Carrotmob is a new way to influence businesses. We spend money as a group, and in return businesses take socially-responsible actions we care about.

What it was

Enabled groups to pool their potential buying power to get businesses like local stores to improve their policies (like becoming more energy efficient).

What happened

Founder "never found a scalable revenue model".

“From 2011-2013 I created and ran a company that explored four different approaches to expanding the Carrotmob movement:
1. We built tools for community organizers.
2. We built a product for buying products online. Our campaign with Thanksgiving Coffee moved $31k in sales (300% of normal sales). [TV coverage: [](http://youtu.be/sYj8e1_f-JM) /// Promo vid: ]
3. We partnered with Unilever to explore large-scale campaigns. [See their video about our pilot program: [](http://youtu.be/aqAEEHjNkr0)]
4. We built a product for pre-buying vouchers. Our 1st campaign [[](http://bit.ly/1qjlTX8)] was a hit, so Google hired us to do one for them: We never found a scalable revenue model. Today, I volunteer my time to support the movement. I still believe the idea will eventually reach it's full potential.”

Post-mortem here.