Gowalla co-founder and CEO Josh Williams is heading to the annual SXSW music, technology and arts festival in Austin, Texas this year to do something he’s already done – launch a location-based social networking app. One with the same name and core concept as the original, too. Gowalla made its debut in 2009 in Austin (where it was headquartered at the time) and today, it’s launching publicly there again, with a fresh look and feel, and some fundamental differences, but still hewing to the central belief that people are looking for ways to connect locally, in person, with the help of technology.
I spoke to Williams about the complicated topography of the map he followed to get to here – which includes the original founding; the hype-filled location-based app wars that followed in which Foursquare acted as its primary rival (Dennis Crowley is now among Gowalla’s investors); an acquisition by Facebook in 20...
