From mini-donuts to daily deals

Alumnus Dave Wilder, BComm'04, gives Calgarians great daily deals with his latest business venture, YaYa Calgary.

By Erin Mason

Local entrepreneur Dave Wilder’s first business was a mini-donut stand, which he debuted at the Calgary Stampede.

Since then, he has managed local restaurants and entertainment venues, consulted and worked in the oil and gas industry, where Wilder says he enjoyed his time, but “it wasn’t enough.”

Being an entrepreneur –seeing a great idea evolve and grow– is something Wilder has always been passionate about. His latest entrepreneurial venture, YaYa Calgary, started over dinner with four longtime friends turned business partners.

YaYa Calgary is a daily-deal site with a local focus. Similar to Groupon or Living Social, if offers goods and services at a discount of better than 50 percent. The site went live this past April, with the goal of connecting “eager new customers with awesome Calgary businesses.” The deals are unique, carefully chosen and available in limited quantities – everything from house cleaning, and tanning sessions to Zumba lessons and eyelash extensions," says Wilder.

With no shortage of daily deal sites, Wilder has had to differentiate YaYa Calgary from other providers in his role as vice-president, business development. He says that what sets YaYa Calgary apart from other daily deal providers is the idea of a “max” numebr of purchases, their local focus and their customer service.

One recent YaYa– $59 for a Mobile Car Detailing Service–had a “max” of 100. A bootcamp YaYa in April had a “max” of 150. “It’s an impulse purchase and you want to be able to use it in a reasonable amount of time,” says Wilder.

With a client-focused approach, Wilder also wants the businesses they partner with to be satisfied with their YaYa experience. That’s why they receive full payment in two weeks, instead of the 60-days typical of other deal providers.

Although there isn’t research to say how many daily deal customers become repeat customers, Wilder has several success stories. Like the two-person cleaning company who ran a deal and received a new multi-job client and a generous tip from two university students who were “so excited their house was so clean.”

“We’re trying to create the 25-45 year old market that may be looking for new experiences. We’re creating a smaller market and it will take longer than the prototypical ‘coupon clipping’ market, but I think the organic growth will keep us around, and that’s the goal.”

Looking ahead, Wilder sees YaYa Edmonton, Red Deer and Winnipeg on the horizon. “I have no disillusions about being the next Groupon, but we think there’s a market for these types of offers and to grow organically, Canadian city by Canadian city, we’ll see how it goes.”

As for why the website is called YaYa Calgary, Wilder says, “A group of my close guy friends say yaya a lot, instead of yah or yes. We wanted something catchy, easy to pronounce and with branding potential.”

You can check out the latest daily deal at www.yayacalgary.com