Powa: The startup that fell to earth

Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by jaymzcampbell on Monday March 21, 2016 @09:58AM (#11328063)

I had a meeting with their sales people back in 2013 or so, a few year anyway, and I remember thinking after the hour long pitch that the claims where entirely delusional and pumped up. It was "just" a QR code with an app behind it and ultimately nothing at all fancy but they spoke about it like it was a total paradigm shift in buying. I never got how they lasted so long, reading the glassdoor reviews over the past year it was clearly a sinking ship years ago.

I honestly can't understand how they got nearly $100m in funding.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by Nursie on Monday March 21, 2016 @10:06AM (#11328109)

I saw it from the inside and thought much the same.

The PoS product was actually pretty good...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by edent on Monday March 21, 2016 @10:21AM (#11328204)

Yup - same here. The whole product was just... meh. If it had been backed by a market leader or (shudder) a consortium, it might have had a chance of success.

But a new entrant trying to sign up merchants individually?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by madaxe_again on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:05AM (#11328542)

They weren't interested in working with platforms either - they were actually actively offensive when we contacted them. Probably something to do with Wagner's background at Venda, a platform provider he founded.

Their users group call themselves "the prisoners of Venda"!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by astrange on Monday March 21, 2016 @12:54PM (#11329458)

Might as well go for the pun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_Zenda

[ Parent | on HN ]