Just one Big Ass Bag

Janae Goodin’s idea to create an app to simplify online shopping was born out of frustration and some minor cursing. But now, Big Ass Bag has serious funding behind it and a mobile app that launched at the end of September.

BY KAYTE SPILLMAN | PHOTO BY LOGAN WALCHER

WHEN SEARCHING FOR needs for some upcoming weddings, Janae Goodin found herself surfing the web with 20 different tabs open, trying to comparison shop while getting annoyed at having to flip back and forth.

“So, I’m shopping and I have a couple of items in each store's shopping cart, and I'm flipping back and forth,” Goodin said. “And I'm trying to compare and look at prices. I just kept thinking, ‘Why can I not just put this all of this in like a big ass bag? I was over everything and the frustration was real.”

Her concept to solve her frustration was simple: Create an app that allows consumers to put all their items from various stores into one virtual bag, allowing customers to crosscheck prices, delete unwanted items and check out one time from multiple stores.

It’s an idea so simple, she assumed it already existed.

“I started looking in the Google Chrome store and the Apple App Store because I was sure someone has already thought of this,” she said. “But I didn’t find anything like it.”

She started investigating how to make this concept into a reality, and she applied for a grant from Builders + Backers, an idea accelerator that has helped launch more than 300 ventures. She received $5,000 in startup capital in January 2022.

“And that kicked off everything,” she said.

She used the grant, and a still-growing relationship with the accelerator, and built a Beta version of an app for Google Chrome. Her new app? It’s aptly named Big Ass Bag.

The initial reaction was, kindly put, small.

“We released it in May 2022,” she said. “And it took us until August to get to 50 Beta users.”

It was a start, and it showed Goodin how much hard work she had in front of her.

“So, I started interviewing these 50 beta users,” she said. “We’re jumping on Zoom. I’m watching them flip through what we have. At this point, only like 200 stores work. And then at that time I did something I don’t advise anyone to do.”

She did what many entrepreneurs do: She dove in head first to find help wherever she could. Goodin started working with five different accelerators at once, all while still working a full-time job. The overload paid off: i2e gave her a $100,000 investment in December 2022 through its E3 program, which is a six-week intensive micro accelerator that explores the product/market fit for new business concepts. The structure of that investment needed a $100,000 match, and she received that in May of 2023.

“That funding meant we could continue development and start developing all these different features for the app,” she said. “And it meant I could pay myself. I quit my job, and it meant I could work on this full time.”

With 40 times the funding Goodin started with at the beginning of 2022, Big Ass Bag, or BAB, was off and running. She’s now increased to 400-plus Beta users.

“We’re now in version two of our data, and of course, we’re using that to make different changes,” she said. “And our mobile app is coming out at the end of September, which was always the thing we were wanting to do. It was never about the desktop.”

BAB had made up a lot of ground fast, with about 90% of all stores working with the app, Goodin said. And, by joining 12 networks that work with vendors, BAB has figured out how to monetize this concept. The app makes a small portion of money from the vendor each time a sale is made through the app. In fact, recently, BAB made its first dollar.

“I just have to keep reminding myself, when you look at the timeline, we started all this in 2021,” she said. “So, we're doing really good.”

BAB is doing good and moving fast. The hope is the mobile app leads to significant growth, with an initial goal to grow users to 5,000 as the holidays approach and 10,000 by the end of 2023.

“You know how you have a dream, and you say, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if?’” she said. “And then you actually see it start happening? I love that, and I think it’s a testament to you really can do anything.” ith employees increasing demand for a higher quality of life while at work and a tighter job market making retention vital for success, more companies are focused on a positive work culture to stay competitive in today’s changing marketplace. But how do companies actually build a positive work culture? Some of OKC’s top CEOs, chief culture officers and human resource executives explain what they do to grow their culture and increase employee engagement. And they explain how other companies can do it, too.

BY KAYTE SPILLMAN

PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUNSCHWANDER

ong gone are the days of a company defining a positive work culture by throwing some free pizza lunches.

COVID gave America’s workforce time to think, and they decided to make some waves when it was time to re-enter the workforce. The Great Resignation, a period of time when America’s workforce re-evaluated what it meant to work and what workers wanted out of employers, pushed the nation to a 20-year high in the number of people quitting their jobs. And a Pew Research Center study cites 57% of those quitting felt disrespected at work.

Culture matters. In a post-pandemic world, workers demand a respectful, positive work culture, and they are willing to leave to find it somewhere else.

In fact, 73% of more than 36,000 employees analyzed in the 2023 Global Culture Report — conducted annually by O.C. Tanner, an international culture consulting firm — cited an employee’s sense of purpose as a top priority for employment. That’s an 18% jump from the year before. A vast majority, 63%, want to feel a sense of appreciation, and 57% want a sense of well-being.

Money isn’t enough in today’s post-COVID, post-Great Resignation work environment. Employees demand more.

And, similarly, companies are responding wanting to provide a better culture because it also makes financial sense: Engaged employees are 58% less likely to seek employment elsewhere and have a 38% lower levels of burnout at work. Less turnover, higher retention and higher levels of productivity directly impact the bottom line.

This lightbulb on both sides of the culture conversation has given rise to new job specialties in recent years, like chief culture officers, or to human resource executives carving out portions of their job solely dedicated to growing the right culture. Jenny Love Meyer, Love’s Travel Stops Chief Culture Officer, works at the corporation her dad founded almost 60 years ago, which now employs more than 40,000 people. She’s been with Love’s since 1991, but she became the company’s first chief culture officer in 2019 to focus specifically on improving company culture.

“A few years ago, we really set out to build a multiyear plan for culture,” she said. “I realized the ways that we were sustaining culture a few years ago weren't going to scale as we continue to grow. The culture shouldn’t change, but the way you sustain it will. For example, I’m the steward of the culture at our stores, and as we grow, I can’t get to every location. Our district managers, who interface with the people in the office and at the stores, have to be cultural ambassadors who make sure we’re living what we preach.”

Part of the plan is to increase initiatives that promote employee well-being, she said.

“Employee well-being is something that, especially post-COVID, is a big topic,” Meyer said. “We have an employee assistance program that's been in existence for a few years, and it’s something that we're adding to in wanting to provide the best benefits and the best programs to our team members. Mental health is embedded in that so that our team members can get free, confidential therapy … We want there to be work-life balance, and so we offer benefits like discounted gym memberships. We’ve given team members additional vacation days because we know that part of well-being is being able to take some time off. Our health insurance plan is maybe a step removed from day-to-day well-being, but when you need it, you need it, and it’s something we really pride ourselves on.”

DURING THE GREAT RESIGNATION, A PEW RESEARCH CENTER STUDY CITES OF THOSE QUITTING FELT DISRESPECTED AT WORK.

The 2023 Global Culture Report conducted annually by O.C. Tanner, reported that of the 36,000 employees they studied: cited an employee's sense of purpose as a top priority for employment. want to feel a sense of appreciation. want a sense of wellbeing.