Now that companies offering digital coupons for essentially any consumer product or service you can possibly think of are starting to make up an online industry of their own, it’s apparently time for SMB-targeting local deal sites to emerge.
The first startup I’ve come across that will try its hand on a ‘Groupon for local business-to-business offers’ is NYC-based MarketSharing.
The company may be brand new, but its management team certainly bursts with experience, and the startup has just secured over $1 million from K2 Media and App Fund.
The latter, in case you didn’t know, is the investment firm founded by Kevin Wendle, co-founder of companies like CNET, FOX Network (yeah, so this man developed ‘The Simpsons’), E! Online and IFILM and Daniel Klaus, founder of Music Nation and Original Signal.
MarketSharing’s chief executive officer, John Amato, is the co-founder and former CEO of Show Media, a leading provider of taxi advertising in New York City. He also participated in the early-stage venture round.
The daily B2B deals site aims to one day become the ‘cultural marketplace for business’, which means they’re trying to assure that offers won’t only include discounted material such as laptops or ink cartridges, but also services that ‘make companies great to work for’ (think hand massages, gym memberships for employees, and so on).
I’m not so sure there’s demand for that, specifically, but I have to admit I’m curious to see if a daily deals marketplace focused exclusively on helping local businesses sell their discounted products and services to other businesses will work in the long run.
Some of the deals during the service’s private beta phase (get your invites below) include a discount for the design of a logo, invitation or business card at Kate’ss Graphics ($100 instead of $400) and five hours of office cleaning by Green Pro Cleaning ($75 instead of $150).
The site will be publicly launched in New York in the coming weeks, and will expand to other markets quickly, I’m told. The site is currently in private beta, but 250 TechCrunch readers can sign up here with the code techcrunch25. They will receive $25 worth of non-expiring credit too, so don’t hesitate if daily deals for SMBs sounds intriguing to you too.
