What
The social, location-based app aiming to turn a fast-growing community into a revenue-generating business.
Disrupting
Advertising, retail, search markets.
Vital Stats
Source: Foursquare
- Over 30 million users worldwide
- Over 3 billion check-ins, with millions more every day
- Over a million businesses using the Merchant Platform
- Foursquare "mayors" are given special deals by merchants
- In true Foursquare location-oriented form, founders note that they built the Foursquare prototype in two downtown NYC cafes: Cafe OST and Think Coffee
- Clients include Starbucks, HIlton, Starwood Hotels, Best Buy, American Express, H&M, and eight of the top 10 U.S. quick service restaurant chains and eight of the top 10 U.S. retailers.
Headquarters: San Francisco
CEO: Dennis Crowley
Year Founded: 2009
Number of Employees: 150
Funding: $112 million
Key Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, the Silver Lake Waterman Fund, Spark Capital, SV Angel, and Union Square Ventures
On Disruption
"Disruption comes from solving problems in unconventional ways and forcing people to re-imagine the world we live in . At Foursquare, we’re constantly thinking about re-inventing the ways we use technology to interact with the real world, often finding solutions that weren't possible even a few months ago."
