Naveen and I built half of the original foursquare prototype here (pre-SXSW 2009). This was before I was drinking coffee, so I was downing like 5 hot a day here (someone's gotta pay for that wifi!)
Naveen & I built 1/2 of the foursquare prototype here (mostly at the back table near the bathroom). The "mayor" feature in 4SQ came from our buddy Chad making fun of us for camping at that table :)
There's been a bunch of diff bars below this cafe. At @lock's bday party in Jan 2009, downstairs is where @Naveen & I decided we should try to replace dodgeball w/ 4SQ & launch it @ SXSW in March.
Before this place as Essex Ale House, it was called 12" (er, vinyl record) which was ground zero for early days of dodgeball.com. On the day dodgeball was bought by Google we threw a huge party here.
This was a go-to during my grad school days at NYU, Ace Bar was always used as the "example" for dodgeball.com & foursquare use cases. It's still the first place I think of when testing new features.
Hey, I graduated from ITP in 2004! My thesis project, dodgeball.com (sold to Google in 05) was born here. A lot of the "life as a game" ideas in 4SQ came the "Big Games" class Frank Lantz's taught.
This place was ground zero for the blogger/Gawker scene in 2003-2004 and has always been a big hangout for the early dodgeball.com crowd. My brain is hardwired to use "The Magician" as a test search.
Official after-work bar of team foursquare. If both bathrooms do not have foursquare stickers on the doors/mirrors/toilets, someone's getting fired... #justsaying
Back in the dodgeball.com days, this spot is where the very first "friend-of-a-friend" message actually worked back in 2005 ("Hey, Mona is across the street and you know Mona thru Brian - say hi!"). Read more.
When we were still working on foursquare out of my apt, this place was where the very first "pop-up tip" actually worked ("At EV Tavern? Try the fries!") That's when I knew we were onto something good
We threw a massive party here on the eve that Google shut down dodgeball. @harryh made t-shirts (I still have some), me & @arainert DJed & @naveen and I launched foursquare a week later @ SXSW 2009.
Bleecker Bar may be the home to the very first checkin ever (2001?) One of the orignal use cases from the dodgeball.com days: "I want to know when my friends are at the bar watching a baseball game."
Where I met @harryh for the first time (2005). It was a few mos before the dball/Goog deal went thru, but HarryH (a Goog eng) knew the deets & pitched me on wanting to work w/ us once we got to Goog.
Back in October 2004, my buddy Alex & I were here watching a Red Sox/Yankees playoff game when we got the call from Google saying that they wanted to buy Dodgeball.com (the predecessor to Foursquare)
After years of R&D, it was here where 4SQ's "Pilgrim" technology *actually worked* for the very first time (Aug 16, 2013). This was Foursquare's "invented the Flux Capacitor" moment. :)
The building was home to Foursquare's very first offices (2009-2012). We grew from 2 to 100+ people in this space. No trip down memory lane is complete w/out a pint at The Scratcher across the street.
This spot was 4SQ's home for 6 yrs (2012-2018). A lot of great products & technology were built here. To whomever occupies this space in the future, enjoy the great energy Team 4SQ has left behind.
First! :) Behold our new Corporate HQ... the "appropriate amount of fancy" for a biz 9 yrs in the marking that's been inventing the future of location tech every step of the way! Welcome everyone!
