Foursquare
Image: Flickr user Brett Jordan
No other startup can take more credit for revving the social-local-mobile trend than Foursquare. Its 25 million customers around the globe check in 3 million times daily on average (as of August 2012), unlocking quirky badges and special offers from merchants along the way. The company has also managed to integrate advertising into the experience without pissing off its loyal fans, an accomplishment that has eluded many other Most Innovative All Stars.
A leader within the burgeoning New York City technology startup scene, Foursquare now occupies a vast 56,000-square-foot two-floor office on Broadway where each conference room has an iPad mounted on the wall just to keep track of who is using the space. It's more than enough room for the 85 or so employees that currently work there (with another 65 at offices in San Francisco and London), but company cofounder and CEO Dennis Crowley will have to grow quickly to outpace the bigger and better-funded competitors who are checking in to Foursquare's turf.
“Everyone is trying to kill us,” Crowley told Fast Company in October. “Local, social, mobile, everyone is trying to get there, Facebook, Groupon, Yelp and every new startup. What we’re doing now has to be ten times different, more evolved six months from now. We’re competing with the best companies ever built. And we want to be one of those standouts.”
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