Glencoe resident starts social loyalty program

• Reprints

Andrew Gluck

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:29AM

Glencoe resident Andrew Gluck was enjoying a cup of coffee with his wife Jill last year at Glencoe Roast Coffee when she casually mentioned the many daily deal emails she receives, and her lack of need for the services being offered through the sites.

Gluck, sparked by a curiosity about the daily deal boom, began researching the business model and soon caught the entrepreneurial bug. A little over a year later, Gluck has left his career as a successful mutual fund and stock portfolio manager to launch his own company that intends to rival mainstream daily deal sites.

Believing that the inundation of daily deal sites has caused “Groupon-type deals” to lose their luster among consumers, Gluck came up with an idea to offer a an alternative to those sites in the form of a social media-driven web-based platform that offers consumers promotional offers at local specialty establishments.

Gluck said his company, Chicago-based Ox & Pen, gives consumers more flexibility than daily deal sites by letting them choose a promotion from an application-based catalog, and then redeeming the offer when they visit the merchant, rather than being bound to a purchase by paying for it upfront. The site, www.oxandpen.com, is expected to launch next month.

By encouraging consumers to redeem promotions by scanning a QR code that pops up on their smart phone, and also rewarding them with points for checking into a business through social media sites, Ox&Pen is geared toward the tech savvy demographic in the age range of 27-45, Gluck said.

This is how it works: If Ox&Pen, for example, featured a special at a local sushi restaurant, the member would bring his or her smart phone to the establishment, and redeem the deal when they pay the bill by having the server view a QR code provided by the Ox & Pen smart phone app.

“We think the daily deal is wearing off, and consumers are tired of it,” Gluck said. “We let consumers choose their promotions on their own time, and once they choose offer they want, there’s no monetary risk with if they don’t redeem it. It’s a coupon basically, but it’s a more technologically advanced way to do it and with a seamless process.”

The promotions Ox&Pen plans to offer are targeted to that young, smart phone-friendly demographic.

“We want to work with higher-end customers and merchants—not chains like Best Buy and Subway, but specialty businesses that are unique and funky and add character to the neighborhood,” Gluck said.

Instead of offering 50 percent off deals like mainstream deal sites often do, Gluck said Ox&Pen will work with more high-end clients to run smaller promotions—around 15-30 percent off.

“If consumers can get a small discount at a place that doesn’t normally offer discounts, then it’s still a great offer,” Gluck said. “On the merchant’s end, the economics associated with typical daily deal sites come at a high cost—Ox&Pen was developed as a less expensive way to drive business.”

Ox&Pen also hopes to gain the favor of merchants by taking a smaller percentage of the transaction fee from each promotion purchased (in comparison to daily deal sites that take 50 percent or more),

although he declined to disclose specifics.

To encourage customers to continue shopping at a business after redeeming a promotion (a common challenge of many daily deal sites) Ox&Pen’s business model rewards members with loyalty points for making full-price purchases outside of the promotions, and those points can be redeemed toward other promotions.

Before starting Ox&Pen, Gluck worked for Chicago investment firm Harris Associates as a portfolio manager for ten years before leaving to open his own private investment venture. During that time he graduated from DePaul with his MBA in finance and earned designation as a Chartered Financial Analyst.

To leave a successful career to follow the entrepreneurial bug and launch a start-up business in an already-crowded field may seem like a risky move to some, but Gluck is 100 percent confident in his company’s ability to succeed.

Since September when Ox&Pen became an official business, Gluck and the six team members he hired have been busy in their West Loop office perfecting their web application and convincing local merchants to run promotions.

Along with his business partner Peter Huften of Kenilworth and business developer Jeff Cokefair of Deerfield, the three North Shore entrepreneurs have been putting in intense 12-hour days in preparation for the launch coming up next month.

“I’m at the office for about 10 hours a day, then I go home to see my kids before they go to bed, and then start going at it again,” Gluck said. “It’s all-encompassing to get a start-up off the ground, but when you’re so invested in something it makes it worth it.”

Jean Metellus, a member of the business development team at Ox&Pen, said working for a tech start-up company can be unconventional compared to an already-established company, but that the unpredictable office environment is also exciting.

“In regards to a ‘typical day in the office,’ there is none,” Metellus said. “Whether it’s meeting with a potential merchant, providing feedback on the website design or managing the office coffee and water services, we all do a little bit of everything. The exciting part is that from day one, you’ve gotten the impression that you’re working on something that’s truly cutting edge and ground-breaking.”

As for the name Ox&Pen, Gluck said he had to get creative because the more conventional web domain names were already taken. Oxford&Pence was chosen after Jill found the term in a British slang dictionary, with its meaning being “where your dollars make sense.”

Some of the first merchants signed on to work with Ox&Pen include restaurant Vera, Ora Dental Studios, HM Day Spa, Darren Jones Studio, Tribeca Boutique, Bleeding Heart Bakery and The Fifty/50.

Consumers interested in becoming an Ox&Pen member can go to www.oxandpen.com.