#0107 - The Rebirth of Gowalla with Founder and CEO Josh Williams

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear an interview from SXSW with Josh Williams, the Founder and CEO of Gowalla.   In 2009, Josh and a small team of designers and technologists introduced Gowalla to the world at SXSW, helping inspire millions to "check in" on social media. Gowalla was then purchased by Facebook (now Meta) in 2011 and was shuttered a year later. They are now returning with a renewed vision to make it fun and easy to keep up with friends in the real world.   We also again shine a spotlight on one of the startups from our community and that company is E-liza Dolls, which is a patent-pending doll that teaches young girls how to code. Their mission is to increase diversity and decrease the gender gap in STEM by raising a new generation of women in STEM by introducing young girls to coding and hardware from a young age through toys they want to play with! Go to elizadolls.com to learn more.   We invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: www.est.us/join     Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at: www.est.us   Checkout Startup of the Year at: www.startupofyear.com   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow   Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com   Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube   *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource.     Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year.    The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment.   Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year.  Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals.  Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us