A VC - Latest Comments in A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Tim Lawton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:39:30 -0000

check out the potential of @foursquare, @amandapeyton you'll respect this...speaking of, I need more #foursquare friends...

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Chris — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:03:47 -0000

Dennis, How would you do one better than Gowalla's auto GPS tracker? Gowalla seems to do a better job at tracking checkin activity. Anyone can get by by Foursquare's " I was there" checkin.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Prime Miami Beach — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:27:37 -0000

AMEN!!! I've made a few business connections with mayorships alone - figured out people I don't know frequent the same places I do. It's fun and it's useful and announcements during conventions.....doesn't get better than that

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:08:28 -0000

that was a very funny post andy. i bet you could get it funded!

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Ed Kohler — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:58:42 -0000

I don't know if it would make the service more valuable or not. With or without it, everyone (and I mean everyone) could use the service in a way that's valuable to them without running into noise issues if they limit their network of friends to their core networks.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:30:38 -0000

Good

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:25:45 -0000

Ed - it seems that you are arguing for a friending model like my kids use on facebook where they friend a lot of people but most go into a group where they don't see most of the updates (I forget what that is called and I don't use it myself)

I'm sure dennis and the team have thought a lot about this issue. Its very important stuff

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

topgold — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:15:44 -0000

There's a coffee shop in the heart of Dublin's (Ireland) that is doing more footfall with regular tweets about barista chat and sandwich offers. Owner knows to tweet 30 minutes before mid-morning, lunchtime and afternoon break times. Gets results.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

topgold — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:13:07 -0000

Tweeting about NYC pizza in Manhattan got me a price deal too.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

NICCAI — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:55:01 -0000

I think the value proposition for Facebook is better understood to the end
user. I don't doubt there is potential for Foursquare, because I think
they've cracked a valuable mobile segment. I'm just not sure whether the
masses can wrap their heads around it right now. "I'm here or I'm doing"
was the question twitter tried to answer, but it isn't what made it
successful - it's an animal far different than its intent. Foursquare needs
to uncover that mystery angle.

One other thing that Facebook has that Foursquare is going to have a hard
time tapping into - your past. Although Facebook lets me see what's new
with my past and present friends, foursquare's relevance is really limited
to your current friends (and probably a subset at best). It's the
difference between fishing with a rod and fishing with a net.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:54:01 -0000

you should have interrupted me

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:47:26 -0000

Great points and I'm certain this is the roadmap

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Rob K — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:36:37 -0000

Dennis (@dens) hooked me up today, so I can try it out.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

saraholoubek — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:31:01 -0000

indeed it was. Possibly more...if we knew who else were in the room.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

Ed Kohler — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:26:54 -0000

Fred, because Twitter allows following without following back, you can grow an infinite number of followers without losing value on the follow side (reading interesting content from people you find most interesting). Foursquare requires reciprocal following, so I have to follow someone back in order to let them follow me. There may be people I'm comfortable with having follow me that I'd like to see if they showed up at a coffee shop or bar I was hanging out at, but I'm not particularly interested in seeing all of their check-ins in my recent check-ins view on my HTC Hero.

This isn't necessarily a problem. It's just a different approach to following. I doubt you'd find foursquare usable if you added everyone who follows you on Twitter. While you may enjoy meeting some of your followers in person, the service would become unusable for connecting with your core real-world network.

But, as I see it, this makes it a service where the average node will be quite smaller than, say, Twitter. Everyone could use it and find it valuable with personal networks of, say, 20 friends compared to 200 on Twitter.

From a venue's perspective, if the service helps people figure out what places are popular among my friends, that's awesome. If it has the ability to show me what's popular among the Foursquare community, that's cool too. The Android app does a bit of this through highlighting nearby favorites and color coding popular check ins (slightly different implementation than the iPhone app).

@Charlie, Facebok has an interesting compromise on the friending scene since you can friend someone while hiding their updates.

@ShanaC, core groups of friends definitely change. I'm 35, so I see a lot of this based around relocations, job responsibilities and new parents. On foursquare, so of this leads to people going dormant on check-ins but living vicariously through the DINKs.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

andyswan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:00:14 -0000

Fred you'll love FIVEsquare: http://andyswan.com/blog/20... Still room in the round :)

If I could have invested in foursquare, I would have for the team alone...what else matters? And yes, I hope they go BIG. And I hope it's useful in cities where you drive to predetermined destinations. Just sayin...there is some value to having your data "cage free" as well.

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:45 -0000

I am sure they will do that. Its a good idea

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:43 -0000

I reblogged the first line of this comment on fredwilson.vc

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:36 -0000

Structured data andy

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:31 -0000

I'm not sure I get your point but I am sure its an important one. I don't let people who I don't know follow me in foursquare but I have over 30k of them following me on twitter

Are you suggesting I should let all of them follow me in foursquare?

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:27 -0000

That happens already in foursquare

Its happened to me a bunch of times

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:15 -0000

Problems signing up on the web?

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:14 -0000

Why do people with no readers keep blogging?

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:14 -0000

And then there is search which is even more interesting with the google and microsoft deals

Re: A Couple Foursquare Anecdotes

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:52:10 -0000

I think the foursquare/twitter integration has a lot of possibilites but at this point can often be spam. I don't use it but would if my updates only went to people who want to see my foursquare updates. The geotagging aspects are also interesting