Jay Parkinson MD+MPH

There are a ton of branding and marketing opportunities and we’re approached by people all the time — sponsored badges, sponsored mayorships, etc.,” Crowley told me. “What [co-founder] Naveen [Selvadurai] and I feel really good about is building two things at once — things that make it easier/more fun for our users explore the city (tips, finding friends, badges) and things that make it easier for venues to reach out to their most loyal/vocal/early-adopter users. For example, it would cost $5 for a restaurant to give my brother a free dessert for being mayor, but with Foursquare linked to Twitter (read word-of-mouth), that $5 could go a long way towards driving people to that venue. The local ad market has long been underserved — and that means one thing to a lot of companies (e.g., finding nearby doctors and dentists and lawyers and lawn care, etc.) but something different to us (cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars).