is expensive) —we presented scholarships for students from top universities offering up to 100%.”
Asgar also revealed that 24 September 2020 marked the third year since the launch of the application. Like many of us, he likes to spend time watching his favourite series, Friends. In fact, he has watched the entire show more than 40 times. He also devoted a chunk of his quarantine to Arabic calligraphy.
Zeloop
‘Zeloop’ is a free application developed by ‘Smart Block Beverages’. The app is mainly aimed at increasing the trend of recycling plastic bottles within the community. Since the founders behind this project come from the plastic beverages packaging manufacturing industry, they feel they have to make sure plastics are disposed of correctly. This eco-friendly gesture is rewarded by providing tokens which can be considered as a form of cryptocurrency. The in-house developed cryptocurrency is called ‘Eco-Rewards’. The application which was released in July 2020 is fully operational and new features will be unveiled soon.
Eric Schaffner, Principal at ‘Smart Block Beverages’, said that by 2021, the cryptocurrency could be converted to real money. The community is planning to have value creation for both users as well as developers.
Overall, the Zeloop team wants to create an impact on plastic pollution. “Our vision is to create value for the plastic waste you contribute”, commented Schaffner. As a welcome bonus, every user is provided with 2500 eco-rewards. Rewards are also given to the members of different demographics based on various challenges taking place in the application.
Though the launch of the application was recent, ‘Zeloop’ aims to expand to European and other Asian countries. Practising what he preaches, Eric Schaffner also partakes in recycling plastic bottles while earning Eco-Rewards. He confessed that every day, his wife finds as many plastic bottles as she can on her way back from the gym to participate.
Fireflies
Fireflies is a platform that bridges the gap between Gen-Z and popular brands. Out of the many brands, some include Herschel, Skullcandy, Nike, Rimmel and Logitech. Compared to others, the Fireflies team works a little differently. Remarkably, Fireflies also collaborates with non-profit and humanitarian organizations like World Wildlife Fund and the World Food Programme. Social media plays a fundamental role as they believe that the Gen-Z generation spends a lot of time in front of screens and social media. On their Instagram page, everything happens. From treasure hunts (where you can win staycations) to various interactive webinars, there’s a lot you can expect from the start-up.
The company aims to support the youth today by providing students with various opportunities. Vishal Menon, Founder and Managing Partner of Fireflies, commented, “We always make sure that the campaigns or projects we run have a direct benefit in terms of entertainment, education, or anything fun that would positively impact the Gen-Z.”
A fascinating fact about Menon is that he never took up any internships before founding Fireflies. In a way, this gives hope to those who are tensed about not being employable enough (however, gaining experience is always a plus point).
Without a doubt, these reward-based platforms are game-changers for millennials. What’s better than getting recompensed for accomplishing personal and business goals? By introducing benefits to students alongside accomplishing their personal goals — these businesses are ultimately shaping the ‘Gen-Z’ future.
