Swayze

Local businesses do their best to advertise. But most can’t compete with global brands.

Swayze helps them level the playing field.

This startup enables local restaurants, bars, and stores use their own customers to market their business. Customers get rewarded for marketing these businesses, while the businesses increase customer traffic and loyalty.

Social-media has become littered with Artificial Intelligence slop, celebrity promotions, and “cringe-worthy” brand content. What people actually care about is their friends — where they go, what they do, and the places they discover.

The founders of Swayze were tired of the current social-media landscape. They watched local brands struggle to compete with bigger ones. So they thought: What if your own customers could become your marketing team?

This was the inspiration for Swayze, a platform that enables businesses to grow through real customers posting real experiences for their friends to see.

The statistics show a desire for a startup like Swayze. Eighty-eight percent of people feel they deserve something for posting content online. Seventy-eight percent of people claim that their friends influence their decisions the most. And eighty-three percent of people discover new restaurants through social media.

Unlike brands that collaborate with the biggest social-media stars, Swayze connects local businesses with “nano-influencers.” These are people with around 250 to 10,000 followers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Nano-influencers make up about ninety-four percent of the content-creator industry. They deliver six-times the engagement rate than larger influencers, mostly because their audiences are specific, local, and invested.

Swayze’s platform uses real-time post verification and precise geolocation and timestamps. This enables viewers to confirm that an influencer was actually on-site at a local business.

Swayze has more than 200 businesses across New York City, its initial target market. Creators have generated $234,000 in revenue for these businesses. And the platform has more than 40,000 users since launching in 2024.

To make money, Swayze offers freemium subscriptions to users. They can post their first content piece for free, then unlock the company’s premium option for $9.99 per month. It costs Swayze five dollars to acquire each customer, and each one’s lifetime value is sixty dollars.

As for businesses, they pay Swayze $250 per month for exposure and analytics on the platform.

Swayze is pre-revenue, but aims to begin generating revenue next year. By 2027, it’s projecting to have 3,000 partners and 100,000 paying users. By 2028, Swayze aims to expand to ten cities.

Team Background

Phi Long Bui - Co-Founder & CEO

Phi has experience in app-project management and product scaling.

Prior to starting Swayze, he was an investment analyst with Eidolon Capital, a private-investment platform. Before that, he was a consultant with Visa, the financial-services company.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from King’s College London.

Kuba Henriksen - Co-Founder

Kuba is a two-time startup founder who previously managed a restaurant. It was here that he discovered the effect of consumer-driven sales that led to the creation of Swayze.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Tulane University.

Co-Investors