News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by debarshri on Monday March 21, 2016 @10:50AM (#11328433)
Story sounds quite close to what happened to boo.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com
Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by willvarfar on Monday March 21, 2016 @10:56AM (#11328467)
The CEO's wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Wagner says:

"Wagner remained on the board of MAID until 2001 and founded Venda Inc later that year.[6] Venda Inc is provider of e-commerce software originally built using technology from the defunct company Boo.com.[1][4] Wagner had acquired Boo.com for £250,000 in 2000 following the dot-com crash.[12]

...

In 2007 he also founded Powa Technologies, an e-commerce business based on Venda Inc's small business solution, but with additional services for in-store and mobile point of sale and software for mobile payments called PowaTag and PowaPOS, formerly known as mPowa. Wagner introduced PowaTag in 2014, after receiving more than $100 million in funding.[15] Users of the service can make purchases using QR codes, audio watermarks and iBeacons.[6][16]"

So Boo.com -> Venda Inc -> Powa Tech :)

Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by dullroar on Monday March 21, 2016 @12:54PM (#11329462)
Later in the wiki article: "Wagner operates his various business interests from a holding company called Bright Station. Bright Station has revenues of $50 million and employs 450 staff." Am I the only one who thinks $111,111 in annual revenue per staff member is really low for a supposed tech holding company? The multiplier should be much higher than that (or they're paying slave wages plus stock options to make those numbers work).
Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by debarshri on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:11AM (#11328596)
How can investors not see this coming?
Re:Powa: The startup that fell to earth by TheJCExperience on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:17AM (#11328627)