Matt Bakke of Fair Share Data
(Editor’s note: This is the last in a series of profiles about the startups competing in the fourth installment of the
Fair Share Data founders Matt Bakke, Matt Seubert and Chad Hood graduated together from Bentonville High, but the 23-year-olds didn’t really connect until introduced to entrepreneurship at the Walton Business College at the University of Arkansas.
Bakke’s idea for an “anti-loyalty” program for businesses and consumers led to the trio founding Fair Share Data in their hometown and applying for the ARK Challenge’s fall installment in Little Rock. Bakke said he figured now was the time to launch.
“I had heard about the ARK and how it fosters an ecosystem of big ideas,” he said. “It seemed like a good time for me to swing for the fences.”
Fair Share Data aims to collect consumer purchasing data, for which businesses compete and ultimately benefitting consumers.
“My premise was to be an agent for the consumer,” Bakke said. “All this data exists that says who you are and where you shop. We represent you as the consumer to businesses and broker deals for you.”
Here’s how it works: Consumers provide their banking information to Fair Share via secure form and future transactions are stored in a database. Fair Share monitors these transactions and uses them as leverage to get perks for their users.
Businesses want to reach their competitors’ customers, and consumers love being empowered, Bakke said. He calls it a “win-win.”
“For example, we could negotiate a Lowe’s gift card for a person who regularly shops at Home Depot,” he said. “Up until now, the consumer hasn’t really been benefitting from all this purchasing data.”
Customers will access information on potential deals through a Fair Share app which should be ready to go in about a month, Bakke said. Bakke and his crew applied to the ARK with just the idea; the start of the accelerator back in August represented the startup’s actual launch.
“We literally started with the ARK,” Bakke said. “We’re about a month out from full build.”
Growing up in Bentonville, considered by many the center of the retail universe, Bakke cultivated an entrepreneurial streak. After graduating from the UA, he helped relaunch a Daylight Donuts in Lowell (and grow revenue by 20 percent), and with a group of UA friends that included “data prodigy” Seubert, founded Lone Star Hog, an apparel company that plays on the numerous UA students who hail from Texas.
Bakke figures his early 20s are the perfect time to scratch his entrepreneurial itch, and the ARK Challenge is the perfect place to do it.
“It’s a Garden of Eden of entrepreneurship,” he said. “To have this dedicated time to work on something, to work on a big idea you know you’re not gonna make much money on for a while, to have access to mentors, has been invaluable. It’s a blessing to be a part of it.”
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