From 0 to 1M users in a year (case study)

Foursquare managed to achieve 1 million users in just a year.

How did they do it?

1. They launched a simple app in 2009: you could share your geolocation with your friends and become the mayor of a place you visited more often than others.

2. In order to get their first users on board, they used chalk and two rubber balls: 🙂

2.1. They visited the popular SXSW conference (without spending money on a booth like other startups).

2.2. Instead, they set up an actual game of foursquare: draw four squares on the ground using chalk and played with 2 rubber balls.

From 0 to 1M users in a year case study

2.3. They played all day long, and there was always a waiting line. They were handing out t-shirts, buttons, and stickers. Anytime someone didn’t know what Foursquare was, they helped them find it on their phone, run, and use it.

2.4. The game was a big hit and The New York Times wrote about Foursquare because of the game, CNN included it in a segment about the festival because of the game, and MSNBC had a feature article about Foursquare because of the game, Ashton Kutcher tweeted to his 4.6 million followers about the game.

3. Then Foursquare made it seamless to Tweet check-ins and accomplishments (I’m a mayor of this place). This flooded Twitter with check-ins, sparking the virality.

4. Then they applied the same viral trick to Facebook, flooding it with check-ins and accomplishments.

5. In just a year they had 1 million users. Yahoo!, Facebook, and Microsoft were vying to acquire Foursquare for a rumored
$100-150 million.