Chips is a mobile app for restaurants and bars that lets you support your favorite spots in a new way. Instead of just rating a place once, you invest virtual currency called "chips" into local businesses. The places with the most chips or fastest growth appear on leaderboards by category. The more you invest, the more value you gain as a chipholder, unlocking special features and rewards. You can also climb the leaderboard for each place based on your chipholder value. Chips lets you follow friends and see their investments in real time, combining rewards, investing, and social media all in one app.

Chips is easy to use—just invest your chips for the day. It connects you with fans of your favorite restaurants and bars. Use Chips to meet others who love the same places, get special app-only perks, and support your favorite spots by increasing their chip count. Chat directly with managers for insider tips and deals. Discover trending places nearby where people are investing. Follow your friends to see what they are investing in. The possibilities are endless.

Chips lets you connect with your customers easily. Attract new customers by offering special rewards in one app, while they help grow your chip count and invite friends to join. Through the Chipbowl, you can chat directly with people who invested chips in you. You’ll have a list of loyal supporters to thank or ask for feedback. Claiming your place is free! The more you engage in the Chipbowl, the more you appear on trending lists. Why wait? Contact chipmaster@chipstheapp.com to claim your spot and start now.

We closely watch all investments using both automation and manual checks to catch suspicious activity. Managers, or anyone who has been a manager at Chips, are not allowed to invest in their own place. If we find any wrongdoing linked to a place, we may stop their investing or even ban them from Chips.

• Ability to interact with users via the Chipbowl

• Ability to create custom perks, such as happy hours, one time events, and other unique perks for those who have invested (up to you to dictate threshold, maybe you only want to reward your #1 fan?)

• Ability to update your bio, header photo, website, and chipbowl threshold (how many chips does a user need to invest to see the chip bowl?)

• See metrics on growth over time

A chip is the app’s virtual currency. You get 3 free chips daily when you log in, plus up to 16 chips total per day (12 from a Chipmaster subscription + 4 free). Chips can be earned by subscribing, watching ads (4 chips for ads under 60 seconds, 3 chips if no ad shows), or completing achievements. Achievements are earned by investing in app places, and rewards are shown in the achievements section on your account page.

Chip subscriptions give you a daily allowance of chips at 1 AM CST nightly. This is managed via Apple Subscriptions. You can cancel your subscription via your apple account at any time.

There are two subscriptions:

Chipleader (6 chips delivered nightly)

Chipmaster (12 chips delivered nightly)

You are still able to claim your free chips daily if you have a chip subscription.

Please use the get in touch page or reach out to us at chipmaster@chipstheapp.com with the name of the place and it’s address, and we can get it added.

A chipholder is a user who has invested at least 1 chip in a place.

Chipholder value measures how much a place's chips have grown since you invested. It rewards users based on the place's growth, not just the chips they added. For example, you can earn rewards for investing chips and for the place gaining more chips. This value is calculated separately for each place.

Chipholder value is calculated anytime a user invests in a place. An algorithm looks at how much the place has grown in chip count since you originally invested (for each investment), and how many chips you have invested in total.

All restaurants and bars in Chicago and the Greenville/Spartanburg area are listed in Chips, from fast food to fine dining. If a place is missing, contact the admin (chipmaster@chipstehapp.com) to check. Any spot marked as a restaurant, bar, or cafe on Google should appear.

Just Chicago and Greenville/Spartanburg to start. As we grow, we will expand strategically into other cities. We wanted a large market and a smaller market as our first beta test. If you want Chips in your area, please reach out to us via the Get In Touch page.

A place can offer perks like happy hours, special events, or other rewards to those who invest the most chips and help it grow. The place decides who gets these perks—whether it's all chipholders, only the top ones, or those who invest a set number of chips. It’s entirely open ended.

The Chipbowl is a reward for those who invest a set number of chips (default 5) in a place. It’s a message board where owners, managers, and chipholders can talk directly on that place’s page. Users can plan meetups, chat about their favorite drinks, or discuss anything related to the place. Chipholders get notified whenever a place representative posts in the Chipbowl.

The app is in beta on iOS only today. Use the download link on the top of the page to download.

Yes! You are able to send follow requests to people within the app. If the user’s profile is not public, they have to accept your follow request (similar to Instagram’s). Once they accept your request, you are able to follow their investment activity via the community tab.