Yelp
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Yelp is a crowd-sourced local-business review platform founded in 2004 by former PayPal engineers Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons at Max Levchin's MRL Ventures incubator (with $1M in initial funding). It began as an email-based referral service and was redesigned around open, searchable reviews in 2005. Yelp went public on the NYSE in March 2012 and remains an active public company.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons started Yelp at the MRL Ventures incubator with $1M from Max Levchin.
- Pivot to reviews
Redesigned the site around open, searchable user reviews — the product that drove its growth.
- IPO
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange at $15 per share after turning down takeover approaches from Google and Yahoo.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.