A few years ago I met with a guy called Faheem, who wanted to share his idea with myself and a colleague. The idea was great and I wanted to be involved, but the powers that be, at the time, would not commit to it. People overseas say, “you invest in the people not the product” and that’s the perfect way of describing Faheem and his partner’s situation – although, in this case it’s a great product too! Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to get involved, so we shook hands, parted, but stayed in touch.
I was absolutely thrilled when Faheem told me that he’d finally launched his product the other day.. Pashash.
Pashash, the first smartphone app funded by the prestigious Google Umbono incubator, launched on Friday. Following on from apps like Instagram that let people express themselves by share pictures using their mobile phones, Pashash is specifically focused on getting people to share real-world shopping.
“Millions of people are already sharing their coffee or that cool new pair of shoes,” says Faheem Kajee, co-founder of Pashash. “We just want to make sure that those great finds don’t just get lost in all the noise.”
With Pashash, when you see a great buy: you snap a picture, tag its price and location, and share it. Everyone using Pashash can see the best buys around the world or toggle their feed to see only the items available near them.
Pashash, named after the old South African slang for something that is cool, wants to make shopping more expressive and social than ever. It’s now available for download on the App Store.
Well done Faheem!
Great idea…. I’m going to try it….
Chris…. I don’t quite follow this statement:
“Unfortunately, I was allowed to get involved, so we shook hands, parted, but stayed in touch.”
Regards HTT ;)
@HandyTechTipper – Thank you very much for popping in, it’s been a while, how have you been? I will correct the article, it was meant to be wasn’t – I was employed at the time and was not given permission to involve myself more so than just an initial meeting and such.
@Chris, all fine – thanks for asking ;)
Thanks for the clarification
Cheers :)
Great idea, but very frustrating that most local retail outlets have this silly idea that you’re “spying for the Chinese” when taking pictures of anything in-store.
There have been so many instances recently where I’ve drooled over something (this weekend, a leather Trenery bag at Woolies in Cavendish), but as soon as you even hint at taking a pic, a security guard or shop assistant is down your throat with a sarcastic remark or heavy-handed “no”.
I find it amazing that the folks who dream up the policies around these things (they should be smart people at our level, especially if it’s Woolies in question) just don’t get that 1) they can’t “protect” a product from being exposed to the world, and waaay more importantly 2) that “protecting” a product from being exposed to the world is the most ridiculously counter-intuitive concept to start off with. WTF?!
The mind boggles.
I think this app has a lot of potential, judging by your post. BUT it doesn’t even log in. 1 screen viewed and I’m already frustrated. Instagram will just have to do for now.
Thanks Chris for the great article. It has been a long road indeed, and weirdly enough, it feels like getting in the App Store is only the first step. Thanks everyone here too for the support.
@Martin, stores have been a bit of a conundrum for us right now. Going forward they are potentially huge partners, but we still have some work to do to change mindsets. When we speak to individual shop owners about Pashash they are really excited about the potential to have their products marketed through customer recommendations. In our next release, store profiles have expanded and you can see all the items people have posted from an individual store.
@Tim, thanks for downloading our app. I’m sorry that you weren’t able to log in. That sucks. We’re not aware of that bug and would really appreciate it if you could try downloading the app again or email me (faheem@pashash.com) and I will look into it further.
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