Mike Tyson is known for delivering knockouts in the boxing ring. But now, he is fighting against high prices. Tyson is backing Price Fighter powered by ChaChing, a platform designed to combat inflation and high prices by returning up to $500 a month to consumers who shop online.
A Shared Mission
It’s an unusual pairing on paper: one of the most fearsome heavyweights in boxing history and a 25-year-old physicist-turned-founder named Max Sugrue. But they are united by a shared mission of helping people.
“It was a no-brainer,” Tyson said in an online interview. “I’m all about helping people save money. I come from that background with a struggling mother, no father. Sometimes getting cut off welfare, not being able to eat. I come from that world, so I want to come back and help people to do this. This is something that is brilliant to help people struggling,” he added.
When asked whether this initiative is a part of a larger rebranding, perhaps as an ambassador for savings, Tyson resisted the idea. “Only the people could make me their ambassador. I’m not coming in as no ambassador. I’m just coming in as Mike, and I have a goal to help people,” he said. “I love doing stuff that’s contagious. Once you’re involved, other people want to get involved. Then the world gets involved. You know, helping people is contagious.”
The Hidden Costs Of Shopping Online
To understand Price Fighter, you have to understand what it is trying to solve. As Sugrue explained, the modern internet economy is built on advertising costs that are often invisible to consumers. Platforms like Amazon, Google, and Meta charge sellers for visibility, clicks, and conversions, fees that Sugrue says can reach up to 50% of purchase price.
“It’s actually pushed the cost of goods and services up for those brands that we love. And it’s really squeezed the brands,” Sugrue explained. The effect of this system is twofold: consumers pay inflated prices, and small-to-mid-sized businesses are pushed out by overseas manufacturers and mega-corporations who can afford the platform tolls. According to Sugrue, many brands are desperate for a more sustainable alternative to Big Tech’s “tax” on sales.
How You Can Save
At its core, Price Fighter is like a cashback platform with a twist. Rather than simply providing rebates or coupon codes, the platform acts as a traffic originator for partner brands. When you click through the platform to a retailer like Nike, the sale is attributed to Price Fighter, and a portion of the merchant’s ad budget is sent to ChaChing as a referral fee. Then, instead of keeping that advertising revenue, Price Fighter distributes most of it, more than 95%, back to the consumer. “For example, if we give somebody $100, we’ll have collected $102 from the brand, and we take $2 from there. But right now, we give 95% of all revenue to customers,” explained Sugrue.
Sugrue said that soon, consumers may not even see a charge for the full purchase price on their cards. Instead, they will be charged the net amount, or what they would have paid after cashback. “It’s literally instant savings,” said Sugrue. “We will be able to make it instant to the point where the money literally just never leaves your account.”
Additionally, community is embedded in Price Fighter. According to Sugrue, the more people who buy from a brand each week through the platform, the more the brand is able to return to shoppers. It’s like a collective bargain where the crowd saves together. “If you get your friend to shop, we can give you back maybe 15%. But if you each get two people to come in and buy from that brand, we can give you back much more money,” he added. “And so this idea of people helping people and communities thriving together is something that we’ve built into the platform.”
The Road Ahead
While still in its early stages, they are focused on advocating and helping spread the word about this new way people can boost savings with their online purchases. But ultimately, the goal is not just to simply help consumers but to reshape digital commerce and make advertising dollars work for people, not just platforms. As Sugrue described it, “It’s like if Google decided to give the revenue to their users.”
With Mike Tyson in the fight, they’re betting that millions of people, especially those struggling with high prices, will see the appeal. Tyson is really passionate about helping people. “I know I can’t save the world, but everybody in the world can save somebody,” he said. “If I could just help someone live an inch higher than they lived before, I’ll be satisfied with that.”