Penny AI

Shared list| Brand-sponsored deals| Acquiring Groflo

andy@thriftly.com

The American family argues about groceries every week.

"Did you already get eggs?" "I thought you were getting them." Now there are 3 dozen — and no bread. Every household knows this fight. It happens on repeat.

$60

Your fridge has 3 dozen eggs and no bread

Miscommunication → overbuying → spoilage. US households waste $728/yr per capita in food. 67% is buying more than they use.

$30

$40/month in savings nobody can find

67B coupons distributed yearly, 98.7% go unredeemed. The savings exist — scattered across 10 apps, flyers, and fine print nobody reads.

$10

Two people bought the same thing — again

No shared list means no visibility. You both stop for milk. You both buy it. The arguing starts again.

$100/month lost per family. $465B in unredeemed coupons nationwide.

42% of US households live below the ALICE survival budget. Every dollar matters.

EPA 2024 · BLS Consumer Expenditure 2024 · Capital One Shopping: 67.2B coupons, 1.3% redeemed · United for ALICE 2023 · Ohio State/ReFED

Text Penny. She handles the rest.

Penny is your family's shopping assistant. Everyone texts her — she deduplicates, organizes by store, and surfaces deals that are impossible to find on your own. We're acquiring Groflo's ~10K shoppers as our launch base.

We now have intelligence that understands families, not just individual preferences.

Text Penny your list

Anyone in the household texts items. Penny deduplicates — no more "I didn't know you already bought milk."

Penny finds deals you'd never see

She aggregates yellow-tag TPRs, manufacturer coupons, and brand offers — savings that are normally scattered across 10 different apps and flyers.

New brands give product away free

Emerging CPG brands spend marketing dollars to put their product in your cart — free. A direct offer at the moment of intent.

Result: You never ask "Did you get milk?" again.

Duplicate purchases

Free

Products from new brands

Penny gets smarter every month

More data means better suggestions means higher retention means more data. This compounds. Google Keep doesn't learn. Alexa doesn't sync households.

Month 0

preferences learned

20%

suggestion acceptance

"Penny asks questions"

Month 6

preferences learned

60%

suggestion acceptance

"Penny knows your brands"

Month 12

200

preferences learned

75%

suggestion acceptance

"Penny predicts your meals"

More data→ Better suggestions→ Higher retention→ More data

This is the moat. Every month Penny is harder to replace.

Why can't Google or Amazon just do this?

It's not one feature — it's the combination. Claude reasoning + household data + multi-channel + brand hooks = switching costs that compound.

	Google Keep	Alexa / Siri	Penny
Multi-user	✗	✗	✓ Household-aware
Learns preferences	✗	Single user	✓ Family-level
Brand integrations	✗	✗	✓ Direct offers
Works via SMS	✗	✗	✓ No app required
Data compounds	✗	✗	✓ Monthly improvement

Today: grocery list. Tomorrow: infrastructure for how brands reach families.

Try Penny — live

This is the real Penny. Text her items, ask questions, or just say hi.

Loading live demo...

Live preview of app.thrift.ly — the actual product

20M+ people share grocery lists. Nobody monetizes the intent.

Bring!, AnyList, and OurGroceries proved families want shared lists. Instacart proved $1.2B/yr monetizing purchase intent. Nobody does both — especially for the 88% of groceries bought in-store.

No List

Shared List

In-Store (88%)

Delivery (12%)

Instacart$1.2B ads · Carrot

Walmart$6.4B Connect

Kroger$1.2B · 84.51°

Bring!20M users · $0 rev/user

AnyList$10/yr sub · no brands

OurGroceries

Apple / KeepGeneric tools

Fetch$2.5B val

Ibotta$342M rev

ReceiptPalData to NPD

DoorDash$1B+ ads

Penny AI List + brand monetization

Bring! / AnyList / OG

Shared lists, 20M+ users. No brand revenue. $0–$10/yr.

Instacart Carrot

$1.2B/yr ads. Delivery only (12%). Proved monetization.

Fetch / Ibotta / RP

Receipt scanning. Individual. No list. Post-purchase only.

Walmart / Kroger

$7.6B+ combined. Walled gardens. Own-store only.

Why is the white space empty? Retailers own their own stores. Cashback apps don't have lists. Nobody owns the shared household list for in-store shopping.

List apps proved demand. Retail media proved revenue. Penny is the first to combine both for in-store (88% of $890B).

Brands pay $4. Families save $2. Penny keeps $1.

Budget comes from where grocery dollars already flow: retail media networks (yellow tags, TPRs) and manufacturer coupons ($2 off up to free).

Stream 1: Retail Media / TPRs

Yellow tags, temporary price reductions, retailer-funded deals. Budget already allocated by Kroger, Walmart, Ibotta, Fetch. Penny surfaces them on the shared list.

Stream 2: Manufacturer Coupons

Typically $2 off up to free product. $1 per coupon processed to us. New brands give product away free to acquire customers at moment of intent.

Brand Pays

$3 rebate + $1 to us

→

Consumer

$2 off

Penny / Thriftly

per coupon

Campaign Economics

$10K

Per campaign

2,500

Offers per campaign

$2,500

Revenue to Penny

$0 CAC when brands bring their own users via Klaviyo.

Brands share deal links with their email lists → free acquisition for Penny.

Two growth engines. Both built into the product.

Network effects aren't bolted on — they're built in. Households invite households. Brands bring their own audiences. Both loops feed the same flywheel.

Loop 1: Household Expansion

Sarah texts Penny her grocery list

Jamie joins Sarah's shared list — they stop buying duplicates

Jamie's sister visits, sees it work, starts her own household list

"Referrals don't make products viral. Household invites do." — Sarah Friar, Nextdoor

Loop 2: Brand-Driven Growth

User adds "A1 Sauce" → Primal Kitchen offers a free sample

Brand shares deal link via Klaviyo → free distribution for Penny

New signups from brand's email list → brand gets top sponsored slot

More households→ more lists→ more intent signals→ more brands→ brands bring users→ more households

10K households → 347K in 3 years

Acquiring Groflo's ~10K shoppers and their households. Drag sliders to model scenarios.

Starting HH10K

Monthly Growth8%

Offers / HH / mo3

Redemption Rate12%

Monthly Revenue (36 months)

Year 1

—

households

—

monthly revenue

Year 2

—

households

—

monthly revenue

Year 3

—

households

—

monthly revenue

Year 0: $15B grocery lists → Year 3: $500B+ brand infrastructure

$10K/campaign = 2,500 offers at $4/offer ($3 rebate + $1 platform fee). Revenue = $1 per redemption. Initial base: Groflo acquisition. Growth via household invites + brand Klaviyo signups.