foursquare Reviews

I have been working at foursquare full-time for less than a year

Pros – - Interesting problems to think about. It's still easy to move fast and launch things.
- We are well positioned to bring innovation and invent things.
- Engineering management is very technical and hands-on.
- Freedom to work on things that you find interesting. Coming up with your own ideas is encouraged.
- Top engineering talent. I can hardly imagine a startup with people who are that good. A lot of ex-Google engineers, but still a no-ego and no-layers culture. Most hires have >5 years of experience, some more, some less.
- Very social and friendly place. Regular outings for drinks (only if you want to, no problem if you don't).
- Transparency. I don't think there's anything hidden from anyone. Dennis and everyone else is very open to answering any question that you have and asking questions is actively encouraged.
- Meetings are kept to a minimum if you're an engineer.
- Good work-life balance for a startup.
- Great opportunities for smart people to learn a lot at a fast pace.

Cons – - Team is split between SF and New York, so it's easy to miss on conversations.
- It's a startup, pay is less than a big company. Still quite reasonable though.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep the values of the company that it was started with.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at foursquare

Pros – + Very talented team, engineers and non-engineers alike.
+ Fast-moving: deploys 4x a week, frequent releases of new features, emphasis on launching.
+ Really interesting data.
+ Great social environment: employees genuinely like one another, socialize frequently.
+ Regular travel to NY office.
+ Lots of goodwill from users.
+ Big monetization opportunity.
+ Good chance of being the next major, independent consumer tech company (after Google, FB, Twitter).

Cons – + Perks are decent but not as good as at other tech companies.
+ LBS space still being invented, so no succinct mission statement yet. Also means that user growth has to be hard-earned through constant improvement. Can't just sit back and count signups. On the plus side- users we work hard to earn are users we're more likely to keep.
+ Not as trendy as other startups. The backlash and snark have already begun.

Advice to Senior Management – + Keep the high hiring bar on both ICs and management, don't succumb to the temptation to grow quickly at the expense of quality.
+Keep articulating the vision, internally and externally, as value proposition of LBS space is not always clear outside the tech industry early-adopter crowd.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at foursquare

Pros – - extremely talented team, top-tier engineers. 40% from Google with great reputations, all are academically trained computer science graduates
- true engineering and product culture, 60-70% of the 100 employees can code
- constant launches
- cutting edge stack (scala, mongo db, aws, elastic mapreduce) and engineering leadership that believes in using whatever is the best tool for the job
- clear market opportunity (local advertising) with a unique value proposition for businesses
- true innovation in the mobile space
- most fascinating data set (using billions of check-ins to make a personalized recommendation engine for places)
- frequent travel (if you want) between new york and san francisco
- best industry connections and exposure

Cons – - perception that the product is simply a 'check-in' game
- misperceptions about engineering structure.
- over emphasis on ceo over talented team (the media's fault, not the company or ceo's though)
- extremely crowded space with lots of "me too" startup companies diluting the brand and concept
- split engineering between san francisco / new york can be awesome, but harder to sync over the time zone difference (otherwise we're in constant communication between campfire, ipad, live portals, etc)

Advice to Senior Management – i'm extremely satisfied with the company management. i feel confident about the product, the vision, and where the larger team is headed, especially compared to friends at competing startups.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend