Foursquare’s first decade, from viral hit to real business and beyond
Foursquare cofounder and executive chairman Dennis Crowley on how a SXSW phenom figured out how to matter without scaling up to a billion users; why he loves New York; and what’s next.
On March 11, 2009, an iPhone app called Foursquare formally debuted at the SXSW conference in Austin. It let you explore a city by “checking in” to restaurants, bars, and other physical locations, competing with your friends to rack up badges and “mayorships.” The app was a phenomenon at the show—much as Twitter had been a couple of years earlier—and soon became a much-imitated App Store hit.