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Gowalla

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Gowalla, also known as Alamofire, creates games and game-like experiences for the social web.

Gowalla is a location-based social networking game launched as a public beta in March 2009. Gowalla uses a large catalog of virtual goods to encourage its users to go places and meet people.

Launched in January 2008, Gowalla’s first product, PackRat, is a card collecting game designed for Facebook platform. The product’s primary source of revenue are the sales of it’s limited-edition digital collectibles. Over 350,000 people have played PackRat.

Milestones

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• 
  Gowalla received $105k in Series B funding. (1/28/10)
  Posted 1/30/10 at 4:11pm
• 
  Gowalla received $8.29M in Series B funding. (12/9/09)
  Posted 12/4/09 at 1:56pm
• 
  Gowalla added Jason Calacanis as Investor. (11/1/09)
  Posted 1/7/10 at 11:34am
• 
  Gowalla — Gowalla launches public beta at SXSW (3/13/09)
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:30am
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  Gowalla received $2M in Series A funding. (2/27/08)
  Posted 1/16/09 at 1:02pm
• 
  Gowalla — PackRat launched to public (1/21/08)
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:28am
• 
  Gowalla added Josh Williams as Co-Founder, CEO. (9/07)
  Posted 9/15/08 at 1:07pm
• 
  Gowalla added Scott Raymond as Co-Founder, CTO.
  Posted 4/10/09 at 10:23am
• 
  Gowalla added Jonathan Carroll as Community Manager.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:27am
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  Gowalla added Brian Bailey as Product Designer.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 9:48am
• 
  Gowalla added Keegan Jones as Visual Designer.
  Posted 4/10/09 at 10:23am
• 
  Gowalla added John Marstall as Senior Illustrator.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:27am
• 
  Gowalla added Sandi Weldon as Community Manager.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:27am
• 
  Gowalla added Phillip Bowden as Developer.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:27am
• 
  Gowalla added Adam McManus as Systems Administrator.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:27am
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  Gowalla added John Critz as Senior Developer.
  Posted 8/17/09 at 11:27am

Videos

Screenshots

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Products

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Gowalla

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Website	gowalla.com
Blog	gowalla.com/blog
Stage	Beta
Launch Date	March 13, 2009
Tags	location, lbs, gps, iphone, mobile, social-network, digital-collectibles

Gowalla is a location-based social network that uses game mechanics as a motivator to go places, do things and meet friends.

Players use a GPS-enable smartphone to check in at places of interest, share their location with friends, and leave comments about their travels. They are credited for their efforts with a game-like achievement system that rewards visiting both common and unique locations with a variety of iconic stamps.

Check ins and trips can be shared on the web with Facebook, Twitter or via the Gowalla.com website.

Videos

Above:

GoWalla video, October 2009

PackRat

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Website	apps.facebook.com/packrat
Stage	Live
Launch Date	January 20, 2008
Tags	social-game, virtual-goods

PackRat is a collectible card on Facebook platform. Players steal, trade and collect digital cards with their friends.

Above: Steal with PackRat
Uploaded: 8/17/09

Above: Buy Cards on PackRat
Uploaded: 8/17/09

Traffic Analytics

Compete

Sources

1. Social Gamer AlamoFire Gets $2 Million First Round (paidcontent.org) [edit]
2. TechCrunch, SEC (crunchbase.com) [edit]
3. SEC D/A (sec.gov) [edit]
4. Citation Needed [add]
5. Location Awareness is the New Black (gigaom.com) [edit]