Choose before anything is issued
A shopper sees a brand reward offer and chooses a coupon or stock first. The brand does not issue either reward until that choice is made.
Proposed app · Western New York
Turn the coupons you forget into stock in the brands you already buy.
NickleUp is a proposed app that lets a shopper choose a coupon or a small stock reward before either is issued. When stock-choice rewards fill a golden ticket, the brand pays a partner broker directly from its marketing budget. NickleUp never holds money.
The demo uses pretend amounts and example brand names only. It does not collect personal information.
The problem
Coupon dollars mostly go unused.
Brands spend heavily to put coupons in shoppers’ hands, and almost none of that spend builds a lasting relationship. Everyday shoppers often want to start investing, but the first dollar can feel too small and the steps too complicated.
~34 billion
manufacturer coupons distributed in 2025
~802 million
redeemed — roughly 2.4%
~$3.49
average face value
Sources: Inmar Intelligence, 2026 Promotion Industry Analysis; Coupons in the News, March 9, 2026, citing Inmar.
How it works
Choose the reward first. Then the brand issues it.
The planned flow is simple on purpose. Nothing is issued until the shopper picks a coupon or stock. The click-through demo walks through this with pretend amounts.
Fill a golden ticket
If the shopper chooses stock, the coupon value is logged toward a golden ticket. Planned ticket targets are $10, $25, or $50.
The brand pays a partner broker directly
When a ticket is full, the shopper picks a participating company. The brand pays from its marketing budget straight to a licensed partner broker.
The broker buys existing shares
The broker buys existing open-market shares — including fractional shares — in the shopper’s brokerage account. NickleUp does not issue new shares.
NickleUp never holds moneyIt is planned as a record-keeping and instruction-routing layer. It does not take custody of funds or securities.
The app is planned to be freeShoppers would not pay to use NickleUp. Their usual grocery purchases still cost what they cost, and investing involves risk.
Example names onlyAny company names in the demo are illustrations. No brand or broker partnerships have been confirmed.
Planned money flow
The reward money is designed to move from the brand to the broker, not through NickleUp.
Brand marketing budget
Partner broker, directly
Shopper’s brokerage account
NickleUp: records and instructions only — no custody of money or shares
Why brands care
Turn promotion dollars into shareholders, not unused paper.
Most coupons never get used. The ones that do usually end at checkout. NickleUp is designed so a brand can still offer a regular coupon, or turn that same marketing dollar into a small stock reward in a participating company the shopper chooses.
- The planned source of funds is the brand’s existing coupon or promotion budget — not a new charge to the shopper.
- A completed ticket is meant to create an actual shareholder relationship, not only a one-time discount.
- The planned sales motion is at the parent-company level, so one relationship can cover many product lines.
What an early shopper said
In informal early surveys, one store-brand buyer said NickleUp “might incentivize me to select brands participating.” That is a single comment from a small, informal sample — not a test of a live product and not a statistical result.
Source: NickleUp discovery tracker, 9 surveys logged November 6–8, 2026.
Early customer discovery
What 9 shoppers said.
These are informal surveys logged November 6–8, 2026. They are not a statistical sample, and they are not testimonials for a working product.
7 of 9
said they forget coupons, or set them aside and forget
6 of 9
would pick stock over the coupon
0 said no
3 said it depends or want both options
Top worries
Confusing steps4 of 9
Privacy or security3 of 9
Taxes2 of 9
How to read this
These counts come from the NickleUp discovery tracker. Friends and acquaintances completed a short questionnaire. The sample is small and informal, so these figures should be treated as early signal, not proof of demand.
Business model
Planned, and still illustrative.
No brand has agreed to this pricing. The figures below are the current plan, not a forecast of signed contracts.
Platform fee
Plan: a monthly platform fee of $6,000 per parent company.
Usage fees
Plan: small per-ticket activation fees, plus broker referral fees.
Pilots first
Plan: a discounted, pay-per-ticket, or free 90-day pilot in exchange for a letter of intent and a case study.
Benchmark, not a NickleUp result: Ibotta reported about $0.87 in fees per redemption in 2025, which is one public sign that brands already pay for measured coupon outcomes. Source: Ibotta Q4/FY2025 results, investors.ibotta.com. NickleUp’s own pricing has not been tested with brands.
Where things stand
Pre-product, and honest about it.
NickleUp is in the concept stage. There is a clickable demo and early shopper conversations, not a shipped app and not a signed brand or broker.
In place
- Investor business plan
- Click-through demo
- 9 informal shopper surveys
- Broker-partner shortlist (unsigned)
- List of 6 public food companies to approach for pilots
Advising and feedback
- Southwest Region SBDC
- Small-business legal clinic
- Application in to the UB Entrepreneurship Law Center
- Launch NY asked for more customer discovery and traction before a pitch
Not done yet
- No developer on the team yet
- No broker or brand signed
- Legal structure still under review
- Seeking a technical co-founder
- Seeking brand pilots, then a seed round of about $1.5–2.0 million
What a technical co-founder would work on
Someone who has shipped a mobile or web app and is comfortable with APIs — for example receipt scanning and a broker sandbox. The current plan is part-time for equity to start.
Founder
Shannon Gannon, Founder & CEO
Shannon is the sole founder of NickleUp and is based in Delevan, New York. She brings nearly 20 years of hands-on operating, sales, and client-advocacy experience.
For about ten years at TPG Satellites (1998–2008) she ran day-to-day operations, including account management, bringing in new business partners, budgets, scheduling, purchasing, inventory, and field equipment installation. As a distributor specialist for Empire State News, she serviced a territory of retail stores, rotating merchandise and arranging promotional materials — a ground-level view of how products and promotions reach shoppers.
She also spent nearly nine years as a group home counselor, medical advocate, and resident instructor for adults with developmental disabilities at SASI and a Western New York developmental disabilities service organization, including teaching budgeting and financial management.
Get in touch
Happy to show the demo or talk through the idea.
Shannon Gannon, Founder & CEO, NickleUp · Delevan, New York
Contact: joshtre12@gmail.com
Try the demo