There was a lot of action surrounding the first seed round of funding for Foursquare, the location-based social network. From what we’ve heard, there were a number of investors upset that they couldn’t get in on the round, which was relatively small at $1.35 million. But what we didn’t know was everyone who was involved in the round, but more names continue to come out.
While Foursquare eventually disclosed that the main investors were Union Square Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, there were a set of individual angel investors that the company wouldn’t talk about. Last week, it was revealed that one of those investors was Twitter creator Jack Dorsey. Another is Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley’s former partner at his last startup Dodgeball, Alex Rainert. Both of those are confirmed. Ron Conway and Delicious founder Joshua Schachter are believed to have participated as well. And now a fifth has just outed himself: Digg founder Kevin Rose.
Rose revealed his investment during his presentation at FOWA in London. (Which itself is rather interesting, titled “9 Ways To Take Your Site From One To One Million Users” — kind of like the post he did for us, 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers.)
Foursquare is proving to have quite an impressive roster of investors. Meanwhile, the service may or may not have gotten a shout-out in The Simpsons the other day. The key to the scene is that the episode was apparently heavy with social network references, such as Twitter and Facebook. Even though they do appear to be talking about the actual game of four square, it may be a sly reference. Those chattering about it on Twitter seem convinced.
Update: And here’s the official list of angels. As you can see, all the ones we named are on there, with the two others being Chad Stoller and Sergio Salvatore, two men close to the company that have helped out along the way.
[photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid]
I really don’t understand why people are so crazy over Foursquare. The fact that you need to know the address to add a spot and it’s “search” pulls up places that are over 20 miles away (at least it does here in Houston).
Gowalla allows a much easier way to add locations. It uses the GPS signal from your phone to add the location, going to “check-in” actually brings up spots that are close by.
Foursquare does have a better game element to it, but Gowalla just feels better/easier to use to me.
Agreed. How much money is it going to take for them to fix the check-in and spot creation process?
Until foursquare gets my location right more than 50% of the time, I’m using GoWalla.
does kevin know how to code or did he send the work to china…digg is dead. nuff said
lance
You said:
“I really don’t understand why…”
That sums up everything.
all hype = no substance and gimmicky
Well, that’s your opinion. I respect it.
My opinion, however, is that your opinion is BS
I tried both Gowalla and Foursquare and I just don’t understand the hype. To me, BrightKite has the features and user experience I’m looking for. This whole market seems like one big popularity contest, which I guess it is right now, since they all want to be the go-to service.
Yawn.
I think Brightkite is a little different that Gowalla and Foursquare. Brightkite is straight up social network, while Foursquare and Gowalla both have some kind of “game” element, where you get points, pins, etc for checking in at places.
another vote for gowalla, foursquare, imo is not as polished, or as good of an experience as gowalls.
Dudes! What you don’t understand is that gowalla and brightkite, in turn, don’t understand what marketing and is all about. Foursquares is doing at least 1000% better in that respect.
Gowalla for the win… Seriously try it out. It does better what Brightkite, Foursquare and others have tried. http://gowalla.com
I hope Foursquare gets all the money.
money? I’m goin’ rent a backho and uproot that startup. I want to know where the money at. I want the money. Give me the money. I want the money.
http://www.yout...h?v=nda_OSWeyn8
Brightkite was fun but it isn’t as fun as Foursquare. Gowalla is something I just installed based on people referencing it here.
Foursquare has been really fun when traveling. Niche market idea: link up with Delta Sky Club for drink coupons
All that said, I’m based out of RDU and MSO. So, very little value to anything that isn’t going to extend there. :-\
(Jedi Mind trick) Dennis Crowley, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC and Missoula MT is the new city collection you are searching for. (/Jedi Mind trick)
DIGG = DEAD
Yep, it’s definitely on track to becoming the next Pownce.
All this proves is that if you sign up enough pundits to push your product, you’ll get much-needed exposure to kick-start adoption. In the end, this is a pump-n-dump strategy. The VC’s will be the “victims”, yet again.
I was a big fan and an early adopter of Digg.com, but sadly the site has deteriorated into a hybrid 4chan/fark with none of the wit and half of the intelligence. Reddit.com is where its at (for now).
If foursquare dies out will anyone miss it? It adds no real value to anyone and it’s just a gimmick in my opinion.
I tried to use FourSquare but it’s not available in my area yet. I’ll have to check out Gowalla this week sometime. BrightKite is cool seems like they’ll win the space in the long run. BlueGestures looks kinda cool too. I don’t think Digg is dead I guess the new iPhone app will give us a hint of what’s to come.
why bother?
“Oh look, I went to this place. And now I’m the mayor. w00000tt!”
Gay.
Yes, gay. Are you really gay?