Matt Dowgwillo, Thrifty Hipster

Matt Dowgwillo
Thrifty Hipster

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and for Matt Dowgwillo and his college buddies, the necessity was finding cheap places to drink and hang out on their meager incomes. They searched for months on the Web to find a site that could point them to local happy hours and inexpensive shows, with no luck. “Finally I got sick of it, and I’m like, yeah, I’ll just do it myself,” Dowgwillo says. And Thrifty Hipster was born.

Today, four years later, Thrifty Hipster has become a Twin Cities institution online, visited by about 35,000 people every month.

“The whole idea was to make something you would use the minute before going out,” Dowgwillo says. “Like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing on Wednesday night, let’s quick log on and find out.’ ”

What started as a hobby is now Dowgwillo’s full-time job. As the owner and chief salesman and marketer, he now supervises a staff of two. And he will soon launch Local Hipster.

With the success of the site comes one drawback, however. Ironically, it’s put a crimp in Dowgwillo’s social life. “I used to love going out,” he says, “but it’s hard to stay out if you have to work the next day.”