 | |
| Company type | Private, venture-backed |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mobile GPS application development |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
Key people | Walt Doyle, CEO, David Chang COO |
| Website | www |
Where, Inc. was a location-based media company in North America. Their main products were the WHERE consumer application and WHERE Ads, a hyper-local ad network that connected merchants with local audiences. PayPal announced its acquisition of Where, Inc. in 2011 [1] for $135 million. [2]
Where, Inc. was founded in 2004 under the name uLocate Communications, Inc. by partners, Geoff Palmer, Frank Schroth, and Alan Phillips. [3] uLocate spent its early days creating family tracking services as well as building location-based applications for companies such as MapQuest and Helio. In 2007, WHERE launched as a location-based mobile service for consumers. [4]
WHERE provides hyper-local information and user generated content about weather, news, movies, restaurant and business reviews, cheap gas, coupons and offers, traffic, etc. [5] Brands such as Starbucks, Yellow Pages and Zipcar use WHERE to reach local audiences by providing data for various features within WHERE. For example, a Starbucks feature lets users search for and find directions to the Starbucks nearest their current location. [6] In 2010, the company grew to over 50 people, moving into larger facilities in Boston. [7] During this year, it launched the Placebook feature, [8] which Facebook contested due to its last syllable of "book". [9]
The company was venture-backed by Kodiak Venture Partners, Grand Banks Capital and Venrock and based in Boston. Prior to its acquisition by eBay in 2011, several industry experts sat on its board including Craig Forman and Jim Bankoff, CEO of Vox Media.
The consumer site Where.com launched in March 2010. [10] The Website is a local search and recommendation portal that allows people to find local events, read reviews and other business information, and write their own reviews. On Where.com, people can also create their own user accounts or use their current WHERE mobile application account information to build a personal profile.
WHERE Ads is a hyper-local ad network that localizes traditional advertising techniques with improved performance for better results. Ads engage consumers through location relevance, design optimizing, and delivery format flexibility. [11] In May 2012, WHERE Ads became PayPal Media Network (PPMN). [12]
The firm possesses several patents including one for geo-fencing location technology [13] and one for auto-snap location technology.
WHERE is available in North America and can be downloaded for a monthly fee [14] from the Android Market, BlackBerry App World, iOS App Store, and Palm App Catalog. WHERE is also available from the AT&T MEdia Mall, T-Mobile web2go, and VZW V Cast Apps.
Wireless carriers — AT&T, Boost Mobile, Helio, MetroPCS, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Virgin
Mobile smartphone devices — Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, Windows Phone 7 [15]
PayPal acquired Where.com in 2011. At the time, the management consisted of the following:
In the mobile industry, there have been several notable acquisitions of Boston area startups by larger technology companies:
Unlike many other acquisitions in the mobile industry, WHERE continued to grow its Boston-based presence after its acquisition. In January 2012, PayPal President Scott Thompson, local executives Walt Doyle, and David Chang met with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to discuss an expansion of California-based PayPal into Boston. [23] After exploring nearly a dozen potential new office sites in Boston, PayPal selected One International Place as its new location for its Boston headquarters. [24]
In 2013, the eBay Boston office houses several operating entities including PayPal, StubHub, and Start Tank.
The Start Tank is a business incubator hosted by PayPal, which offers free co-working space for early-stage startups.
Start Tank originated in Boston and expanded to Europe and Asia. With 20 startups, representing over 80 people, Start Tank Boston is unique in its size—one of the largest facilities in Massachusetts that has been dedicated to startups by a corporate entity. There are several similar efforts at eBay including Friends of eBay in New York and PayPal Startup Blueprint, and PayPal incubator in Chennai. [25] These are part of a broader growing trend of business incubators and seed accelerators sponsored by corporate entities and technology companies. [26]
The Start Tank was officially unveiled during the PayPal Boston launch event with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Secretary Greg Bialecki in February 2013. [27] The first class of startups consisted of 15 companies based in the Boston area. [28] [29] The second class started in September 2013 and consisted of 22 startups. [30] A number of these startups gained market traction, raised funds of their own, and soon graduated from the program. [31]
The Start Tank gained greater visibility in the Boston area, and by time the third class moved in during March 2014, the program became more selective, accepting only 14 out of 80 applications. [32] It was later named as one of Boston Globe's Game Changers. [33] In summer 2014, the program partnered with The Ad Club to add events such as the Brand-a-thon [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] to engage with the startup ecosystem and expanded globally to London and Chennai. [40] Later that year, the Start Tank program became more competitive, accepting 11% of its applicants in its fourth class. [41] At this time, Start Tank was nominated as a 50 on Fire finalist. [42] In 2016, the program expanded to Singapore. [43]
The Start Tank was founded by PayPal executive David Chang, [44] who was named to Boston Business Journal's annual Power 50 List of influential Bostonians [45] after its creation. In 2015, as part of the corporate separation of PayPal from eBay, approximately one-third of the staff in the PayPal Boston office was eliminated, [46] leaving the future of Start Tank uncertain. [47] It was later revealed that the Boston-based entity was split off and was acquired by MassChallenge. [48] [49] [50]
HubSpot, Inc. is an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006.
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BostInno is a local online news site and community publishing platform covering "the view from inside" innovation in Boston. It was founded in 2008 as a community startup blog by Chase Garbarino, CEO and co-founder of Streetwise Media, and Kevin McCarthy, CTO and co-founder. On December 7, 2009, BostInno was relaunched as a news platform profiling local innovation across verticals including tech, venture capital, city news, food, higher education, and sports.
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Dashed, Inc. was a US restaurant delivery service founded in Boston, Massachusetts by Phil Dumontet in 2009. The company provideed rapid delivery for over 800 restaurants that don't have their own services in Baltimore, Boston, Hoboken, New Haven, Philadelphia, Providence and Washington, DC.
Chris Hulls is an American entrepreneur and business executive, best known for being the founder of the family networking app Life360.
Kevin Henrikson is a San Francisco-based engineer, speaker, and investor. Henrikson has worked for or headed several companies, such as Zimbra, Alpha Brand Media and Acompli.
Fiksu is a provider of mobile marketing technology that helps app and brand marketers reach their target audiences on mobile and CTV. The company's mobile-first platform targets users through social and video networks, real-time bidding (RTB) exchanges, traditional mobile ad networks, and mobile web. Device-level data collections are from the actions mobile app users take, including launches, registrations and purchases.
Yottaa is a web and mobile optimization services company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Its main product is a platform that helps with website conversions, as well as performance and security.
The Hawaii Project is a personalized book discovery engine. The Hawaii Project provides personalized book recommendations and access to current book news. It tracks curated sources of interesting books and articles, uncovering new texts that align with a user's interests, their favorite authors and current events. The Hawaii Project also provides a social reading app called Bookship, shortlisted for the 2017 Bookseller's Startup of the Year. Users of The Hawaii Project can follow authors and particular sources of writing about books to get alerts about relevant information. It is privately funded.
Kounta is an Australian software company founded in 2012. The company's flagship product, Kounta, comprises a cloud based point of sale mobile app.
Crashlytics was a Boston, Massachusetts-based software company founded in May 2011 by entrepreneurs Wayne Chang and Jeff Seibert. Crashlytics helps collecting, analyzing and organizing app crash reports.
Besomebody, Inc. is an American online marketplace for recruiting and vocational training. The company was founded in 2014 in Austin, Texas by Kash Shaikh, a former Procter & Gamble and GoPro employee who had previously used the name for his blog. Besomebody began as Shaikh’s personal blog in 2011.
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Michael Africk is an American singer, songwriter, multi-platinum record producer and software entrepreneur. After signing with Disney's Hollywood Records and releasing a solo album in 1999, he toured with N'Sync and Britney Spears. He collaborated with Mai Kuraki on several singles, including the platinum Never Gonna Give You Up. Africk also collaborated with her on the album Delicious Way which debuted at number one on the Oricon Albums Chart and had the highest first week sales for a debut album in Japanese music history and sixth overall. In 2011, Africk released his second studio album with Japanese record label Northern Music/Being Music. The album was co-produced by Africk and Louis Bell.
