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Havish Gupta
Figuring Out • 3m
Sam Altman's First Startup! So before founding OpenAI and leading Y Combinator, Sam Altman founded Loopt! Loopt was a location-based social media app launched by @sama in 2005. It was very similar to any other social media platform, like it had chats, status, but the core feature was its location-based map (similar to Snapchat). But Why Choose Location? That's because, in 2005-6, mobile service providers started offering cheap GPS plans. Before that, GPS was expensive for some reason. So the idea was nice, and the timing was kinda good. That's why Loopt was funded by Y Combinator in their first batch and later by investors like Sequoia too. And the Best Part? They had partnered with Sprint and later with AT&T and Verizon, which led to Loopt coming pre-installed in mobiles. But Despite All That, Loopt Failed.. That's because of privacy concerns, battery drainage, and the inclusion of the same features in Facebook. Also, it was hard to monetize because of low traffic. Thus, after raising $39 million, it was acquired by Green Dot for $43 million (for its tech patents, not its user base), and then Green Dot shut its service very soon.
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