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Dan de Grandpre is the CEO and co-founder of DealNews in Huntsville. (Courtesy)

Despite running one of the country's leading websites for online deals, entrepreneur Dan de Grandpre said his company, DealNews, is probably better known across the U.S. than it is in its hometown of Huntsville.

DealNews, located on 101 Quality Circle, began modestly 18 years ago when de Grandpre and his buddy, Richard Moss, launched deal-mac, a website that posted online prices for Apple products. Two years later, DealNews was born to include a wider range of merchandise.

Employees at DealNews in Huntsville can take a break by playing one of many vintage arcade video games displayed in the office. (Courtesy)

The comparison shopping website now offers more than 400 curated deals every day on gadgets, clothing, home and garden, and other categories, from retailers such as Amazon, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

The company also boasts more than 250 million annual sessions and 11 million unique users through its website, mobile apps and emails.

"We now have 100 employees and are growing," de Grandpre said. "It's just not the same kind of company that it was back in the '90s."

DealNews employs more than 60 percent of its workforce in the Rocket City, but has small offices in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Dublin, Ireland. The DealNews team scours the web all day and night using proprietary data analytics and human curation to match users with discounts and coupons on the items they want.

Each year, DealNews releases its Black Friday Predictions report, which includes shopping tips and price benchmarks to help customers save money during the holidays. In the 2013 report, 74 percent of DealNews' forecasts were accurately priced within 10 percent of the actual cost.

The company's formula for finding deals is its "secret sauce," de Grandpre said.

"The main purpose of our website is to connect you with what you want to buy, even if you don't know exactly what it is you want to buy," he said. "There is something on sale at some retailer somewhere that you would buy if only you knew about it."

Since its founding, DealNews has evolved to become one of the most well-known deal sites on the web. In May 2014, national consumer expert Clark Howard said the website was "hands down" his favorite for shopping online deals.

Jeremiah Arsenault, whose local marketing/advertising agency Gabriel Standard was hired by de Grandpre, said DealNews has risen to one of the top 1,000 most visited websites in the country.

"They are very different from what most people think of when discussing industry in Huntsville," he said.

A DealNews coding ad targeting prospective employees at Bridge Street Town Centre in Huntsville. (Courtesy)

Arsenault said the company, which was the presenting sponsor of Yuri's Night in April, is working to increase its presence through outreach and educational opportunities in Huntsville. In addition to billboards and community events, DealNews recently unveiled unique coding ads at Bridge Street Town Centre to target potential employees.

While Huntsville lacks consumer marketing talent, de Grandpre said the area is brimming with defense and technology experts. He said DealNews is a good fit for employees with Redstone Arsenal or a defense contractor who are seeking a change of pace.

The company, which has vintage 1980s arcade video games for employees to play in the office, recently snagged former Tommy Hilfiger Vice President of Commerce Jared Blank as its new chief marketing officer.

"We're growing pretty fast and we need to hire a lot of people," de Grandpre said. "A lot of those are engineers, so we've been working on trying to improve our brand awareness."

Click here to search their job openings.

DealNews currently serves the continental U.S., but hopes to someday expand to the United Kingdom, Canada and Hispanic markets.

de Grandpre doesn't anticipate any major changes to DealNews.com anytime soon, but said users should notice small improvements throughout the year.

"When you look at our website or you use our app, you're going to find that the content is better and better for us because of the kind of engineering work that's being done in Huntsville," he said.