6 Questions with our Managing Director

To celebrate the launch of The Clip, we (your humble editorial team) sat down with the man behind Coupons.com: Alexander Ketter. 

Alex is our Managing Director, which means he’s the guy making sure we’re all able to keep the plates spinning to bring you savings. Our conversation took place in our Atlanta office on the green sofa, and even those of us who have known Alex for years were excited to learn new things about him. 

We always knew the conversation would be more honest than polished, but that’s what we wanted. We wanted to bring you the raw version, not the one that you’d read in a press release. So, we asked Alex how he views savings as someone in charge of a site like Coupons.com, how he sees the impact we’re making, and to tell us about his own personal savings strategies.

And it turns out, it looks a lot like the rest of us (with a few exceptions that might just be unique to him). 

Note: This conversation was transcribed and edited to fit this article format. But not to worry, we kept it real.

Let's give the people what they want to know! Alex, you run a company built around helping people save money. How good are you, personally, at saving money?

I was informed that this format would be straight to the point, and I see you weren’t lying! So if you are expecting me to select a side and choose between being a disciplined savings nerd or a terrible, impulsive spender, I will have to disappoint and instead point to a messy middle that I think most of us occupy. 

On my “nerdy” side, I do plan our budget at home with extreme precision. Excel sheets are involved, formulas, scenarios, and pivot tables… You get the point. 

I print grocery coupons ahead of every trip to the supermarket to save a few dollars on a gallon of milk or my favorite Chobani yogurt. I have three daughters, so weeks before school starts, I search for online promo codes to find the best deals on school supplies. The prep for saving money is there, and I dare to say it's extensive. 

But then… reality kicks in, and it all turns messy. 

Despite all my planning, I’ve been known to run by Walmart after work to get dinner for the family, only to realize at the cashier that I forgot all my carefully printed coupons at home! 

Not long ago, just before the Super Bowl, I was a little too excited about the game and clicked “order” on my DoorDash before adding a 10% off promo code I knew we had on the site. I’ve done it before a Champions League match, too! 

So I must admit that I’m not a perfect saver or splurger. I am that very human, messy middle of saving money when and where I can, but not as much as I would like. 

You spent time living in Europe before moving to the US. These are two cultures with notably different stereotypes around consumerism and how people spend and save their money. Have you seen the truth behind those reputations in your daily life? Has living in the US influenced your spending and discount-hunting habits?

Here, I don’t occupy a middle ground. I am very openly proud to find (and use!) discounts when I shop. I was brought up with an old German saying: Wer den Pfenning nicht ehrt, ist des Talers nicht wert. It roughly translates to English to mean “If you don’t honor the cent, you don’t deserve the dime.” 

I do honor every cent, and I get a bigger dopamine rush from saving while shopping rather than from shopping itself. Finding a coupon that fits my basket, and then seeing my savings at checkout? That’s music to my ears, and it has been since my student days. 

Having said this, there are some differences I have personally experienced between Europe and the US. The main one is when someone chooses to use a coupon.

In Europe, I experienced couponing as a part of daily life, no matter the person's momentary economic situation. In the US, I’ve noticed that there’s a difference between people saving “for thrill” vs. people saving “for need.” A person here might behave differently if they feel they can afford to pay in full, than they would if they couldn’t afford to pay in full. 

I believe that there is no need to differentiate, nor to make the use of coupons circumstantial. It’s always good to save money, no matter the moment! 

“Couponing” is a complete win-win situation for all parties involved. I get what I want or need at a discounted price, while the seller gets to sell a product that they wouldn’t have sold me otherwise. We both win, every time.

Most people have no idea what goes on inside a company like this. So, paint us a picture of what running a savings platform actually looks like. Where is the office based? What are your teams doing on a daily basis? 

Our US office is based in Atlanta, GA. We have a hybrid work structure where we all go to the office at least two times a week, and can work from home the rest of the time. And although a business like ours could theoretically be run fully remotely, I believe in keeping our face-to-face days alive. I’m convinced this is the secret sauce that makes us an amazing team and turns our office into a fun workplace. There are some interactions that simply can’t be copied from remote. 

Now, as to the teams, it all starts with our product, design, and tech teams.

They form one third of our employees and are in charge of developing the entire website in-house. They work in two-week “sprints,” where they design and develop new features, test them, and deploy them. Then, rinse and repeat. That means that they’re constantly improving our product (everything you see on Coupons.com) and its features. What they build is used by every employee further downstream. 

That brings me to the account management team. Account managers are in charge of negotiating the promo codes you find on our site. They source them from thousands of retail brands across the US. In the office, you will see them on the phone with these brands and analyzing data to get even better promo codes than they previously received, so our users save even more money. Once sourced, they then hand over the promo codes to the next team: The content team.

This is the team that oversees everything you read on our site. They’re in charge of content from top to bottom. From the titles of our pages, down to the footers, and of course, for validating and publishing every coupon code. At any given time, we have over 25,000 vouchers on the site that require maintenance. Our content team spends their mornings manually checking, testing, and verifying codes to ensure they work. After the morning checks, it's all about improving the pages with their experience in saving. Every editor is an expert in “their stores,” which are the ones in their portfolio. (Editor's note: You can actually read about the day in the life of a Coupons.com editor on The Clip.) They know where to find the best deals, and they love to share that with our users. 

Honorable mentions go to our marketing team, HR team, finance team, legal team, and many other global and local functions that allow Coupons.com to work smoothly. 

Oh, and a final shout-out goes to our party committee! They may not be an official team, but, in my opinion, they are just as important to the good functioning of the business as any other team.

What is the last thing you bought that you felt genuinely pleased with yourself for finding a good deal? And we mean genuinely! Don’t just go with a good PR answer.

I said before that the rush from a good saving is better to me than the purchase itself. My last “great achievement,” I’d say, was this past Black Friday (I know starting with this seems like the PR version, but hear me out!).

Reebok had their Black Friday Sale running, which already had many products at 30%, 40%, and even 50% off. I’m a white-on-white Classics, sneakers guy, and Reebok had them marked down by 30% in the sale. This was already special, because not many brands choose to ever have their “Classic Collection” discounted.

But now to the magic: On top of that 30% off, I found that if you used one of our coupon codes, you’d get another 40% off! So from an initial, like, $120-$130, full price, I got my Classics for something like $50. And it had free shipping included, of course. I felt like a million dollars there, and I actually have them on today.

(Side note from the author: Yes, we verified this and can confirm that Alex paid $52.17 before taxes for his Classics. You can see for yourself below! Not too shabby.)

Is there anything you spend money on that you probably shouldn't, or that feels slightly at odds with the way you professionally think about saving money? Everyone has something...

There is a very clear weak spot in my shopping habits: I have a hobby of rebuilding cars in my spare time. I go to the scrap yard and buy what otherwise would have been squished into little metal bricks. 

In my mind, I convince myself that I am actually saving money. I mean, where else could you get a car for $200? To me, I’m fostering the circular economy and giving new life to these cars. To my wife (and pretty much everyone else I know), I am spending money on literal trash metal. Another issue at a scrap yard: They don’t give out coupons, and they don’t have seasonal discounts. So on top of paying for “trash” I pay full price for it!

Now, I really shouldn’t get into all the tools that are needed to rebuild a car… I will just say in my defense that I do buy those tools used on eBay or FB marketplace. 

Last one: When you imagine someone using Coupons.com and closing their laptop after completing their purchase, what does that actually look like to you? On a human level, how do you hope to serve your users?

Beyond any KPI that we track, and putting aside all the jargon from our industry (clickout, sales, conversions, visits, etc.), there is one thing that users need from us: Discounts that work. No matter if it is through a coupon, cashback, or a gift card, they need to have saved money at checkout for us to have done our job.

We invest an enormous amount of our time into verifying codes, ensuring that all the terms are transparent and clear, and providing our users with the most detailed information possible. We do that so that they can feel that special something when they get a deal. 

The perfect Coupons.com user for me opened our page, found their best possible option to save within 20 seconds of searching, and went on to pay for their product at a discounted price. When they close their laptop or put their phone back into their pocket, they do that with a smile on their face, feeling that we didn’t let them down, and that the quick stop at Coupons.com was absolutely worth their time. I know we’re not perfect, and there are still times when a promo code found on our site doesn’t work like it should, but we are working hard to improve our verification process every day. And while this is sometimes the outcome, I also know that we do manage to generate that smile on millions of other users, and that is the greatest feeling.

The Clip is where the people behind Coupons.com get to speak plainly. No press releases. No corporate polish. Just honest stories from people who think hard every day about helping you spend less and keep more.