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Company

Foursquare

Filtered to Leadership & Hiring ×
53 articles decelerating

Foursquare cut 105 jobs, about 25% of its workforce, in 2024 as it narrowed its consumer-app focus to Swarm.

Who they are

Foursquare appears in coverage as a location-technology company spanning a consumer check-in product, Swarm, and location-data services used by other apps and platforms. Co-founder Dennis Crowley is central to its earlier identity, while the company’s stories also trace executive succession from David Shim to board member Gary Little.

The recent arc

The latest company-specific coverage is defined by contraction and consolidation. In May 2024, Foursquare laid off 105 employees, reported as roughly a quarter of its workforce, to streamline operations; in October it said it would sunset City Guide on December 15 and concentrate on Swarm, reversing the 2014 two-app split. Recent references to Crowley instead concern his separate Hopscotch Labs venture, suggesting that the newest attention around the founder is no longer necessarily attention around Foursquare itself.

The tension

Coverage repeatedly pits Foursquare’s consumer heritage against the greater strategic weight and scrutiny of location data. Its Pilgrim SDK was built to license location capabilities to app developers, and partnerships put Foursquare data into Twitter’s location-tagged feeds, Reddit location tags, and Snapchat context cards alongside OpenTable and Lyft. But the North Dakota Care19 reporting, which said location data was sent to Foursquare despite stated privacy promises, shows why data distribution can create reputational risk even when the company is not the app’s operator.

Why it matters

If the Swarm-focused reset holds, Foursquare’s significance will rest on whether a narrower consumer product can coexist with, and support, a location-data business embedded in third-party experiences. The earlier Factual all-stock merger, with the companies reporting more than $150 million in combined 2019 revenue, points to the scale sought through data consolidation; the unanswered question is whether streamlining and product retrenchment strengthen that position or reduce its consumer-facing differentiation.

Foursquare has appeared in 53 articles since 2014-12. Coverage peaked in 2020Q2 with 3 articles. Frequently mentioned alongside Twitter, TechCrunch, Dennis Crowley, Snapchat.

Articles
53
mentions
Velocity
-50.0%
growth rate
Acceleration
-1.500
velocity change
Sources
20
publications

Coverage Timeline

2024-11-11
Crazy Stupid Tech 1 related

Q&A with Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley on his startup Hopscotch Labs, which uses AI and headphones to give information as a person walks by a location

Dennis Crowley has built his career at the intersection of emerging technologies and human behavior. X: @om . Forums: Hacker News X: @om : I recently sat down with Dennis Crowley (@dens) to discuss hi...

2024-10-23
TechCrunch 6 related

Foursquare plans to sunset its City Guide app on December 15, 2024 to focus on check-in app Swarm, reversing a 2014 decision to split its services into two apps

“I would be lying if I didn't admit that I have been in a real funk these last few days over this news,” writes Foursquare …

2024-05-24
TechCrunch

Email: Foursquare lays off 105 employees as the company seeks to “streamline” its operations; source: the layoffs represent about 25% of the company's employees

Foursquare, the location-focused outfit that in 2020 merged with Factual, another location-focused outfit … X: @nejsnave and @counternotions X: Jennifer Evans / @nejsnave : Foursquare still has 300 em...

2020-11-07
Wall Street Journal 1 related

Foursquare CEO David Shim is stepping down on January 1 and will be succeeded by Gary Little, a member of the company's board

2020-11-06
Wall Street Journal 1 related

Foursquare CEO David Shim is stepping down on January 1 and will be succeeded by Gary Little, a member of the company's board

The move comes after Mr. Shim helped Foursquare's pivot to becoming a provider of location-data software and services  —  Foursquare Labs Inc. Chief Executive David Shim …

2019-12-24
CNBC 6 related

Mike Bloomberg created a tech company called Hawkfish that's helping his 2020 campaign and employs ex-Facebook CMO Gary Briggs and ex-Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck

- A technology company called Hawkfish, with former executives from Facebook and Foursquare, is helping Bloomberg's 2020 presidential bid.

2019-12-07
Adweek 2 related

Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck is leaving at the end of the year, to be replaced by David Shim, who joined Foursquare as president in June

a company many had written off, that instead is finishing the year with $100 million in revenues! https://twitter.com/... Sally Shin / @sallyshin : More CEO exits...This time at Foursquare. CEO Jeff G...

2016-01-04
Tech Insider

Dennis Crowley on Foursquare's Pilgrim location technology and how the company will focus more on how its data can be used by other appmakers in 2016

Alex Heath / Tech Insider : Tweets: @arainert . Thanks: @stevekovach Tweets: Alex Rainert / @arainert : Good one on @foursquare's unique ability to understand nuanced contextual connections b/t socia...

2015-08-10
VentureBeat

One year after the relaunch: Dennis Crowley on the future of Foursquare, privacy, and Yelp

Nearly a year after Foursquare's relaunch, we caught up with chief executive Dennis Crowley to talk Foursquare's future, its plan to cash in on ad tech, privacy, burrito discovery, and why the six-yea...

2015-06-23
The Next Web 13 related

Swarm brings back Foursquare mayorship, adds a flashy crown badge

you can only hope to contain it! http://thenextweb.com/... Danny Sullivan / @dannysullivan : Mayorships come back to Swarm, just in time for me to think, “Um, what's Swarm versus Foursquare again?” ht...

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Quarterly Coverage

Top Sources

Narrative

TEXXR tracks 51 tech news articles mentioning Foursquare, dating back to December 2014. The biggest stories include Foursquare's COO Jeff Glueck replaces Dennis Crowley as CEO as firm announces USV-led... and Report: the official COVID-19 contact tracing app for North Dakota is sharing location.... Frequently covered alongside Twitter, TechCrunch, Dennis Crowley, Jeff Glueck, and Snapchat.

Key Moments

2025Q4consumer +50pts

Relationships

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