Local entrepreneur working to build a “Wal-Mart for Yinzers” with YinzMart

PITTSBURGH — Despite the fact that the front door of his office space still bears the name of his father, a retired doctor, Jurgen Koster is building something new that he says Pittsburgh hasn’t quite seen before.

The New Kensington native is setting out on a mission to create, what he calls the “anti-Amazon,” and eventually, a "Wal-Mart for Yinzers." A former finance professional who cut his teeth working as a regulatory compliance analyst at the Manhattan office of the Promontory Financial Group, a subsidiary of IBM, Koster returned to the Pittsburgh region in 2018, inspired to follow his entrepreneurial passions and put his ideas to the test in Kittanning, where he spent most of his childhood.

“My hypothesis was that I could be a big fish in a small pond, it was much easier for me to make a wave when I’m bootstrapping the business,” Koster said. “I can’t get in front of everybody in Pittsburgh, it’s too expensive. But Kittanning, with geofencing and stuff, I could advertise for $5 a day, and everybody already knew who I was.”