Gowalla is a location-based social networking service where users can track friends, check-in to places, and get rewarded for exploring the locations around them. If you’re familiar with Foursquare, then you already pretty much know what Gowalla is all about. The increasingly popular services has surpassed 150,000 users and $8.4 million in venture capitol as of 2010 with no signs of slowing down. For this and more we take a look at entrepreneur Josh Williams in the spotlight this week. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn.
Summary:
Name: Josh Williams
Age: 40+
Location: Austin, Texas
Claim to fame: Gowalla.com (Location-based social networking service.)
Initial cost: NA
How He Did It:
Josh Williams was born and raised in Texas where he attended traditional schooling. Josh didn’t attend a traditional college education path, but rather took more to the unconventional methods of learning and self educating. Josh worked as a Design Director for roughly 9 months in 2000 before leaving to start his own Web UI consulting business, which he ran for roughly 8 years. In 2007, Josh Williams went onto start a company he called Gowalla, which is a location-based social networking service similar to Foursquare. The service has seen huge growth in terms of the number of users and funding from outside investors. As of 2010, Gowalla surpassed 150,000 users and over $8 million in funding.
Lessons Learned:
- Take action! Nothing can ever happen if you don’t take action. Learn by doing.
- Always be willing to explore new paths and be open to new ideas.
- Creating businesses around growing markets (i.e. mobile) is always a good approach.
- Look to others both online and offline when needing additional direction and guidance.
Did you miss last weeks spotlight? Check it out here: The Entrepreneur Spotlight: Paul English.
Be on the lookout for our next entrepreneur spotlight article in this ongoing series. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about the success of this week’s entrepreneur and his entrepreneurship characteristics. Also, please let me know if you have an entrepreneur you would like to see featured here in the weeks to come.
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