By George Anderson
A funny thing happened to CoolSavings' bottom line on its way to losing money in 2003, just as it has every year since its inception in 1995. The company became profitable.
Matt Moog, chief executive officer, CoolSavings inherited a company that at one point had $260,000 in the bank and $17 million in current debt.
To turn things around, Business Week reports, "Moog and company cut costs aggressively, dumped noncore functions, found new clients, and hooked up with Landmark Communications, a media company based in Norfolk, Va., to get the funding to stay alive."
According to Mr. Moog, CoolSavings has been adding approximately two million new members per quarter for the past two years.
CoolSavings' newest members, says Mr. Moog, "are more female than the rest of the Internet, and that they are lower income.... When new people come online, and they're moms and they run households and they do the grocery shopping, they're not necessarily going to go and buy the groceries online, or start shopping at all the online drug stores. They're going to look for ways they can save on doing what they already do. That's where we're a particularly good fit."
Moderator's Comment: What is the future of couponing?
Matt Moog told Business Week his company is benefiting from the establishment of the national do-not-call registry. [George Anderson - Moderator]