Locals Care, a program to entice local consumers to shop at homegrown businesses, was growing fast in mid-2008.
Independent Business Network Services LLC launched the program in Santa Fe in 2006 to help merchants increase sales with reward cards that allowed patrons to rack up points by shopping at participating local businesses.
By September 2008, the company had 100 merchants and 15,000 patrons enrolled. Its success attracted a $100,000 investment from Flywheel Ventures to expand the program to Albuquerque.
Then Wall Street collapsed, ushering in a capital crunch that brought IBNS to its knees, said Colt Brown, former vice president for merchant relations and sales. Equity sources dried up and the company ran out of cash, forcing it to close down in November.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Capital crunch kills venture-backed startups - New Mexico Business Weekly:
Author: Kevin
Robinson-Avila
