It’s no secret that I love Foursquare. I signed up for the service quite early and I use the product every day. I’m also a fan of the founders, the people at the company and how the product is evolving and growing.
And I put my money where my heart is and we invested in the company a few years ago.
Earlier this morning Businessweek wrote about Foursquare – it’s challenges, it’s plans and a new round of funding.
I’m frequently asked what is the exit strategy for many of our portfolio companies. For example after our initial investment in Twitter in 2008, I have been asked in almost every interview since that time about our exit strategy, when it is going public, will they sell out, etc. This was even before the company generated revenue!
And I’m asked that about Foursquare as well. What is their exit strategy. Do you want them to get sold one day or go public? When will they go public?
It’s hard to predict these things and I try to avoid making predictions. My objective is that our firm invests in the best people building valuable important companies. I believe Foursquare is one of those.
The Businessweek story quotes me as saying that they will go public one day. Like I said earlier, it’s hard to predict these things. I’m guessing I actually said something like “I believe they can go public one day” or “I hope they can go public one day” but perhaps I mispoke or the writer misquoted me. Regardless of the error, I’m hoping you all understand my sentiment, hope and outlook.
I’ll bring this post home by linking to the latest Foursquare update as described on their blog here. Give it a try if you haven’t already. And I hope you love it as much as I do.
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Update: I just exchanged emails with the writer at Businessweek. It turns out I did say “I think the company will go public one day”. But the words “I think” was dropped because of space constraints for the print version of the story. It was an honest miscommunication because their editor thought “I think” was redundant. But my intention was to make it clear this wasn’t an explicit promise for the future but more of my desired outcome.