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FiveStars (YC W11) Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

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Re: FiveStars (YC W11) Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

#5
Haven't we seen enough of these?

I'm thinking punchd, Belly, LevelUp, Plink, not to mention offerings from Groupon, foursquare... They may be able to profitably acquire businesses now, but isn't it a coinflip as to who will win in the long-term?

Re: FiveStars (YC W11) Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

#6
post #4

55 employees before their A round? Either they raised a lot of money in a 'seed' round before this or they put a bunch of their own money in. Otherwise i don't see how they funded the growth to this stage on revenue.

Knowing the space a bit, I'd guess most of the 55 people are a bunch of sales people on a commission-heavy structure, vs your 100k+stock devs.

Re: FiveStars (YC W11) Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

#7
post #5

Haven't we seen enough of these? I'm thinking punchd, Belly, LevelUp, Plink, not to mention offerings from Groupon, foursquare... They may be able to profitably acquire businesses now, but isn't it a coinflip as to who will win in the long-term?

The key here is that they are not introducing new technology. It's old school, and that appeals to local business quite a bit.

Re: FiveStars (YC W11) Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

#9
post #5

Haven't we seen enough of these? I'm thinking punchd, Belly, LevelUp, Plink, not to mention offerings from Groupon, foursquare... They may be able to profitably acquire businesses now, but isn't it a coinflip as to who will win in the long-term?

I don't think this is a winner take all space. I am more interesting in understanding how these products are differentiating against each other, most importantly in how they plan to drive more sales for the business. I'm not sure how valuable social exposure is for businesses - do check-ins really drive more traffic through the door?

Re: FiveStars (YC W11) Picks Up $14 Million to Challenge the Loyalty Punch Card

#10
post #5

Haven't we seen enough of these? I'm thinking punchd, Belly, LevelUp, Plink, not to mention offerings from Groupon, foursquare... They may be able to profitably acquire businesses now, but isn't it a coinflip as to who will win in the long-term?

if by coin flip you mean whoever executes the best, yep. "haven't we seen enough of these" sounds extraordinarily condescending.
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