Gowalla
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Gowalla was an Austin, Texas-based location-based social network founded in 2007 by Josh Williams, Scott Raymond, Alam Kidwai and Jeff Holden. Users checked in at venues, collected virtual items and pins, and grouped check-ins into Trips. The service won the Mobile category at the 2010 South by Southwest Interactive awards, raised about $10.4 million in venture funding, and reached around 600,000 users at its 2011 peak.
02 / Gowalla FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Gowalla lost the check-in wars to Foursquare, which grew to 15 million users while Gowalla stalled at hundreds of thousands. Its monetization efforts, including the Stamp Calendar local ads platform, floundered, and a late pivot to travel guides in version 4.0 came too late. Facebook acquired the company in December 2011 primarily for its engineering talent, without taking user data, and shut the service down in March 2012.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Gowalla was founded in Austin, Texas by Josh Williams, Scott Raymond, Alam Kidwai and Jeff Holden as a location-based social network.
- SXSW award
Gowalla won the Mobile category at the 2010 South by Southwest Interactive awards.
- Pivot and acquisition
Gowalla pivoted to travel guides with version 4.0; in December 2011 Facebook acquired the company for its engineering talent, without user data.
- Shutdown
The Gowalla service was shut down on March 11, 2012.
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
How the factors connect
- 01
Gowalla was founded in Austin, Texas in 2007 and raised about $10.4 million, reaching around 600,000 users by 2011.
- 02
The company lost the check-in race to Foursquare, which grew to 15 million users; monetization efforts floundered.
- 03
In September 2011 Gowalla pivoted to travel guides with version 4.0.
- 04
In December 2011 Facebook acquired Gowalla primarily for its engineering talent, without acquiring user data.
- 05
The Gowalla service was shut down on March 11, 2012.