While working toward his MBA at Drexel’s LeBow College of Business in 2006, Chuck Sacco came up with an idea for a class project. Businesses had a lot of web-based information, easily pulled up on a computer screen, but what if potential customers wanted to access that information from a mobile browser?
This was before iPhones, and even text messaging, took off, and consumers needed a platform to acquire information about businesses on the go.
After some time and a few concept modifications, Sacco, along with three friends, launched PhindMe Mobile in 2007, a platform to improve the mobile, Web-based interaction between businesses and customers. Way ahead of the likes of Yelp and Groupon, this innovative platform included a text marketing feature that allowed businesses to send notifications to customers about special offers and coupons. It quickly became the leading tool for building mobile optimized versions of websites.
PhindMe took advantage of Drexel’s Baiada Institute space by building their team and acquiring student interns. After incubating at Baiada for two years, PhindMe was acquired by Movitas (now Allin Interactive Latin America or AILA) in 2009, a company that specializes in mobile communication platforms for the travel and tourism industries, especially in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Sacco then worked for Movitas as vice president, and then was promoted to president when Movitas merged with Allin Interactive to form AILA in 2012.
At the same time, Sacco was also an adjunct professor at LeBow, sharing his experiences with future entrepreneurs. In 2013, Sacco left AILA and took on two roles at his alma mater: entrepreneur in residence and director of external relations for Drexel’s Close School of Entrepreneurship, and interim director of the Baiada Institute, the very place where PhindMe developed and made a name for itself in the startup world.