Perch (www.perchinteractive.com)

HQ: New York, NY

The team: Trevor Sumner (CEO) and Jared Schiffman (CTO)

The problem: Brick and mortar retail isn’t dead. While it’s a booming $4T market,  the digital innovation and content that modern shoppers expect hasn’t happened. These days, it’s about the experience. It’s easy to simply click on an image and gain access to every product detail, as well as product suggestions that are easily cross-sold. So why hasn’t this information and ease been applied in-store?

Meet Perch: Perch’s patented, award-winning digital marketing platform is transforming merchandising and in-store experience. Through built-in touch screens easily integrated into shelving, Perch’s mixed-reality platform seamlessly engages a customer the moment they touch a product.  Within moments, they have that same delightful online experience, with targeted information and recommendations that educate, entertain, engage and, ultimately, convert. 

Why we’re betting on it:  After experiencing the Perch experience for ourselves (available in stores like Macy’s Sephora, and Jo Malone), we dove in. First, Perch licenses its patented software to brands and retailers. These brands want attention on their products, with accurate messaging that sales associates often can’t keep up with. Perch enable this and also gives real time visibility into  wholesale channels at the product level – critical data that brands rarely receive, if ever. For retailers, offering highly personalized product messaging has resulted in 5-10x customer engagement, 30 - 80% product sales lift, and 300 - 800% ROIs on average, all  while creating a magical experience for their customers. Perch’s experienced team is fueled by unbound vision, and our diligence has shown that Trevor and Jared, and the considered team they’re building, are disrupting the retail experience as we know it.

Our take: Perch has potential. With revolutionary software and cunning business technique, they can become an undisputed leader in marrying physical and digital retail once and for all. Plus, it doesn’t hurt they were named as one of 15 tech companies to watch by Forbes in 2018.