tomazstolfa

I'm the co-founder of Layer.

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Parse was acquired by Facebook and unfortunately did not make the cut despite being a great asset for developers. One of the reasons is Facebook's shift in focus, but I'm sure there are others. I love Parse and I'm a big fan of Ilya and the team.

Layer is independent, backed by strong investors, and focusing on growing revenue. The product, unlike Parse, is very vertically specialized on something very hard to do well in house. Layer is providing value that customers recognize and are willing to pay for. Unlike Parse, Layer powers messaging in both new and established products with large user bases like Hinge, Trunk Club (Nordstrom), and many others.

Happy to answer any questions - [email protected]

Did you invest in Stripe (or start a similar company)?

It obviously was a difficult bet - young founders, powerful incumbents - plenty of risk and unknowns.

That said, I believe a good seed investor will spend a lot of time with the founders and the team before pulling the trigger. You'd be surprised at how few investors actually do that.

I think they shouldn't. Simplicity is the key of Povio and they are doing an amazing job at keeping it minimal ;)

been using this since the start and the evolution of the product is just amazing. The team is doing a wonderful job at simplifying everything around a very good core experience.

I hardly open Instagram these days and don't use Snapchat, but have been using Povio 5+ times/day over the last year.