JCU Welcomes Pasquale Longo, CEO of Powahome

Pasquale Longo Powahome

On January 29th Professor and Director of the JCU Center for Career Services Antonella Salvatore welcomed Pasquale Longo, CEO and Co-founder of Powahome to her Made in Italy class. Powahome is an automatic system that allows people to control the lights and window shutters in their homes remotely from their mobile phone. Smart home devices are usually associated with complex systems that require a complete house renovation. Powahome provides a simple solution to this problem. Instead of developing a complex centralized smart-control system, it utilizes home Wi-Fi. Mr. Longo explained, “We are a little brick that connects your smart-devices to things in your house.”

One of the greatest achievements of Powahome is being the first startup in Italy to complete European Union certification in 6 months. It also received an investment from the holding company LVenture Group and was accelerated by LUISS ENLABS, one of the major startup accelerators in Europe.

Powahome’s small team, just eight people, work hard to develop their product in a challenging Italian market. Their current goal is to operate both in B2B2C (Business to Business to Consumer) and SHAAS (Smart Home as a Service) areas. B2B2C is an e-commerce model that connects businesses and consumers to provide a satisfying experience, while SHAAS is service that installs and maintains smart home devices for the consumer.

Longo stressed the importance of failure during the lecture. He motivated the students to face ambitious business environments with courage: “If you don’t fail you don’t learn. And if you don’t learn, you cannot succeed.”

Senior Marketing student Giulia Coppola was very impressed by Powahome. She said: “Italy is always considered ‘old’ compared to other countries in terms of technology; yet, Powahome is the proof that ‘Made in Italy’ plays its part in this sector.”

(Anastasiia Shmatina)