First company sold to Google, purchase offer rejected by Mark Zuckerberg, successor search together with Ben Horowitz: a look behind the story of Dennis Crowley (LivingCities, Street FC & Foursquare)

Unicorn Bakery - For Startup Founders

Dennis Crowley founded Foursquare and is one of the most blatant insiders of the last 20 years. Originally known as a consumer product, the company now does more than $100M in revenue with B2B licensing. Dennis sold his first company to Google and dubbed it a failure. That's why he turned down Mark Zuckerberg's offer to buy the second company.

After pivoting the business model to B2B, Dennis knew he didn't want to be CEO anymore. He picked his successor in Ben Horowitz of a16z.

After Foursquare, not planning to start up again. Together with two outstanding co-founders, he is now responsible for the product of Living Cities, with which they want to create the interface between the real and virtual world...

A very open and honest conversation about Imposter Syndrome, Challenges and at the same time a lot of experience from Dennis Crowley.

ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery

What you learn:

As a startup, can I gear up for virality?

As a successful CEO, how do you find a successor who will run the company well and decouple yourself more from the company?

Why is the inner child important in making serious business decisions? Why should you never take yourself too seriously?

What moves a founder to stick to his idea even though the entire environment rejects it?

How does Dennis deal with impostor syndrome (spoiler: he has it every day)?

(00:01:51) What were the most difficult decisions you had to make as a person and as a CEO/Founder?

(00:05:47) Growth issue: where is the sweet spot between being prepared for growth and being overwhelmed?

(00:08:55) How do you approach product building and what role does a good reputation play - does that build pressure?

(00:13:45) In development and product development, where is the best balance between data-driven decisions and gut decisions?

(00:19:16) Can you explain the pivot from Foursquare?

(00:24:32) How did you find a suitable successor for your CEO position and what was the process like?

(00:28:58) What convinced you to start a company again, even though a few years ago you said you didn't want to? What does Living Cities do?

(00:32:56) What do experiences mean to you?

(00:36:57) Why did you stick with your business idea even though you were initially rejected by everyone around you?

(00:40:41) What are your hypotheses about future experiences of people, related to Living Cities?

(00:47:36) How important is it to not lose or consult your inner child when making business decisions and product building?

(00:51:33) What people and mentors have inspired and helped you on your startup journey?

Dennis Crowley

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpstyles/

Foursquare: https://foursquare.com/

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