The start up was formerly a music event ticketing peer-to-peer site, but closed down and relaunched after deciding that the core idea was not scalable in the Australian market.

The company has retained its name and online properties, but has an entirely new strategy and revenue model.

Posse CEO Rebekah Campbell told Mumbrella that although the company had undergone a significant shift in direction from the venture originally granted $758,000 in funding from the ministry of innovation, among other funding sources, “A lot of the value of the company is in the learnings.”

Posse is now a social platform that allows users to share their favourite places from all over the world with friends, and gives retailers the opportunity to recognise or reward their best customers.

The platform uses Facebook to connect users, who display their favourite retailers on a virtual street, connecting with friends to construct a town.

The commercial model is based on retailers signing up to view what advocates are saying about them, and also to add offers and vouchers to be redeemed by people who like their offering, and their friends in turn.

The new commercial model was developed through 30 rounds of user testing and focus groups, leading to the insight that the platform is built on.

Campbell told Mumbrella: “People will talk for an hour about places they’re passionate about. People want to be known by their friends for their good taste, so we created a site to appeal to urban dwellers with high discretionary income.”

Posse has received three rounds of angel investment and venture capital funding to date, totalling approximately $4.4m and is intended to break even by March 2013.

The site has a staggered roll-out schedule. It will launch its ambassador program on the 17th of July, with plans to bring celebrity ambassadors on board, with further social media and PR activity to support the public launch.

via Mumbrella