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Loopt

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Loopt, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryGeosocial networking, location-based services
Founded2005 (2005)
Founders
Defunct2012 (2012)
FateAcquired by Green Dot Corporation
HeadquartersMountain View, California, US
Key people
Sam Altman (CEO)
Websitewww.loopt.com

Loopt, Inc. was an American company based in Mountain View, California, which provided a service for smartphone users to share their location selectively with other people. The service supported all the major mobile operating systems. Loopt's services had more than five million registered users and partnerships with every major U.S. mobile phone carrier. Their applications offered a variety of privacy controls. In addition to its core features, users also had the ability to integrate Loopt with other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.

The company was founded in 2005 and received initial funding from Y Combinator,[2] and completed Series A and B financing led by Sequoia Capital[3] and New Enterprise Associates.[4] The company's board members included TiVo-founder Mike Ramsay and Greg McAdoo of Sequoia Capital.[5] In March 2012 Loopt agreed to be acquired[6] by Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million in cash, with $9.8 million of that to be set aside for employee retention.[7]

History

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Initially called Radiate,[1] Loopt began with funding from Y Combinator. That summer, Stanford sophomores Sam Altman and Nick Sivo worked to build the first prototype of Loopt. They were later joined by Alok Deshpande as well as two of Sam's childhood friends, Rick & Tom Pernikoff.[2]

Loopt received US$5 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates and struck a deal to launch the service on Boost Mobile devices in September 2006. Boost Mobile featured Loopt in a series of commercials that are most known for the "Where you at?" tag line.[8]

In August 2007, Loopt expanded the service to select Sprint phones, and in June 2008, to Verizon. Loopt announced support for most GPS-enabled Blackberries on June 13, 2008.[9] Loopt received US$8.25 million in Series B funding in July 2007.

In February 2008, Loopt and CBS partnered to deliver location based advertising.[10] Seven months later, Loopt released an opt-in feature in Loopt's iPhone application, called Loopt Mix, which uses location-based services to enable iPhone users to find and meet new people nearby.

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2008, Altman presented the Loopt application for the iPhone. Loopt for the iPhone became available to US customers of the Apple iTunes App Store on July 11, 2008.

In the summer of 2008, Loopt sponsored Black20.com's The Middle Show with host Dave Price.

In October 2008, Loopt was sued by Earthcomber for patent infringement.[11] The case was dropped by Earthcomber in March 2009.[12]

In October 2009, Loopt acquired Y Combinator-backed startup GraffitiGeo for an undisclosed sum.[13]

In March 2010, Loopt launched an upgraded version of its iPhone app,[14] incorporating place and event information to its Pulse database, bringing in content from ZVents, Metromix, and SonicLiving. These are added to existing content partnerships with Citysearch, Zagat, and Bing.

In March 2010, Loopt launched a product called Loopt Pulse, exclusively designed for the iPad.[15]

In April 2010, Loopt launched an upgraded version of its BlackBerry app.[16] The upgraded version includes the same places and events upgrade formerly launched in March 2010 for iPhone users.

August 2010 saw Steve Boom taking over as president of the company.

In December 2010, Loopt launched Loopt version 4.0, which featured a completely updated design.

In March 2012, after raising more than $30M in venture capital, Loopt announced it had agreed to be acquired by Green Dot Corporation for US$43.4 million.[6]

SMS invitation issues

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Users of Loopt must register their mobile phone number, full name, and date of birth. Loopt's privacy notice states that users can control who receives geo-location information via privacy settings.

When Loopt released its native iPhone application on July 10, 2008, the software quickly gained notoriety for sending Short Message Service (SMS) invites to users' address books, seemingly without the user's knowledge; additionally, the SMS service failed to respond to the industry required STOP message.[17]

On July 14, 2008, Loopt posted to its blog that the mass invites could be attributed to a confusing user interface, and they were working on an improved invitation flow.[18] Respect for STOP was announced July 15, 2008,[19] and on July 17, 2008, Loopt released an updated version which addressed the issues with the confusing user interface.[20]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Gannes, Liz (2014-03-18). "Y Combinator's New Head Startup Whisperer Sam Altman Is Quite a Talker". Vox.
  2. ^ a b "Loopt: How it all began..." Archived from the original on 2009-01-19.
  3. ^ "Sequoia Capital provides funding to Loopt". Archived from the original on 2007-12-10. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
  4. ^ "New Enterprise Associates provides funding to Loopt". Archived from the original on 2008-09-14.
  5. ^ "Loopt Board of Directors". Archived from the original on 2008-12-20.
  6. ^ a b "Green Dot to Acquire Loopt for $43.4M".
  7. ^ http://allthingsd.com/20120309/green-dot-buys-location-app-loopt-for-43-4m/ "Loopt’s Sam Altman on Why He Sold to Green Dot for $43.4M"
  8. ^ "Boost Loopt Commercial". YouTube. 15 December 2006. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13.
  9. ^ "Loopt now supports Blackberry". Archived from the original on 2009-03-02.
  10. ^ "Loopt and CBS Mobile Partner for GPS Location-Based Ads". Mashable. 6 February 2008.
  11. ^ Earthcomber Cries Patent Infringement Against Loopt
  12. ^ "Earthcomber drops patent lawsuit against TechCrunch, Loopt". 23 March 2009.
  13. ^ "More Details On Loopt's Acquisition of GraffitiGeo". 22 October 2009.
  14. ^ "Looking for something fun to do? Try the new Loopt Pulse". Archived from the original on 2010-03-15.
  15. ^ "The Vision Behind Loopt Pulse". Archived from the original on 2010-04-11.
  16. ^ "Plan your next move on the new Pulse on Loopt for BlackBerry". Archived from the original on 2010-04-18.
  17. ^ "getsatisfaction.com: How can I never receive another Loopt SMS invitation ever?". Archived from the original on 2011-12-29.
  18. ^ "Loopt In: iPhone Invite Confusion".
  19. ^ "Loopt In: Improved iPhone Invites".
  20. ^ "Loopt In: Get new version of Loopt for iPhone now!".[permanent dead link]

References

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