By Judith Kohler
The Denver Post
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Getting healthy food into the hands of more people is the purpose behind entrepreneur Karen Frame’s app “Makeena.” The app offers users points or cash back for purchasing better-for-you and better-for-the-planet products.
Denver
Karen Frame believes that more people might eat better and take better care of themselves if it were easier and economical. That was some of the thinking behind Makeena, the Boulder entrepreneur’s app that incentivizes healthy choices.
Makeena, which just revamped its website, works with about 100 brands, many of them local, which offer app users points or cash back. When the account reaches $20, it can be cashed out through PayPal or Venmo.
“The consumer piece of Makeena is that we help consumers discover, buy and save on better-for-them, better-for-the-planet products anywhere they want to shop,” Frame said. “Online or at a store. We don’t care if the consumer shops at a 7-Eleven, Thrive Market, Amazon, a farmers market, we want to encourage consumers to buy better.”
For brands, the free app provides a platform to be seen and to possibly interact with consumers.
“For the brand, we’re a way for them to talk directly, one on one with that consumer,” said Frame, adding that the market for natural goods is expected to keep expanding.
The Natural Foods Merchandiser 2020 National Retail Market Overview Survey said overall natural retail sales were $166 billion in 2019. National sales of organic goods surpassed $55 billion last year, according to the Organic Trade Association.
Makeena is Frame’s third startup. A previous company was a touch-screen, in-store kiosk that allowed shoppers to get ideas for recipes, find items in the store and get coupons and rewards. She worked with Wild Oats Market to provide the technology.
Makeena is a Certified B corporation, which signals that a company is striving to balance profits with other considerations, such as environmental and social justice issues. Frame said environmental and personal health are important to her.
“The thesis is if you could get these better-for-you products in the hands of consumers for a reasonable price or match the price you would find in traditional grocery stores for conventional products, you would have more people buying these better-for-your products,” Frame said.
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