Grabio has been around for about a year but they’ve recently updated the app and added a number of features. What does it do? Essentially it’s a mobile Craigslist with notifications and location-based searches for classified listings. You can enter any neighborhood, do a quick search, and pick up a broken girls bicycle seat or a gently used full body cast for a few bucks. Pretty slick, eh?
Founded by Horatiu Boeriu and Chris Popa, both currently living in Chicago, the company is bootstrapped and went through a number of iterations before it settled on its current incarnation. At launch they saw 5,000 users, although that number is creeping up.
There are a few similar services out there, most notably EggDrop and Zaarly, but Grabio uses a location aware API notifies you when you’re near deals.
“The secret here is that compared to others, we don’t constantly track your position,” said Boeriu. “We use a cool API from Apple that tells us when you moved without actively tracking your GPS.”
The app also includes user profiles, mobile payments, and reputation based user rating and following. Listings are free, although if you use the Grabio credit card payment system the seller pays a 6% fee.
“In the near future, we will also work with local businesses to provide them targeted leads at a predefined cost,” said Boeriu. Future improvements will include a geo-fencing feature that will notify users when they come into a certain area featuring a hot sale. Imagine being able to know when you can get a box of zwieback or 500 partially-inflated weather balloons for fifty percent off and you see the real value proposition.
