We've all had those long waits when you're ready to leave a bar but it takes forever to close out your tab, or those morning when you realize you left your card behind the night before. George Washington University alum Junaid Shams was sick and tired of dealing with those problems, but instead of just throwing cash at the bartender every time he goes out, he co-founded Rooam, a mobile payment and social media app startup that has just raised $1.2 million in seed funding.
"It all goes back to my undergrad days, going to bars and so many events where I'd be frustrated trying to close out and leave," Shams said in an interview with DC Inno. "Or I'd lose my credit card. It was a problem and I thought why not build a better tool for a night out?"
If you have Rooam on your phone and go into a bar that's signed up, you can check in on the app. Once you tell the bartender you're paying with Rooam, you won't have to hand over a card or check out at the end of the night because the app is connected to your card. It also includes social features, letting you know which of your friends are at the bar or restaurant, find events or specials in the area and otherwise improve a night out, according to Shams.
"We're solving a lot of problems all in one," Shams said. "It really makes going out just more fun."
There are plenty of benefits to the bars beyond just making customers happier with the check-out process. The engagement with customers makes it possible to bring in new traffic and market to more people. And it doesn't require a new piece of hardware the way many of Rooam's competitors do.
"We're significantly superior to others in the space," Shams said. "We don't need to train them on a tablet or anything. And we're PCI [financial security law] compliant. Nothing brings all the components together like Rooam."
Shams, who also earned his M.D. at GW, raised the seed round from three angel investors although he couldn't reveal details. The app itself is still in beta but is adding several bars already including Smith Commons and Irish Channel. The plan now is to scale up users in D.C. to about two or three thousand before looking for another city of similar size to jump into.
"We want a second city like D.C., maybe Nashville. But we feel pretty confident," Shams said. "We know we're doing something good when bartenders tell us 'holy shit this will change our lives.'"
