Trumblog

Following is a liveblog of a conversation between Dennis Crowley, Co-founder of Foursquare, and Wade Roush, Xconomy’s  Chief Correspondent, that took place at the Boston Ad Club on April 5, 2010.  During the discussion they talked about the founding of Foursquare, issues that Foursquare is facing in growth and specifically how they are working with brands and marketing companies.  Crowley talked at length about the background for why Dodgeball was created, the sale to Google and then the dissolving of the Dodgeball team, what were the differences in the market that made Foursquare a bigger success, their philosophy for involving marketers, the difficulty of finding time to collaborate with marketers and how they decide to add features.  Overall it was a very interesting glimpse into a rising social network riding the wave of one of today’s greatest trends.

20:53:13 PM: Dodgeball was broken becuase of SMS, lack of GPS, not enough people.

20:54:43 PM: Game mechanics were added to Foursquare in order to entertain people until community mass was achieved.

20:57:35 PM: Dodgeball was supposed to be a better NYC City Search, locations could be updated in real time. Make cities easier to use

20:59:14 PM: Dots on a map should be opportunities to meet.

21:01:20 PM: Social consequences of geolocation was @dens thesis. Dodgeball was hacked up proof.

21:04:15 PM: Twitter, Facebook and GPS phones made the difference between Dodgeball and Foursquare

21:05:28 PM: Dodgeball was based on the first 10 pages of @dens thesis. Foursquare adds the other 90 pages

21:11:17 PM: Facebook and Twitter taught us to use social media, iPhone taught us to use phones to answer Questions. Primed the pump for Foursquare

21:12:51 PM: The screen you use to check in isn’t important, it’s the information on the next screen @dens

21:14:10 PM: It’s not interesting to say where someone is, but to help someone find something cool based on your location @dens

21:15:49 PM: How do you let someone live better through your brand (via @foursquare) and how do you make it fun?

21:17:19 PM: Making opt in a requirement earns user respect. You have to friend Bravo to earn the Bravo branded badge.

21:19:18 PM: Checkins are mini ads from friends that support local merchants. Foursquare gives merchants Google analytics style stats

21:19:55 PM: Foursquare is not charging for analytics yet. Yet.

21:21:48 PM: Foursquare tipping point out of nerd/ tech ghetto was NYT writing about brand opportunity, media company involvement

21:22:59 PM: If you can get people through 10 days of using Foursquare they will love it. via @dens

21:25:32 PM: Foursquare has 1 biz dev guy who is also a full time MBA student at Stanford.

21:26:21 PM: Foursquare’s next challenge and hire is biz dev.

21:28:15 PM: Foursquare is partnering with Pepsi. Pepsi donates to charity for each person who checks in at events around the country.

21:29:17 PM: Foursquare builds equally for user and vendor 50/50 for time.

21:30:41 PM: Perfect mix of privacy is when you say where you are. @dens

21:31:25 PM: The check in is the poor man’s Tweet. via @dens

21:32:43 PM: Foursquare does not want to get too slutty with badges, but badges are what users want. Via @dens

21:34:31 PM: Fake venues (events, TV shows, hell) are the equivalent to Twitter users creating hash tags and retweets

21:36:56 PM: Tristen is the Foursquare biz dev guy.

21:41:24 PM: Big shift is connecting all the info we put in our phones about where we are, when we do things, who we hang out with