Two Newtown natives have developed an app to help independent coffee shops reach potential customers.

 

Nikolai Derek and Sean McLean, who now live in Manayunk are the team behind Passport Coffee Club, which launched about four weeks ago. Participating coffee shops can be featured on the app at no cost.

 

Derek and McLean, both Newtown natives and Council Rock North graduates, came up with the idea early in the pandemic while walking in Manayunk and thinking about how businesses and coffee shops were effected by the coronavirus.

 

The app allows shops to offer loyalty reward programs to customers, and ideally new customers. The app also features a discount program that users can choose to get 10 percent discounts. Users can sign up for the discount on a yearly or monthly basis for just 75 cents and 99 cents, respectively, per month.

 

"We figured we could create a loyalty program to help [coffee shops]," Derek told Patch.

 

Current shops on board with the app are GET Café in Narberth, Trail's End Café in Bala Cynwyd, Coffee Room in Newtown (Bucks County), Mammoth Coffee in Philadelphia, Keswick Coffee House in Glenside, Java & Friends in East Greenville, and AFAF Coffee in Sharon Hill.