Let’s Powwow: a Chinese LBS That Puts Deals Before Check-Ins [INTERVIEW]

Chinese start-up Let’s Powwow is a unique location-based service (LBS), social network, and group buy/deals site. Located at letspw.com, the site has nine employees now, and is notable for having a triumvirate of founders from China, Italy, and the US.

Rather than just focusing on check-ins or brands, Lets Powwow instead aims to connect its users more closely with actual venues, create hyperlocal deals, get users to “redeem” deals at venues, and encourage people to bring along friends to a store. There’s an iPhone and Android app to accompany the site.

Let’s Powwow seems less like fellow Chinese LBS Jiepang.com – whose CEO we interviewed recently – and more like the Indian Geosocials. That’s because both Geosocials and Let’s Powwow put less emphasis on check-ins and are instead oriented towards being hyperlocal and ‘game’-like.

To find out more about Let’s Powwow and where it’s heading, Penn Olson talked to its American CEO and co-founder Adam Guli (pictured below):

1. What inspired you to launch this start-up?

Well I have been part of start-ups in the past – always the guy working for someone else. I gained a real taste for the freedom and fluidity of the whole experience, even though each project ended in failure. I learned a lot from those failures to hopefully give me some insight into how not to make the same mistakes. But ultimately it was working for huge organizations and not having my ideas or strategies amount to more then a pat on the back and a “What are you going to do for me now” attitude.

2. What kind of financing did it take? Have you had some venture capital backing?

My two co-founders and I started with a pooled US$40,000 to start this thing. It meant we had to be creative in how we spent our funds. Over the past year we have had seed funding and some angel funding of nearly $200,000. We are in major fund-raising mode now and hope to bring in some bigger fish to help take us to the next level.

3. You position Let’s PowWow as an LBS with group buy deals and a “game” element thrown in. How does it work for a user?