I Built PerkWave Because I Was Tired of Watching Small Businesses Get Ripped Off

I'm not a tech founder in a glass office. I run a coffee and crêpes shop.

So I know exactly what it feels like to stand behind the counter at the end of a slow week, look at the bills, and wonder how you're supposed to compete when every "marketing solution" out there is built to drain a business like mine dry.

That feeling is why I built PerkWave. Let me tell you what pushed me over the edge.

The agency trap

The first time I looked into hiring a marketing agency, I almost laughed. The prices were insane. More than I'd make in a good month, and for what? A few posts and a report full of words like "impressions" and "engagement."

Here's the dirty secret nobody at those agencies will tell you: for a restaurant, you can barely measure conversion. You can't prove that the money you handed them actually put a single extra person in a seat. You're paying thousands and crossing your fingers. That's not marketing. That's gambling with worse odds.

The influencer circus

So like everyone else, I looked at influencers.

It's gotten completely out of hand. They charge absurd amounts. thousands, for one video. And the part that really stings? Sometimes the video you paid a fortune for doesn't even perform. It flops. It gets buried. You eat the cost and move on.

Meanwhile, and this happens all the time. Some random customer who walked in, loved their meal, and filmed a quick TikTok with barely any followers... out-performs the influencer. Their video does 30,000 views. The one you paid for did 800.

Let that sink in. The free one beat the expensive one.

And here's the thing about influencers nobody says out loud

Every single influencer says the same thing about every single product: "This is amazing. This is the best thing I've ever tried. You guys NEED this."

About everything. Every day. For whoever paid them last.

Customers aren't stupid. They've figured it out. That endless stream of fake enthusiasm has lost its credibility. When everything is "the best thing ever," nothing is. People scroll right past it.

But your customer? The one who genuinely loves your place and films it because they want to? That's real. That's the recommendation that actually moves people, because there's nothing in it but honesty.

So I asked a simple question

Why are we paying strangers to fake enthusiasm... while ignoring the real customers who genuinely keep us alive?

These are the people in your store every day. The regulars who nearly pay your rent one cup, one plate, one visit at a time. They already talk about you. They already make videos. And we give them... nothing. We reserve the rewards for influencers who don't even mean it.

That's backwards. So I flipped it.

What PerkWave actually is

PerkWave is a rewards program that turns your real customers into your marketing team.

It works like this:

• A customer posts a TikTok tagging your business.
• They earn real rewards based on how many views it gets, a discount, a free drink, a meal.
• You only give the reward when they come back and show their code in your store.

You set the rules. You approve the videos. The TikTok algorithm hands you the reach, because on TikTok, the video wins, not the follower count. Your customer with 40 followers can reach more people than an influencer with a million.

No paying for views. No paying thousands for a video that might flop. No fake enthusiasm. Just genuine love from genuine customers, rewarded the way it should be.

Why it's so cheap

PerkWave is $29.99 a month. Thirty days free to start. Cancel anytime, no contract.

I priced it that low on purpose, and I'll tell you exactly why: I'm one of you. I'm a small-business owner. I know what these months feel like. I refuse to build the same kind of expensive trap that almost broke me. A tool that helps small businesses shouldn't cost what a small business can't afford.

Reward the people who keep you alive

Stop paying strangers to pretend. Start thanking the customers who actually show up.

When you reward the people who genuinely love your business for talking about it, something shifts. They post more. Their friends come in. New customers post their own videos. And slowly. Whatever your category, café or gym or barbershop or taco stand. you start to see movement in your store.

Take care of the customers who take care of you, and it comes back around. Every time.

Your influencers will forget you the day the check clears. Your customers are the ones who'll still be here next year. Reward them.

👉 Start free today at perkwave.app, and if you're one of the first 10 businesses, your first year is on me.

, the founder, a fellow small-business owner who's been there.