Infillion, an advertising firm, acquired the location-data service Foursquare, once a favored social network, last month for an undisclosed sum. In a recent blog entry, Foursquare’s co-founder and previous CEO Dennis Crowley mentioned that investors did not gain any returns from the transaction.

Crowley pointed to a post by an angel investor, suggesting that neither preferred nor common stock holders realized any value from the agreement, expressing his discontent with the results.

“I was devastated by this conclusion. So many individuals dedicated immense time, effort, passion, and love to create Foursquare – the business, the products, the brand, the culture. If you were involved (or even somewhat associated), you know precisely what I mean. To our approximately 1600 former employees over the past 17 years, I regret that the Foursquare narrative concluded in a manner that implies our collective labor was worth… nothing?” he conveyed in the blog.

Crowley noted that the company experienced growth after shifting its focus to enterprise business and enjoyed several consecutive years with revenues exceeding $100 million. In 2019, the firm secured capital from a private equity firm and, in 2021, appointed the banker who oversaw that raise as CEO. He attributed the final result to that shift, stating that the company’s management was unable to maintain or generate new value.

Foursquare, which had secured more than $411 million in funding based on PitchBook statistics, ultimately closed its app in 2024.

Many individuals responded to Crowley’s post, indicating that Foursquare was instrumental in helping them discover new locations in their cities and also inspired ideas for new applications. Following Foursquare, startups such as Zenly and Jagat, along with Instagram and Snapchat, have ventured into social mapping.