Gowalla founder Josh Williams on the creation of the company | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

The founder discusses the motivation and leap of faith in transitioning from a profitable services business to starting a location-based services startup.

Key Insights

• 🥺 The motivation to start a location-based services company came from a specific moment of observation, leading to the desire to capture and share experiences.
• 😤 Prior experience in building products and games gave the team confidence in their ability to succeed in a speculative venture.
• 🙈 Relocating to a vibrant city like Austin was seen as essential for the success of the company and its potential growth.
• 😮 The impetus for the check-in trend was the rise of location-aware smartphones like the iPhone and Android devices.
• 🖐️ Facebook and Twitter played significant roles in making sharing and checking in ubiquitous and effortless.
• 👨‍💼 The decision to start a company involved taking a leap of faith and leaving behind a profitable services business.
• 😤 Sacrifices were made by the team to relocate, but the unanimous decision indicated the belief in the potential of the location-based services space.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: What was the motivating factor behind starting a location-based services company?

The founder was inspired by a moment of observation and wanted to capture that experience in a product, leading to the decision to start a location-based services company.

Q: How did the founder transition from a profitable services business to a speculative startup venture?

It was a big leap, but the founder had prior experience in building products for themselves and saw potential in the location-based services space, motivating them to take the risk.

Q: Why did the company decide to relocate from Dallas to Austin?

After realizing the potential of their early version of the service at a launch event in Austin, the team unanimously decided that being in a vibrant city like Austin was crucial for the success of their company.

Q: How did the team react to the decision of relocating?

Initially, the founder brought up the idea and set a timeline to make the decision, but within three weeks, everyone realized it was the right move, despite the sacrifices that needed to be made.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The founder had an "aha" moment while observing a leg and decided to capture that moment, leading to the motivation to start a location-based services company.

• The company had prior experience in building products and games, and after launching a successful early version of their service, they decided to relocate from Dallas to Austin.

• The decision to relocate was made relatively quickly, with the majority of the team agreeing that it was the right move.