
Punchd has been acquired by Google - robertdimarco
http://www.getpunchd.com/google
======
cloudwalking
Did an Ask HN on this a few months ago
(<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
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 :)

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felixmar

        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
"Super Secure" is obviously marketing copy and not an existing security spec.
The actual security is explained below.

~~~
bricestacey
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
We started around the same time in Velocity, Waterloo but with a more secure
patent-pending approach:

<http://vimeo.com/22926049>

hardware took ages to develop.. It still doesn't work for BB.. ;)

~~~
chexton
That looks like quite an interesting piece of tech. I'd be keen to see it in
action.

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dreamux
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
Reed is a bad ass

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zach
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>

And as always, congratulations! Great and fun business and I'm glad for Google
that they picked them up.

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bomatson
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)

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jonkelly
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>

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

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callmeed
w00t! for Cal Poly. Nice job Punchd.

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

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mkramlich
acqui-hire

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pitdesi
FYI the transaction price was estimated at greater than $10mil.
[http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/google-to-buy-mobile-
loyalt...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/08/google-to-buy-mobile-loyalty-card-
startup-punchd/)

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
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
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.

