We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Scotch Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Scotch below.
Scotch, appreciate you joining us today. Would you say you are more focused on growing revenue or cutting costs? We’d love to hear how you think about these two critical drivers
I believe growing revenue is far more important than cutting costs, and that’s what I spend most of my time focusing on. Cutting costs also isn’t particularly difficult as a bootstrapped startup, rather choosing what to spend your limited budget on is. The team has found it challenging to decide what we should be paying for effective marketing and advertising campaigns, with me typically as the voice in favor of pushing our boundaries. That being said, we come together as a team on all final decisions and it’s important that we all have our different points of view.
Scotch, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I run growth strategy at HappyHopper, the #1 search engine for happy hours, brunch specials, and food deals. We help people find the best spots to eat and drink without breaking the bank, and we help restaurants get discovered — all through a completely free-to-use platform.
We offer a nationwide database of happy hour specials, searchable by type of food/drink, time, and location.
Custom promotion for restaurants and bars looking to boost foot traffic
Content collaboration with food/travel bloggers and influencers
Tools that help connect local diners with local deals
What sets us apart? Reach: Whereas most other apps and websites are limited to only a few US metro areas or specialize in other countries, HappyHopper has deals in every major metro area in the US, and Canada and are actively working on expanding overseas. Accuracy: Deals are updated at least once every month. Adaptability: When we realized our best course of action was to cover the major metros of the country first, then go after the rest of the US, that’s the path we followed.
I’m most proud of how we’ve grown organically, mainly through various free channels. Things like website enhancements, community partnerships, and outreach.
If you’re a restaurant or bar owner, all we want is for you to:
1. Claim your page.
2. Verify or upload your deals.
3. Help us by helping users find your specials.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
Recently, we started a push to add more brunch deals on our site. It felt like the logical next step after we got our happy hour coverage in a good place. As part of that expansion, someone on our team wrote a guide to their favorite bottomless brunch spots in New York City, including a feature on a brunch cruise. If I wasn’t the type to get seasick, that sounds like a pretty ideal way to spend a Sunday. Find it here if you want to read more into it: https://happyhopper.app/blog/best-bottomless-brunch-in-nyc
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
We’re a fully bootstrapped startup, with no outside funding and no ad spend (yet). From day one, we’ve built everything ourselves, keeping costs lean and growth organic. Fortunately, our team got an early start in the working world and made smart investments along the way, which gave us enough of a financial cushion to take the leap.
That initial risk of launching without immediate cash flow is probably the hardest part. But we believed in HappyHopper. There was a market need for a reliable happy hour app and we are filling that role. Now, as we grow our client base and revenue ticks up, we’re being intentional about how we reinvest those funds to scale the right way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://happyhopper.app/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhopper_app/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happyhopperapp/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happyhopper/
- Twitter: https://x.com/happyhopper_app/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@happyhopper_app
Image Credits
HappyHopper