From Classroom to Real World: SJMC Student James Hanson Launches Saveory after J202 Success

James Hanson, left, and Anthony Thomas, right, worked together to develop, pitch and launch the restaurant deal-finder app Saveory. Hanson was inspired by a an end-of-semester project in J202.

A J202: Mass Communication Practices group project transformed from an assignment to an entrepreneurial adventure this summer for SJMC junior James Hanson. Hanson used the ideas from his lab’s final project to launch Saveory, a restaurant deal-finder app that has already been gaining traffic on campus.

This past spring, Hanson’s lab pitched a diet-based fitness app for grocery shopping and budgeting as their final project presentation. After the final pitch, Hanson suggested the idea of actually developing the app to his lab. Hanson’s classmates were not interested, so he decided he would simplify the idea himself and collaborate with a fellow Badger, computer science student Anthony Thomas, to develop the app.

The app was refined to be a “happy hour finder” for weekly food and drink deals in Madison. The duo spent the summer and the first month of school ironing out details and connecting with local businesses.

“When we got back to Madison, and for the first month of school, I hunkered down and really worked on it,” Hanson said. “I went in-person to 70-plus businesses in Madison and talked to someone who worked there, got contact information, got their consistent happy hours, their consistent deals and how frequently they changed.”

Saveory currently has 52 businesses, and the team has a goal of reaching 70. The app launched on September 1 and acquired 500 downloads in the first two weeks. After months of work, stress and uncertainty, Hanson and Thomas felt strong emotions surrounding their achievement.

“We both had a period of time where we were doubtful but we just kept working hard. Once we finally pushed it out, we were kind of shocked by what we got done,” Hanson said. “We actually had a product out there, and when people started downloading it and giving us great feedback, we finally felt like all that work we put in was worth it.”

According to J202 instructor Stacy Forster, the course’s final project is meant to challenge students to find a gap in the market and create an app that fills it. While every year there is typically a food-related idea, the attention on deals, saving money and budgeting from Hanson’s lab allowed for a concrete, tangible focus.

“It’s really exciting to see how he was able to take the lessons that he learned and the ideas that he had and make them real,” Forster said.

Forster could not recall any previous students turning their theoretical ideas into functioning apps, but after interacting with Hanson during the semester, she was not shocked to learn he was the first to do so.

“He has really good ideas and the energy to do something with them,” Forster said. “I’m really impressed by what he did, and not necessarily surprised, because he is the kind of student who you see has that spark to do this.”

Current J202 lead teaching assistant and Hanson’s lab teaching assistant David Wang explained that Hanson’s achievement is an important one to share with future students.

“This will be a very good showcase that we can tell future J202 students to motivate them to tackle a project like this,” Wang said.

In addition to J202, Hanson credits Professor Dhavan Shah and J345: Principles and Practice of Strategic Communication for much of what he is learning and implementing into Saveory. Shah’s class has taught Hanson how he can prove the worth of the app to businesses by showing engagement, impressions and data analysis.

“J202 and J345 have been super helpful and very monumental in the creation of the app,” Hanson said.

Hanson has lofty goals and clear plans for the future of Saveory. Additions of push notifications, geo tracking, special deals with businesses and more, are on Hanson’s catalog of ways to improve the app. The skills he is acquiring through the SJMC are directly shown through the work on the app.

“The reason I joined the J-School is because I’m passionate about creative storytelling,” Hanson said. “Every business has a story to tell, and the J-School gives you the tools to be able to tell that story and to be the person to market and analyze what the story should be and present it, and that could make or break a business.