New startup makes wi-fi profitable for businesses

New startup makes wi-fi profitable for businesses

(Tive)


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SALT LAKE CITY — When walking into your local coffee shop, everything from your laptop to your cell phone searches for the wi-fi connection. At most places, connecting requires a password and you would need to ask or look for the password in order to gain access.

This is a typical situation for many business owners who offer wi-fi at their locations. However, keeping up with the demands for free wi-fi may not always pay off. Local startup Tive believes it has found the solution to keep the user happy while generating revenue for the business.

How did Tive begin?

Chris Fowles, Kevin Corelli and Christian Wutz are University of Utah students who created the local startup. For them, creating Tive was a way to “ease the consumer pain to connect.” What inspired the project for Corelli was a simple incident at a coffee shop.

“I don’t want to get up and have to ask for a password just to check movie times," he said. "I just want to click to connect. Done.”

From simple experiences like that one, the group ventured off into developing a solution relieving that problem.

What is Tive?

Tive focuses on making Internet connection an easy process and a way for businesses to make a profit. Fowles, the software engineer, explains the goals of the company.

“We take something that isn’t being utilized, incentivize it to open it up and make it free.”


We take something that isn't being utilized, incentivize it to open it up and make it free.

–Chris Fowles, Tive


In order to connect to the Internet, consumers can watch an ad or participate in a survey before connection. Once connected, users will be able to stay online until the next ad appears (usually two to three hours later). This allows businesses to market their own store via ads or even pop up deals during the slower hours, creating direct revenue.

How does it work?

The ads run through a Linux box that generates ads throughout the day. It uses a cloud-based server, uploading content via a timer.

“The box pulls new advertisements at 12 a.m. to run new adds for the next day," Corelli said.

Wutz added, “This doesn’t take any bandwidth and there are security features on the box to prevent any attacks.”

Businesses can regulate how long and how often their ads run via the cloud.

What’s ahead?

The company has entered many competitions, winning awards from the University of Utah and becoming one of the “Top 10 in Opportunity Quest” for the startup competition, Start SLC. Now ready for beta testing with their first client, Rodizio Grill, the company hopes to attract larger complexes and local companies looking to increase their revenue.

For Corelli, the goal of “having free wi-fi all over the place and making a step toward eliminating data plans” is finally within reach. With the pressures of balancing school, work, a social life and the business, it’s apparent these students are passionate about their startup.

“It doesn’t feel like work," Wutz said. "We get to make it the way we want to make it. It’s exciting to see the potential grow.”

For more information, visit the company’s site at http://www.tive-usa.com/.


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About the Author: Jessica Kaing -------------------------------

Jessica Kaing is a student at the University of Utah and a social media intern for ksl.com. Email her at socialintern@deseretdigital.com.

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