Update 13th July 2021 – At the request of a Powur executive, BehindMLM revisited the company and published an updated Powur review on July 13th, 2021.

This review is preserved as originally published for archive purposes. /end update

 

There is no information on the Powur website indicating who owns or runs the business.

After a brief marketing spiel, visitors to the Powur site have the sole option of clicking on a “continue” button, which redirects them to an “invite code” page.

Powur is a referral-only, private network. Enter your invite code to continue.

A marketing video on this page features Jonathan Budd. On his Facebook profile, Budd cites himself as the “Founder and CEO at Powur PBC”.

jonathan-budd-ceo-founder-powurOn the 10th of September, Budd (right) published the following:

For the last 22 months, I have been “Underground”. I’ve been working on the biggest project I will likely ever get to work on in my life.

This is not a billion dollar play… it’s literally TRILLIONS. I’m not kidding. In just a few days, I’m going to release the details to the world for the first time.

Jonathan Budd first popped up on BehindMLM back in 2011, as a “mentor” for SMS Dailys.

In 2013 Budd co-founded Rippln, best known as one of the most notorious MLM startup failures ever.

Seeking to combine affiliate recruitment with third-party mobile apps, Rippln delivered copious amounts of marketing hype and not much else.

The scheme finally collapsed in early 2014, with Budd going on to launch MyStand a few months later.

MyStand was touted as a task-based social-change opportunity, but doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.

When the opportunity was shuttered is unclear, but today the MyStand website is marked “under construction”.

Read on for a full review of the Powur MLM business opportunity.

The Powur Product Line

Powur is a group of forward thinking, innovative entrepreneurs changing how the world produces and consumes energy.

In conjunction with SolarCity and it’s co-founder, visionary Elon Musk, we are rolling out a technology that will shift billions in wealth to the new #Grid Builders.

For those unfamiliar with SolarCity, they are

an American provider of energy services, headquartered in San Mateo, California.

Among its primary services, the company designs, finances, and installs solar power systems. The company had 9,051 employees as of December 2014. (Wikipedia)

Coverage wise, Powur marketing material states that

SolarCity operates in these states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Washington, covering about 70% of the U.S. population (and constantly expanding).

Putting a price on solar installation by SolarCity isn’t something I can do in a review, suffice to say that each installation is going to vary in cost depending on a number of factors (property, where it is being installed, customer needs etc.).

The Powur Compensation Plan

The Powur compensation plan pays affiliates to generate solar customer leads and ultimately installations of SolarCity panels.

Powur Affiliate Ranks

There are ten affiliate ranks within the Powur compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • Partner – sign up as a Powur affiliate (no MLM commissions)
  • Qualified Partner – generate at least three solar proposals
  • L1 Partner – personally generate at least five solar proposals (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate nine a month
  • L2 Partner – personally generate at least seven solar proposals (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate twenty-five a month
  • L3 Partner – personally generate at least ten solar proposals (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate seventy-five a month
  • Game Changer – personally generate at least five solar contracts (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate seventy-five a month
  • L1 Game Changer – personally generate at least seven solar contracts (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate two hundred a month
  • L2 Game Changer – personally generate at least ten solar contracts (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate five hundred a month
  • L3 Game Changer – personally generate at least twelve solar contracts (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate one thousand a month
  • Hero – personally generate at least fifteen solar contracts (accumulated) and have a downline who collectively generate two thousand a month

Proposal Commission

Solar customer leads in Powur are referred to as “proposals”.

When a Powur affiliate brings their first three proposals to the company, they receive a one-time $75 commission.

An additional $75 commission is paid out when personally recruited affiliates bring their first three proposals to the company too.

Note that proposals generated must be approved as qualified by SolarCity.

Residual Proposal Commissions

Residual commissions in Powur are paid out via a perpetual 1-up plan, tracked through a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

unilevel-commission-structure

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Commissions are paid out at a rate of $100 per every three qualified proposals submitted to SolarCity.

A perpetual 1-up plan sees affiliates “pass up” every second affiliate recruited to their upline (the affiliate who recruited them). Any commissions paid out on proposals generated by these affiliates are passed up.

In turn, every second affiliate recruited by affiliates not passed up are paid out on.

In this manner a Powur affiliate can earn commissions on affiliates their downline passes up down an infinite number of levels.

Residual Proposal Match

A 50% Residual Proposal Match is paid out on Proposal commissions paid to every affiliate passed up.

Eg. You recruit affiliate A. They recruit affiliates B and C.

Affiliate C is passed up to you, with you earning a 50% match on Affiliate C’s own pass-up commissions (as their downline is built).

Solar Contract Commission

For each solar contract a Powur affiliate brings to the company, they receive a $250 commission.

$125 is paid out when the contract is signed and $125 upon installation.

If three or more contracts are signed in a month, Powur affiliates receive an extra $50 bonus commission per contract signed that month.

Residual Solar Contract Commissions

Residual solar contract commissions are paid out via the same unilevel compensation structure used to pay residual Proposal commissions.

Residual solar contract commissions are paid out down six levels of recruitment, with how many levels a Powur affiliate earns on determined by their rank:

  • Qualified Partner – $40 on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
  • L1 Partner – $40 on level 1 and $20 on level 2
  • L2 Partner – $40 on level 1 and $20 on levels 2 and 3
  • L3 Partner – $40 on level 1, $20 on levels 2 to 4 and $10 on level 5
  • Game Changer – $40 on level 1, $20 on levels 2 to 4 and $10 on levels 5 and 6

As with the Solar Contract commissions, half the residual commission is paid upon signing of a contract and half upon installation.

Differential Bonus

The Differential Bonus pays out $100 per signed solar contract.

The bonus is paid out via a unilevel compensations structure, with Game Changer or higher affiliates earning the full $100 bonus.

If the immediate upline of the affiliate who generated the contract is lower than a Game Changer, they are paid their applicable percentage (based on rank), with the remaining balance paid out to higher ranked affiliates found further along the upline.

  • L1 Partner – 20%
  • L2 Partner – 30%
  • L3 Partner – 40%
  • Game Changer – 60%
  • L1 Game Changer – 70%
  • L2 Game Changer – 80%
  • L3 Game Changer – 90%
  • Hero – 100%

This process continues until a Game Changer affiliate is found, at which point they are paid whatever of the $100 Differential Bonus remains.

Eg. You are a L1 Game Changer and one of your level 1 recruited affiliates brokers a SolarCity contract.

You are paid a $70 commission, with $30 of the Differential Bonus remaining.

Your immediate upline is a L2 Game Changer, so they are paid $10 (the difference between 70% and 80%).

$20 remains, which is paid out to the L2 Game Changer affiliates upline because they are at the Hero rank.

If the L2 Game Changer’s upline was a L3 Game Changer, they would have been paid $10 (the difference between 80% and 90%). The system would then continue to search the upline for a Hero to pay the remaining $10 out to.

Note that if an upline is at an equal or lower rank than has already been paid, they are skipped as the system searches upline for a higher-ranked affiliate.

Also note that 50% of the Differential Bonus is paid out upon signing of a contract and the other 50% upon installation.

Rank Achievement Bonus

Upon qualifying at specific Powur affiliate ranks, the following incentives are awarded:

  • Game Changer – $10,000 paid over 12 months
  • L1 Game Changer – $25,000 paid over 18 months
  • L2 Game Changer – $933 a month (no term specified)
  • L3 Game Changer – $100,000 paid over 24 months
  • Hero – $500,000 paid over 36 months

Joining Powur

Affiliate membership with Powur is free.

Conclusion

As per the SolarCity website;

Each time someone you refer installs a SolarCity power system, you’ll get $250.

The simplest way to describe the Powur MLM opportunity is a redistribution of the $250 SolarCity pay them per solar installation.

Of note is that Powur additionally pays per qualified proposal submitted, suggesting they might have access to an additional commission SolarCity don’t offer the general public.

In any event, if you’re not interested in MLM then you’re probably better off financially by signing up with SolarCity yourself.

If you’re interested in leveraging the efforts of others, Powur might warrant a closer look.

On the compensation plan side of things Powur is pretty straight forward.

All commissions are generated via the marketing and sale of SolarCity’s solar services, with installation being the end-goal.

Powur in that sense is a truly marketing-orientated opportunity, with affiliates going out there and acquiring SolarCity customers.

It is possible that an affiliate might use Powur affiliate membership as a marketing tool to sell SolarCity installations. But with nothing paid on direct recruitment however, I’d let that slide.

In any event it’s unlikely, with retail likely prevailing. Not everyone is going to be up to task of marketing solar installations.

On that note I’d strongly encourage prospective Powur affiliates to shop around their area and investigate what the competition’s rates are.

This is inevitably going to come up with any potential customers who are thinking of going solar, so it’d be in your best interests to know what you’re marketing against.

Make sure you take a look at what the competition are offering and for how much, and then compare it to SolarCity’s offering.

If SolarCity are competitive in your area and there are a lot of home-owners living in their properties (I can’t imagine rental landlords bothering with solar just yet), then Powur could be the MLM opportunity for you.

Good luck!

 

Update 13th July 2021 – At the request of a Powur executive, BehindMLM revisited the company and published an updated Powur review on July 13th, 2021.