VC and Startup on location-based gaming
Tweeter @tristanwalker and VC @jeffclavier speak at Stanford today.
@tristanwalker (right), 2nd year GSB student, discussed his work at foursquare—location based mobile social gaming app winning over Pepsi, Bravo, and loads of brand marketers and content providers. He spent last summer at Twitter writing up their business guide and picked up 315K Twitter followers since then.
@jeffclavier (left) sold his first company to Reuters and became a Bay Area VC for early stage investments (e.g. Bit.ly). Business Week named him one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web.
My personal takeaways:
- Successful apps will have their knock-offs
- VCs want to invest in proven models, often with a twist on the original idea.
- You can run a successful company not knowing exactly what it is
- Still not sure how to define foursquare:
- Location-aware social gaming? Planned serendipity? Localized happiness?
- Investors will say “no” to 95% of entrepreneurs
- But they’ll see the future through their eyes
PS: You can find me on foursquare via Facebook. I look forward to being the Mayor of Tandori Oven.
[by Ian Tien cross posted to WorkPlayLove.com and PowerOfSocialTech.com]
