pap!

What do they actually do

pap! is a consumer service that connects to your email (Gmail/Outlook) to read purchase receipts, identifies what you bought, and then watches those items for price drops inside each store’s price‑adjustment window. When a drop occurs, pap! files the claim for you — including emailing or calling customer service if needed — and takes a 25% fee only if it succeeds in getting you money back (site, YC).

The product is live with a self‑serve signup, retailer policy pages, and examples of claim windows. The company says it needs receipt access only, not your full inbox, and notes small consumer protections such as sending a gift card if they can’t secure a refund in 30 days (site, example retailer policy).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Busy online shoppers who buy from many stores: They miss price‑adjustment windows because monitoring receipts and price changes across retailers is time‑consuming; they want a set‑and‑forget way to handle the claim work (site).
• Shoppers making occasional high‑value purchases (electronics, appliances, furniture): A single post‑purchase price drop can cost real money, but rules vary widely by store and are easy to miss; they want someone to track eligibility and file correctly (retailer policy example).
• People who dislike dealing with customer service: Calls, holds, and repeating order details make them give up before getting refunds; they want someone else to pursue the claim end‑to‑end (site).
• Frugal consumers buying many low‑to‑mid‑priced items: Individual refunds are small and not worth their time, but add up over the year; they prefer a contingency fee model so they pay only on results (site).
• Automation‑friendly early adopters comfortable granting email receipt access: They want a low‑effort way to capture entitlements without learning store policies or manually tracking receipts (site).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder‑led onboarding of friends, family, and YC network; manually work each claim, capture outcomes, and publish 5–10 short recovery stories as social proof (site, YC).
• First 50: Invite‑only beta targeting high‑value shoppers via direct outreach and relevant forums; add a referral perk (e.g., reduced fee on first recovery) and have founders handle escalations to codify processes (site).
• First 100: Test targeted paid search/social around “price adjustment” and volatile categories; partner with frugal/tech bloggers for case studies; streamline self‑serve signup with clear examples and the 25% contingency fee to reduce friction (retailer policy, site).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

In the near term, pap! participates in the subset of U.S. e‑commerce where post‑purchase price drops occur within retailers’ adjustment windows. U.S. retail e‑commerce was about $1.12T in 2023 (Digital Commerce 360).

Bottom-up calculation:

Using S=$1.12T and pap!’s 25% fee, if ~1% of spend experiences a claimable drop and the average drop is ~10%, the recoverable pool is ≈$1.12B and pap!’s take is ≈$280M/year; this relies on assumptions about eligibility and drop size (DC360, pap! pricing).

Assumptions:

• Share of orders with a claimable post‑purchase price drop (eligible_rate) is between ~0.5% and 2.0%.
• Average price drop on eligible orders is around ~5–15% (10% used in example).
• pap! can detect, file, and win a substantial share of eligible claims (automation coverage and success rates).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Paribus (Capital One Shopping): Inbox‑scans receipts and helps pursue price‑drop and late‑delivery refunds across major retailers; owned by Capital One and free to use (Investopedia overview).
• DoNotPay: Broad “consumer rights” automation that includes refunds, chargebacks, late delivery refunds, and tools to navigate customer service (site, late delivery refunds).
• AirHelp: Automates flight delay/cancellation compensation claims with automated assessment tools and human follow‑through — adjacent to pap!’s stated roadmap into travel entitlements (how it works).
• Coupa Travel Saver (formerly Yapta): Monitors booked air/hotel prices and auto‑rebooks at lower rates for corporate travel programs; shows the maturity of price‑assurance automation in travel (Coupa press release).
• Earny (historical): Previously automated price‑drop refund claims for consumers via inbox scanning; an early example of post‑purchase refund automation (TechCrunch launch coverage, PitchBook profile).