Newton South Grad Launches Business for Online Deals

When Ben Jabbawy was growing up in Newton, he used to watch his mom and dad run their small businesses; his mom helping students find college internships and his dad working a small manufacturing company. 

And while his parents showed him a lot about small business operations, Jabbawy says there were some things that didn't come as easy for them.

"I saw [my parents] struggling when it came to marketing themselves online," says Jabbawy, 26. 

That's where Jabbawy's new online promotion site, Privy, got its start. 

Launched earlier this month, Privy is a service that works with businesses to develop online specials and deals, and promotes those deals through the business' own social networks and contact lists. 

"We live in this world where consumers are deal-crazy," says Jabbawy, a 2004 graduate of . "But is there a way for businesses to put out promotions that work for them?"

Bridging the gap between those deal-crazy customers and business-friendly promotions is exactly what Privy sets out to do, Jabbawy says.

With the boom of online "daily deals," many local businesses have hopped on board with sites like Groupon or LivingSocial. However, with the current economy,  

Jabbawy explains that Privy tries to "redefine" online promotions for businesses. 

"A lot of people think that it's got to be a 50 percent off [deal]. But what we've seen is that because Privy distributes [the deal] to targeted audiences, it doesn't necessarily need to have steep discounts to get good results," Jabbawy explains. 

In many cases, he adds, the best results come from businesses that have more modest discounts, such as 25 percent off. 

The customers who end up purchasing the deal are not subscribed to a feed or list through Privy, as they may do with other online daily deal sites. Instead, Privy helps the businesses use their social and online connections to tell customers about the deal. 

Privy manages all the online transations for the businesses and, according a press release from the company, receives 15 percent of the paid-for transactions. That percentage, the company says, is lower than many other online deal sites. 

Jabbawy, who attended Cornell University for engineering, said he was always "fascinated with companies that built technology to make lives easier." 

With some knowledge in computer science and experience building iPhone apps, Jabbawy started putting together Privy about a year ago and within a few months began testing the idea.

Now, about 50 businesses in Greater Boston have signed on with Privy and customers are coming in from Colorado and South Dakota, to name a few.

With roughly 150 accounts total, Jabbawy says the Boston-based Privy is "growing fast" and is hoping to have 500-1,000 businesses on board this year. According to a press release issued by the company on April 3, Privy helped more than 30 clients sell over $40,000 in promotions in its beta period.

And building those accounts, Jabbawy explains, is all about keeping things easy for the business owners, something he would want for his parents' small businesses back in Newton.

"Part of the reason some business owners are hesitant to do an online promotion is because there is a lack of understanding of what they really need, or the process," Jabbawy says, "We try to be very transparent and to build the tools that they're comfortable with."