AisleFinder started simply enough. A young techie, Curtiss Pope, working at a local grocery store found that people were always asking where stuff was. He wondered why the stores didn’t just give customers an aisle-by-aisle snapshot of the store layout and location of all items they wanted. Years later, this same young techie finds himself in similar situation: unable to find what he’s looking for in the grocery store. As he and his wife wandered aimlessly around the store trying to find ingredients for a new recipe for a dinner party, the feeling of déjà vu must have been strong.
That flashback pushed Curtiss to action and he immediately thought of the name, secured the domain, and started working on a prototype. He hit a brick wall with retailers, though. They hated the idea, because a solution that made it easier to find things in the stores meant people would waste less time and spend less money. Yes, folks, the retailers would love for you to get lost and spend money you didn’t plan to.
Shocked, but not completely discouraged, Curtiss got back on the grind 3 months later. With new mindset and attitude, he decided to take his idea all the way. He retooled AisleFinder, making it simpler and simpler to use for the user. He also kept the retailers updated on what he was doing. They still kept saying “No,” but a quote from the book Rework kept him motivated: “Ask for forgiveness rather than permission.”
Instead of waiting on the big retailers to figure things out, Curtiss and his team pushed ahead to create the best product they could. They made cooperation agreements with smaller stores, getting permission to gather data from store managers and staff at specific locations. As they gained traction, those same big retailers started to take notice.
Now, Aislefinder is in stores all over the world and was chosen as a Microsoft BizSpark Startup of the Day. A great example of a company that didn’t take “No” for an answer and executed their vision. As Curtiss puts it, “Overall we truly believe that we are providing the future of Grocery shopping. Period.”