

WePay (YC S09) founders put down roots in Palo Alto, raise $1.6 million - sachinag
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2009/12/wepay_founders_put_down_roots.html

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falsestprophet
The name WePay is on the mark. Asking people for money is awkward. But, _We_
Pay frames the process in a very clever way: a collaboration rather than a
collection.

I think the name WePay reduces the creepyness of asking people for money lower
than any cooperative payment brand yet. In the end, the creepyness of WePay
may be low enough to work.

I proposed this business to a few partners in 2005, but we couldn't come up
with a name that could sell it. Now, I'm terribly jealous.

Very well done guys.

~~~
ghshephard
Of all the things to worry about, and there is probably a list of hundreds,
the one thing you should absolutely never, ever be concerned about is the
company's name.

Off the top of my head in less than 15 seconds:

    
    
      o payshare
      o allpay
      o wefund
      o alldollar
      o gofund
      o gopay
      o paynow
    

But, think about the great companies out there with names that really don't
mean much:

    
    
       Google
       Yahoo
       Zynga
    

The company I work for is named after the _road_ it was founded on - it was
just supposed to be a temporary thing, but it "took."

The key is to generate value.

~~~
falsestprophet
Of course branding is important. Branding is one of the principle ways "value"
is built.

Building something people want is not enough. After the building bit, you need
to convince people to use whatever it is you created.

What is more, often a brand contributes the majority of a product's value.
Consider the entire apparel industry.

So if you can't figure out how to brand a product and you can't figure out how
to market a product and you can't figure out how to sell a product, I don't
think it is very clever to build the product.

And Google and Yahoo do mean something. They are whimsical and lyrical and
memorable.

I don't think these would "take":

    
    
      allsearch
      wesearch
      gosearch
      searchnow

~~~
breck
> What is more, often a brand contributes the majority of a product's value.
> Consider the entire apparel industry.

I disagree. I think you're confusing cause and effect. I'm sure Gap, Armani,
Gucci, etc., started out with great products and amateur brands. As the
products gained traction, they gained more resources to develop the brand.

> So if you can't figure out how to brand a product and you can't figure out
> how to market a product and you can't figure out how to sell a product, I
> don't think it is very clever to build the product.

Building a product and finding a market for it is step 1. Branding/growth is
step 2.

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coffeemug
Last time I used WePay, the product was a little rough around the edges
(though this is probably all fixed by now), but all the core ideas and
features were there. This is one of the very few products I actually _used_ ,
and greatly enjoyed.

Also, the founders are top-notch. Barring any external factors nobody can
control, I think WePay will grow very big. I would gladly invest my own money
into this company.

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Brushfire
This is a great concept. I've had partially finished code sitting around that
performed similar task in a worse way. I really wanted a simple way to
calculate and divide bills between roommates or clubs. They look like they got
it right.

Hopefully they get an iPhone app going, as I see that as a critical part of
this.

"Hey, I just bought stuff for the party, I'll add up the receipts on my phone
and everyone can pay me back whenever they get a chance. I'll send the invites
right from my addressbook".

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trevorturk
If you like this, make sure to check out <http://billmonk.com>, which I've
been happily using for a couple of years now. It's an awesome way to share
bills on work lunches - we use it almost every day :)

Anyway, I've signed up for a WePay invite code... I'll see how it looks later
on, I suppose.

~~~
falsestprophet
Their SSL certificate expired in October. That is less than ideal.

~~~
trevorturk
Agreed, but I'm only using it for keeping track of small amounts of money
amongst my friends, so it's no biggie.

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jasonlbaptiste
awesome. I like the concept. I spent my frosh year at Boston College and still
root for the Eagles. Congrats guys.

~~~
wensing
OT, what year was that?

~~~
jasonlbaptiste
03-04

~~~
billclerico
nice that was my frosh year too, go eagles

