Interview by Lauren Keyson
We met up with Jonathan Gottfried at NY Tech Meetup, to find out what he has been up to since Lemonade Stand, his lauded mobile simplified version of Craig’s List, started and ended in 2011.
LK: What happened?
JG: We created it initially on the Startup Bus, which was a three-day hack-a-thon. We had an eight-person team, which was pretty large for a hack-a-thon, and after the event, we went back to our normal lives, and it fizzled out. However, we were planning on working on it as a side project. But the owners of Lemonade.com threatened us with a lawsuit because they own the trademark on the word “Lemonade.” Rather than go to court over a hack-a-thon project, we shut it down.
So currently I’m evaluating a project that would be a metrics and analytics platform for field marketing. For example, there are tons of companies that sponsor NY Tech Meetups and other similar events, and they have no way they can track the value of the events they are getting out of those events. So we’re working on creating a more quantitative way to see a return on investment from event sponsorships.
LK: How do you come up with your ideas?
JG: I don’t know – but generally they come from problems I’ve noticed or little things that bug me. I say, oh that would be a good app or a good startup.
