Hot Potato
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
Hot Potato was a Brooklyn, New York social-activity and check-in startup founded in 2009. It let users check in to events and activities — anything they were doing, not just static locations — differentiating itself from other location services. It launched at the TechCrunch Realtime CrunchUp event in November 2009 and raised a $1.42 million Series A from early-stage firms and angel investors including RRE Ventures, Dave Morin and the Kushner brothers.
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
- Launched
Hot Potato launched at the Realtime CrunchUp event in November 2009 as a social check-in service for events and activities, and raised a $1.42 million Series A.
- Acquired by Facebook
Facebook acquired Hot Potato in August 2010 for about $10 million in cash, in an acqui-hire move alongside the launch of Facebook Places; the service shut down its operations within a month and deleted user data.
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.