Cooper Harris is the CEO and founder of Klickly, a SaaS platform that uses machine-learning and buy button technology to power impulse-payments online. A Hollywood actress turned tech entrepreneur, Cooper is a true innovator and thought leader in fintech.

She was named a “Young Innovator” by Google, Adobe’s “Top Thought-Leader” at Cannes Lions, L’Oreal’s “Digital Woman of the Year,” and “Innovator of the Year” at the Women in IT Awards.

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Cooper in this special offsite episode of TechCONNECT.

When did you found Klickly?
About three years ago now. It’s my second company. It’s taken off very fast in the last twelve months. One of my management team members likens it to drinking from the fire hose. We’ve grown from 200 brand customers to now 900 in less than twelve months. It’s been an intense year.

Where was the impetus? Where did you see the need to start this?
If you look at commerce in general, it’s becoming very distributed. You hear people saying, “The mall is dead,” or, “Brick-and-mortar is dead,” but it’s not necessarily true. These digital challenger brands, like Casper, are now moving into brick-and-mortar.

“It isn’t that brick-and-mortar’s dead; it’s that everything’s becoming much more distributed because consumers are more entitled.”  – Cooper Harris

We have less time, we have a lot more options, we are much busier, and now we have the opportunity to do things digitally. It gives us more options, which is good for us, harder for the retailers and brands around us to meet us where we are.

Do you make your way to Atlanta often?
I have a soft spot in my heart for Atlanta because I was actually born here. I was born in Grant Park.

“It’s really fun to see just how explosive the Atlanta tech scene is becoming.”  – Cooper Harris

I think, oftentimes, we on the west coast get a little in our bubble, and we don’t recognize the incredible stuff that’s going on here as much as we should. I’ll take any excuse I can to come down here. I think the city’s beautiful, the tech’s incredible, there’s a lot of fun stuff going on.

Where can people connect with you?
Twitter is great (@CooperHarris), but LinkedIn (Cooper Harris) is where I spend most of my time.

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