Patrick O'Donnell, founder of Urbanspoon: $50 million sale to Zomato

Startup Exits

English - March 27, 2020 22:10 - 39 minutes - 72.2 MB - ★★★★★ - 12 ratings
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Previous Episode: Ben Rubenstein, founder of Yodle and Opcity: $550 million in exits to Web.com and Realtor.com

Next Episode: Chris Crane, founder of Scout RFP: $540 million sale to Workday

Launched on the day the App Store opened, Urbanspoon was one of the most iconic apps created in the early iPhone era. Having been through a few exits already, Patrick co-founded and helped to grow Urbanspoon to millions of users and a successful acquisition by IAC and Zomato.

On this episode of the Startup Exits Podcast, we chat with Patrick about:

• Early days of Urbanspoon

• Startups & family: work-life balance

• How Urbanspoon was featured in Apple’s commercial

• Innovative UX or gimmick?

• Scaling a product in a paradigm shift

• Acquisition transition: founder vs employee experience

• Patrick’s new company, FreshChalk

• How do you productize personal recommendations?

• The future of word-of-mouth

Patrick is currently taking on Yelp with his new friend recommendation startup, Fresh Chalk.

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