Like many great ideas, the origins of POSaBIT begin with two pals huddled around a winter campfire, sharing a drink and discussing business opportunities.

Ryan Hamlin and Jon Baugher, native Washingtonians, had known each other for a number of years—their children had grown up together—and the duo were looking to dive into a new business venture after the success of Hamlin’s first startup, PlaceFull, an online booking and scheduling solution for small businesses.

This was early in 2015, several years after Washington and Colorado had become the first U.S. states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, and in this short amount of time, the industry had already become a potential behemoth.

Hamlin and Baugher had close to five decades of software experience between them, holding positions at Microsoft and Microvision, and although they saw the vast potential for growth and innovation in the cannabis industry, they weren’t as passionate about opening a dispensary as they were for building technology to help dispensaries grow and scale their operations.

Though cannabis sales were rising fast across Washington and Colorado, the single biggest obstacle with this market opportunity was that consumers couldn’t use credit or debit cards. These credit card and banking institutions had stipulations in their contracts that disallowed their customers to use their cards to purchase any item that is considered to be illegal (e.g. Schedule 1 drug) under federal law, which marijuana still is in the United States (though in 2018, it was legalized at the federal level in Canada.)

But Hamlin and Baugher believed they could build a powerful solution that would add a layer of convenience for both dispensary owners and consumers.

The A-ha Moment

In order to get around these conditions in the card brand guidelines, they decided to harness the power of another nascent market that was closer in line to their decades of experience: cryptocurrency. They thought that if people couldn’t buy their favorite products directly from the store with plastic, then maybe there could be a point of sale system that would allow the customer to purchase cryptocurrency right there in the dispensary and use it to pay for their goods (or hold the cryptocurrency as an investment to be spent at a later date).

This proved to be a complicated project to navigate. During the two years between POSaBIT’s conception and its launch, the duo spent most of their time working with their legal team (Perkins Coie), as well as the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), to make sure that every legal and regulatory avenue had been explored and that there was nothing that the newly created startup hadn’t thought of yet.

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As it turns out, their resiliency started to pay off. In 2017, POSaBIT took in $1 million of sales and had their POS systems in ~23 stores in Washington and Colorado. In 2018 , POSaBIT did over ~$4 million in revenue and expanded their solution to over ~130 stores across the United States.

Not to mention how bright the future is looking for the company. On April 8th 2019, POSaBIT IPO’d on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE) under the ticker “PBIT.” According to Hamlin, they plan to use the additional capital to hire more employees, build awareness and enhance their solution to bring their point of sales systems to more businesses across the United States and Canada.

Why is it called POSaBIT?

Hamlin and Baugher actually came up with quite a few names, like CreditBuds, PayDope, and 420Bit, before they landed on POSaBIT. Though all of these possible monikers were catchy, they decided on POSaBIT because it better suggested the positioning of their brand.

They were hoping to develop one of the most innovative point of sale software companies in the business by capitalizing on the rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.  

So, POS = point of sale and Bit = Bitcoin The name is pronounced: pause a bit, and it has a second connotation that some less experienced cannabis users might not quickly connect the dots on.

That is, you breathe in, take the smoke down, and pause a bit. This second meaning is playful and adds an insider’s know-how to the company’s already impressive ethos.

So, whether or not you’re a fan of the green stuff, there’s no denying that POSaBIT is at the forefront of one of the most lucrative new markets in the country. They’ve carved out their own niche in this field by taking a risk and staying on the cutting-edge of revolutionary developments in the tech and economic world.

With all of that going for them, POSaBIT should definitely be on your radar for one of the fastest rising tech companies in 2019!

Next time you are at a dispensary and the budtender says “we only accept cash,” pause for a bit and ask why they don’t use POSaBIT? Can you think of other company names that have double meanings? Let us know in the comments below!

For transparency, Adam Lang (Founder of Rewind & Capture) is an investor of POSaBIT.

GOLFimals is a brand-new app developed by Kevin Fung that aims to inject even more competition and excitement out on the links. The app is a golf wagering game that uses animals, both digital and magnetic, to either reward or penalize golfers based on how well they’re swinging out on the golf course.

The rules are pretty simple. If at the end of your first hole, you’re the player with the lowest number of strokes, you’re awarded a lion and -1 point to your total GOLFimals score, which is independent of your overall golf score. Then, if you have a bit of trouble on the next hole and whack your ball into a water hazard, you’ll be penalized with an alligator and +1 point. Like golf, the goal is to have the least amount of points at the end of the competition, so a +1 point might hinder your overall GOLFimals score.

Not only will you collect these animals through the app, but you can also purchase a physical set, which magnetically attach to your golf cart’s strut bar to show off your skills or call out your opponent’s weaknesses. The animal collections come in a 4-piece pro animal set, which is stocked with a cobra, eagle, gorilla, and a lion, or the 6-piece classic set, with a donkey, deer, camel, alligator, and dog. You can purchase all 10 animals for only $39.95 through the GOLFimals’ website or on Amazon.

The game is designed for 2 to 6 players, and at the end of your match, each player tallies up their GOLFimals points, and as mentioned, the golfer with the least amount of points wins. The app will help you keep track of your score and your animals, so the process of finding out who the GOLFimals champion is a cinch.

Check out this video if you want some more info on how GOLFimals works:

Why is it called GOLFimals?

The practical reason why GOLFimals chose the brand name stems from the company’s desire to secure a .com and have a unique domain.

“We felt a name that best portrayed our game at its core would best resonate with active users and potential customers and make it easiest to share. The 3 most prominent words in our eyes were: Animal, Golf, and Game.”

– Kevin Fung, Founder of GOLFimals

The team got together to brainstorm on how they could include variations of the three words in their brand name while also making sure the .com was available. Some of the variations they came up with for “animal” were “zoo,” “mammal,” “beast,” “creature,” and “brute.” For “game” they landed on “match,” “contest,” “tournament,” and “trophy.” Then they decided that because “golf” was the most prominent aspect of their game, they should keep it intact in the brand name.

The team tried out a few of the variations they’d brainstormed, but nothing really clicked until Fung, in a stroke of inspiration (pardon the pun), mashed “golf” and “animals” together. The new brand name was unique, memorable, and represented the most important aspects of the company’s vision. It was an overwhelming office-success right from the start. As Fung, himself, put it: “Once I put ‘golf’ and ‘imals’ together, and verified that the URL was available, I purchased it immediately.”

The lesson here is that some brand names take months to develop and others come out of nowhere, as if they were sitting around waiting for an industrious innovator to pluck them right out of the air. Here at Rewind & Capture, we think that whenever you have these potentially career-changing insights, it’s always a good idea to go with your inspiration. The latter is exactly what happened with GOLFimals, and the new tech company couldn’t be more delighted with their catchy moniker.

So, whether you’re a life-long golfer, or just looking to spice up your weekend game, GOLFimals is a fun, creative, and inexpensive way to have a blast while working on your swing.

Thanks for swinging by, can you think of any other companies who adopted a similar naming strategy ? Let us know in the comments below!