ReatilMeNot is a multinational company that specializes in operating a group of coupon websites. The headquarters is operating out of Austin, Texas, where RetailMeNot was founded back in 2006. Each year they produce over 500,000 coupons that are distributed and work for over 50,000 different stores. These coupons are offered for just about every industry and the company has found a majority of its success by building up a great digital profile and ranking high on the Google search results. These are five things you didn’t know about RetailMeNot.
5. The company used to be called Whaleshark
RetailMeNot started out originally with the company name of Whaleshark Media. They began to purchase other websites and saw success in what they were doing which triggered the company to rename themselves to increase brand awareness and be more relevant to what they were doing. The change didn’t happen until last year and they soon after went public.
4. They raised $300 million in funding
When RetailMeNot was just getting started, they were able to rope in $300 million in funding from their investors. Investors included Austin Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, JP Morgan, and even Google Ventures. This funding allowed the company acquire RetailMeNot.com and change their name from Whaleshark to the more appropriate title.
3. The RetailMeNot IPO was for $230 Million
Last year RetailMeNot held it’s initial public offering for $230 million after they had reworked their branding and established a better company front. The company had been seeing major success and in 2012 they brought in slightly under $145 million of revenue, so the move to go public made sense.
2. RetailMeNot has built a nice network of websites
The company has acquired six other websites aside from RetailMeNot.com and has been making great use of them. All of them are other digital coupon of voucher websites that have varying locations and have opened the company up into many different markets around the world. Some of their purchases include; Deals.com, ZenDeals.com, and even Deals2Buy.com.
1. The owners of RetailMeNot got their start by creating BugMeNot
Owners Guy King and Bevan Clark got their start in business by creating a website called BugMeNot.com. It allowed users to set up fake identities and profiles on websites in order to access their content without having to get spammed with emails or newsletters from the distributors. The website was free to use and really helped people avoid annoying registrations which is what made it so popular. This led the creators to pursue RetailMeNot which would end up making them the kind of money they make now.
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