5 ms·

Punchd has been acquired by Google

123 points by robertdimarco 15y ago

zach 15y ago
I was wondering why I saw someone retweet "We have NOT been acquired." from Punchd's account last week. Now comes the rest of the story. https://twitter.com/punchd https://twitter.com/punchd And as always, congratulations! Great and fun business and I'm glad for Google that they picked them up.
pitdesi 15y ago
FYI the transaction price was estimated at greater than $10mil. http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/google-to-buy-mobile-loyalty-card-startup-punchd/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/google-to-buy-mobile-loyalt... I like the product and am excited for the team, but $10mil seems a bit high to me for a pretty early product. I'm assuming that this will eventually roll into Google wallet as a competitor to Square's card case. In any case, this is great news for the young team - looks like they'll continue their work but within the confines of Google. Looks like Dave McClure's hypothesis is getting stronger by the day with a few 500 startups companies getting snapped up recently (Backtype to Twitter and Cardmunch to Linkedin). (disclosure- we're a fellow 500startups company - go 500!)
- saddino 15y ago
  Agreed. Given it's a nascent product with few users/retailers and low barrier to entry (there are at least a dozen similar scan-code-for-punch-card apps), it sounds like a pure talent buy. And $10MM sounds high if that is truly the case.
  - chexton 15y ago
    Firstly, congratulations to the Punchd guys. Secondly, it is interesting because there are indeed a bunch of other punch-card replacement apps. Even here in Australia I know of at least two. If it's a pure talent acquisition (which seems to be a logical conclusion) then it is indeed quite a large sum. I can't imagine Google wouldn't already have begun development of a similar concept when creating Google Wallet. It's fantastic for the founders though. Not having met them, and just based on what I've read here, they seem like great guys.
- 6ren 15y ago
  Patent-pending tech can increase valuation.
  - zach 15y ago
    Is there any current wisdom out there on this? It does seem reasonable to start some patent paperwork if it increases our company's leverage. But how interested are larger companies in this sort of thing? Is patentability a criterion to think about when choosing the direction of a startup?
    - saddino 15y ago
      Issued patents certainly can add tangible value to a deal, but take years to make their way through USPTO and require a lot of money to file, respond to office actions and the examiner. However, most startups with time and not too much $ can file a provisional patent for "patent pending" status, which is likely what Punchd has. It's really just a way to extend the patent filing deadline an extra year. Thus the value of an un-examined, pending patent to a deal is negligible -- especially to Google. Most pending patents are never granted.
dreamux 15y ago
I met Reed at StartupSchool last year, he was pretty passionate about this project -- and it was clear they were on to something. I hope Google continues the project, there's lots of potential here. Congrats to the team!
- amanelis 15y ago
  Reed is a bad ass
cloudwalking 15y ago
Did an Ask HN on this a few months ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1897331 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1897331). Knew the responses would be pretty biased, but it was still encouraging. Glad I heeded you all.
- justina1 15y ago
  Wow, no joke. Really cool to see Cal Poly grads doing big stuff, especially from the Android Dev classes. Missed that one by a quarter :)
  - ycombiefan 15y ago
    why do u put a happy face that you missed it?
alexkiwi 15y ago
Congrats to Punchd, have met the team and they are all incredibly talented. It will be exciting to see their product realized via Google.
felixmar 15y ago
Super Secure Patent-pending technology guarantees the integrity of your loyalty program. GPS triangulation, velocity analysis, and statistical variation keep things secure. Each venue gets one static QR code. A bit of fraud prevention based on location and statistical analysis does not seem "super secure" to me but perhaps i am missing something.
- wmeredith 15y ago
  "Super Secure" is obviously marketing copy and not an existing security spec. The actual security is explained below.
  - bricestacey 15y ago
    Can you link to the "actual security". I don't see it below. Regardless, any small business with a loyalty program would pick up on some guy that comes in repeatedly for free stuff. Their reports would probably indicate it too. An electronic version like this is definitely more secure than a punchcard, which can easily be gamed by going to your local art store.
    - melvinng 15y ago
      We started around the same time in Velocity, Waterloo but with a more secure patent-pending approach: http://vimeo.com/22926049 http://vimeo.com/22926049 hardware took ages to develop.. It still doesn't work for BB.. ;)
      - chexton 15y ago
        That looks like quite an interesting piece of tech. I'd be keen to see it in action.
- DannoHung 15y ago
  I wonder why they do one QR code instead of letting them print out a week's worth of QR codes in advance or something actually secure.
callmeed 15y ago
w00t! for Cal Poly. Nice job Punchd.
bomatson 15y ago
Congrats Punchd, saw your great preso on 500 startups demo day (also, Alexia is dumb for ever calling you one of the 'least interesting' startups)
sahaj 15y ago
I'm a Cal Poly grad and this excites me. Congrats guys!
mkramlich 15y ago
acqui-hire
jonkelly 15y ago
Huge congrats to the Punchd team! Really glad to see one of the Starup Madness final 4 have a good exit. Thanks again for participating: http://thisorthat.com/t/punchd-vs-cheekd http://thisorthat.com/t/punchd-vs-cheekd

123 points by robertdimarco 15y ago

zach 15y ago

I was wondering why I saw someone retweet "We have NOT been acquired." from Punchd's account last week. Now comes the rest of the story. https://twitter.com/punchd https://twitter.com/punchd And as always, congratulations! Great and fun business and I'm glad for Google that they picked them up.

pitdesi 15y ago

FYI the transaction price was estimated at greater than $10mil. http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/google-to-buy-mobile-loyalty-card-startup-punchd/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/google-to-buy-mobile-loyalt... I like the product and am excited for the team, but $10mil seems a bit high to me for a pretty early product. I'm assuming that this will eventually roll into Google wallet as a competitor to Square's card case. In any case, this is great news for the young team - looks like they'll continue their work but within the confines of Google. Looks like Dave McClure's hypothesis is getting stronger by the day with a few 500 startups companies getting snapped up recently (Backtype to Twitter and Cardmunch to Linkedin). (disclosure- we're a fellow 500startups company - go 500!)

saddino 15y ago
Agreed. Given it's a nascent product with few users/retailers and low barrier to entry (there are at least a dozen similar scan-code-for-punch-card apps), it sounds like a pure talent buy. And $10MM sounds high if that is truly the case.
- chexton 15y ago
  Firstly, congratulations to the Punchd guys. Secondly, it is interesting because there are indeed a bunch of other punch-card replacement apps. Even here in Australia I know of at least two. If it's a pure talent acquisition (which seems to be a logical conclusion) then it is indeed quite a large sum. I can't imagine Google wouldn't already have begun development of a similar concept when creating Google Wallet. It's fantastic for the founders though. Not having met them, and just based on what I've read here, they seem like great guys.
6ren 15y ago
Patent-pending tech can increase valuation.
- zach 15y ago
  Is there any current wisdom out there on this? It does seem reasonable to start some patent paperwork if it increases our company's leverage. But how interested are larger companies in this sort of thing? Is patentability a criterion to think about when choosing the direction of a startup?
  - saddino 15y ago
    Issued patents certainly can add tangible value to a deal, but take years to make their way through USPTO and require a lot of money to file, respond to office actions and the examiner. However, most startups with time and not too much $ can file a provisional patent for "patent pending" status, which is likely what Punchd has. It's really just a way to extend the patent filing deadline an extra year. Thus the value of an un-examined, pending patent to a deal is negligible -- especially to Google. Most pending patents are never granted.

dreamux 15y ago

I met Reed at StartupSchool last year, he was pretty passionate about this project -- and it was clear they were on to something. I hope Google continues the project, there's lots of potential here. Congrats to the team!

amanelis 15y ago
Reed is a bad ass

cloudwalking 15y ago

Did an Ask HN on this a few months ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1897331 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1897331). Knew the responses would be pretty biased, but it was still encouraging. Glad I heeded you all.

justina1 15y ago
Wow, no joke. Really cool to see Cal Poly grads doing big stuff, especially from the Android Dev classes. Missed that one by a quarter :)
- ycombiefan 15y ago
  why do u put a happy face that you missed it?

alexkiwi 15y ago

Congrats to Punchd, have met the team and they are all incredibly talented. It will be exciting to see their product realized via Google.

felixmar 15y ago

Super Secure Patent-pending technology guarantees the integrity of your loyalty program. GPS triangulation, velocity analysis, and statistical variation keep things secure. Each venue gets one static QR code. A bit of fraud prevention based on location and statistical analysis does not seem "super secure" to me but perhaps i am missing something.

wmeredith 15y ago
"Super Secure" is obviously marketing copy and not an existing security spec. The actual security is explained below.
- bricestacey 15y ago
  Can you link to the "actual security". I don't see it below. Regardless, any small business with a loyalty program would pick up on some guy that comes in repeatedly for free stuff. Their reports would probably indicate it too. An electronic version like this is definitely more secure than a punchcard, which can easily be gamed by going to your local art store.
  - melvinng 15y ago
    We started around the same time in Velocity, Waterloo but with a more secure patent-pending approach: http://vimeo.com/22926049 http://vimeo.com/22926049 hardware took ages to develop.. It still doesn't work for BB.. ;)
    - chexton 15y ago
      That looks like quite an interesting piece of tech. I'd be keen to see it in action.
DannoHung 15y ago
I wonder why they do one QR code instead of letting them print out a week's worth of QR codes in advance or something actually secure.

callmeed 15y ago

w00t! for Cal Poly. Nice job Punchd.

bomatson 15y ago

Congrats Punchd, saw your great preso on 500 startups demo day (also, Alexia is dumb for ever calling you one of the 'least interesting' startups)

sahaj 15y ago

I'm a Cal Poly grad and this excites me. Congrats guys!

mkramlich 15y ago

acqui-hire

jonkelly 15y ago

Huge congrats to the Punchd team! Really glad to see one of the Starup Madness final 4 have a good exit. Thanks again for participating: http://thisorthat.com/t/punchd-vs-cheekd http://thisorthat.com/t/punchd-vs-cheekd