Foursquare is “growing like a weed,” co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. So fast, in fact, that they’ve had to expand their office space. Foursquare will soon take over the upstairs floor of the office they’re currently reside at in New York City. That’s great — Foursquare undoubtedly needs more room as they’re now over 20 employees. The question I have is, how on Earth are they paying for it?
The answer, of course, is likely that they’ve either gotten or are about to get more funding. A couple weeks ago we heard that Andreessen Horowitz was the big winner in the race to put more money into the location-based service. With all these new employees coming on board, and the new office space, Foursquare simply has to have more money coming in, as they only raised a $1.35 million small round (back in September of last year) so far.
Foursquare does have a number of deals with big brands, some of which bring in some revenue. But Foursquare is not yet profitable, from what we’ve heard.
In recent months, both Yahoo and Facebook have looked closely at the company for a possible acquisition, based on what we’ve heard. Microsoft had been sniffing around as well. But ultimately, it looks like it will be more funding for the company as they charge forward. The company is growing quickly now, gaining almost 100,000 new users a week.
I’ve asked Crowley if they’re paying for this new space with some free badges. No response yet.
Update from Crowley: “ha. yes. we also send our engineers out at lunch to sell M&Ms on the subway.“
Aha!
Here are some pictures Crowley shared of the new space (which isn’t done yet):
[photos: flickr/dpstyles]
Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
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