Intentionalist

What Intentionalist does

Intentionalist is an online marketplace and discovery platform, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Seattle, that connects consumers with local small businesses owned by diverse communities. The platform maintains a directory of 5,097+ businesses searchable by ownership community tags (Asian-Owned, Black-Owned, Disability-Owned, Family-Owned, Latino-Owned, LGBTQ-Owned, Native-Owned, Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, Social Enterprise), neighborhood, and category, spanning US markets led by Washington/California/Oregon plus international listings in the UK, Canada, France, and Kenya. The technology stack is a web-based directory with map functionality and basic filtering, suggesting conventional CMS architecture rather than a custom platform, with no mobile app, no public API, and no documented machine-learning capabilities.

The core product set comprises the Intentionalist Marketplace (the free discovery directory), the Intentionalist Card (a membership discount card accepted at 450+ participating businesses), the Buy Black Card (a specialized card offering 20% savings at Black-owned businesses), the Intentionalist Store (e-commerce for gift cards to specific partner businesses and Intentionalist-branded merchandise), and a bulk card purchasing channel. Revenue is generated through three streams: one-time card license fees, transaction fees on third-party gift card sales, and bulk card orders for organizational distribution. Pricing for the cards is not publicly disclosed, and only a fraction (~9%) of listed businesses actively participate in the card program.

The go-to-market is product-led, relying on organic discovery through the website's search and map functionality, blog-based content marketing (featured business spotlights), social media, and a high-leverage earned-media strategy via partnerships with the Seattle Seahawks (Happy Hour with the Hawks) and the NFL's Inspire Change initiative. The company operates with a 1-10 employee headcount, has not disclosed any external funding rounds, and is led by founder/CEO Laura Clise. Customer concentration is structurally low given the two-sided marketplace model and the long tail of SMBs and individual consumers, though the closed-loop revenue from card sales versus the open-loop visibility benefit to non-participating businesses creates an asymmetry between listed-count and monetized-count.

Name

Intentionalist

Website

https://intentionalist.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Intentionalist is an online marketplace connecting consumers with local small and minority-owned businesses via community-tag filtering, membership discount cards (including the Buy Black Card), and gift cards. The Seattle-based platform lists 5,000+ businesses across the US and internationally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Business Discovery Marketplace

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Goods & Gift Card Generalist Marketplaces (CRAFAAAJ)

Keywords

• Local business directory
• Community-owned marketplace
• Minority-owned business discovery
• Small business loyalty cards
• Values-aligned local shopping

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Intentionalist Cards: Sale of membership discount cards (Intentionalist Card and Buy Black Card) that provide cardholders discounts at participating businesses. The Buy Black Card offers 20% savings at participating Black-owned small businesses.
2. Gift Cards and Certificates: Sale of gift cards to individual small businesses and Intentionalist merchandise, driving marketplace commission revenue from third-party business gift card sales.
3. Bulk Card Orders: Bulk purchasing of Intentionalist Cards for distribution or gifting purposes.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Intentionalist operates an online marketplace and discovery platform that connects consumers with local small and minority-owned businesses searchable by ownership community (Asian-Owned, Black-Owned, LGBTQ-Owned, Veteran-Owned, etc.), neighborhood, and category. The platform also sells membership discount cards (the Intentionalist Card and Buy Black Card, the latter offering 20% savings at Black-owned businesses) accepted at 450+ participating merchants, alongside digital gift cards to individual businesses and branded merchandise.

Product overview

Intentionalist is a unified marketplace platform for discovering and supporting local small and minority-owned businesses. The core offering consists of the Intentionalist Marketplace (an online directory of 5,097+ businesses searchable by community tags, categories, and neighborhoods) combined with the Intentionalist Card and Buy Black Card (membership cards offering discounts at participating businesses). The platform extends through a Store module selling small business gift cards and Intentionalist-branded merchandise. Users can filter businesses by ownership categories including Asian-Owned, Black-Owned, Latino-Owned, LGBTQ-Owned, Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, and more.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Intentionalist Marketplace An online discovery platform and directory that connects consumers with local small and minority-owned businesses for dining, drinking, and shopping; lists 5,097+ businesses searchable by ownership-community tag, category, and neighborhood.
• Intentionalist Card A membership discount card that provides savings and benefits to cardholders when used at 450+ participating local small businesses, with new merchants added on an ongoing basis.
• Buy Black Card A specialized membership card offering 20% savings when used exclusively at participating Black-owned small businesses, supporting values-aligned purchasing and ongoing foot traffic to Black-owned merchants.
• Small Business Gift Cards Digital gift cards available for purchase from a variety of featured small businesses listed on the Intentionalist platform, allowing consumers to gift and transact with participating merchants through Intentionalist's storefront.
• Intentionalist Merchandise Branded physical merchandise (e.g., T-shirts and related items) sold through the Intentionalist Store, with proceeds supporting the company's mission of supporting local small businesses.
• Intentionalist Store An e-commerce storefront on intentionalist.com that aggregates the company's Intentionalist Cards, Buy Black Cards, third-party small business gift cards, and branded merchandise as a unified shopping destination.

Quantifiable outcome

• 5,097+ businesses listed across the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Seattle SeahawkscoreGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Seattle Seahawks partner with Intentionalist for the 'Happy Hour with the Hawks' program, which highlights small and minority-owned restaurants in the Seattle area. The partnership provides participating businesses with exposure through Seahawks-hosted events and social media cross-marketing. The collaboration helps restaurants gain community visibility, particularly those with limited visibility in tucked-away locations.
• NFL Inspire ChangecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerIntentionalist partnered with the NFL's Inspire Change initiative to spotlight five local minority-owned small businesses as part of the league's Inspire Change month. The program provides participating businesses with exposure through events and cross-marketing on social media, featuring Dom's Banana Pudding, Hood Famous, Taste of Caribbean, Moe Vegan, and Frelard Tamales.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Yelp: Dominant local business discovery platform with searchable directory, reviews, and minority-owned business attributes. Direct overlap with Intentionalist's core discovery-and-filter value proposition, though at vastly greater scale.

Broad incumbents

• Google Maps: Default local business search and discovery surface for most consumers, increasingly including community/identity attributes. Represents the broad incumbent that Intentionalist's niche differentiation must defend against.
• Etsy: Online marketplace aggregating small and independent sellers, with brand association around supporting diverse creators. Comparable as a marketplace that channels conscious-consumer demand toward small businesses.
• Groupon: Local deals and discount marketplace with merchant-side card and voucher products. Operates an overlapping card/discount-mechanic model that connects consumers to local SMBs via promotional pricing.
• DoorDash: Large-scale local commerce marketplace for restaurants and SMBs. Represents the broader local-commerce marketplace category in which Intentionalist competes for consumer mindshare around where to eat and shop locally.
• OpenTable: Restaurant discovery and reservation platform. Comparable as a discovery-plus-transaction layer for local food businesses, a core category within Intentionalist's listings.

Emerging players

• The Infatuation: Editorial-driven restaurant discovery platform with curated recommendations. Overlaps with Intentionalist's content-led, blog-spotlight approach to local food and small business discovery.
• Resy: Restaurant reservation and discovery platform with strong independent-restaurant positioning. Comparable to Intentionalist in catering to a curated set of local restaurants with engaged, values-oriented diners.
• Goldbelly: Curated e-commerce marketplace for small food businesses and artisans nationwide. Overlaps with Intentionalist's marketplace-plus-discovery model for small/diverse sellers.
• Junip: Shopify-owned discovery platform that helps consumers find and shop Black-owned and minority-owned small businesses. Closest direct niche competitor to Intentionalist's community-tagged directory model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Intentionalist_

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Intentionalist