Today, Foursquare announced David Shim has decided to step down as CEO at the end of the year to return to his entrepreneurial roots. With his departure, Foursquare has appointed Gary Little, who currently serves as Managing Director and Head of Technology at TMT-focused global merchant bank The Raine Group and Foursquare board member, as its incoming CEO.
David will remain CEO for the remainder of the year to ensure a smooth and successful transition between him and Gary, and Gary will assume the CEO role beginning January 1, 2021.
Gary has been a key architect of Foursquare’s evolution over the last several years, as the lead investor behind The Raine Group’s $150M investment last year and a key participant in negotiating both Foursquare’s acquisition of Placed and the merger of Foursquare and Factual. As a Foursquare board member, he has been a major contributor to the company’s strategy and knows the location space deeply. With a deep combination of strategy, marketing and financial experience built over his career, Gary joins Foursquare with a high performance track record of leading teams and companies into multi-million and multi-billion dollar growth.
“Foursquare is poised for incredible growth and impact following a record year. Even in the midst of major economic impact, Foursquare not only survived but thrived, closing in on consecutive profitable quarters,” said David Shim, outgoing CEO of Foursquare. “There is never a perfect time to step down as CEO, but with the momentum that we’ve seen in the last year along with a best-in-industry team in place, I felt the timing was right for me to step down, take a short break, and pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities. Under Gary’s direction, I’m excited to continue watching Foursquare’s growth trajectory in 2021 and beyond as a founder, investor, and friend to the company.”
“The potential of location technology and data is massive, which led to my role as lead investor of Foursquare’s $150 million fundraise round last year and today as an active Foursquare board member,” said Gary Little, incoming CEO of Foursquare.
“With Foursquare in particular, I saw a company and a technology that is becoming the single location currency for any company’s tech or data stack, and the untapped opportunity is tremendous. I’m honored to step into the role as Foursquare CEO and continue to guide Foursquare’s growth as the #1 leader in location.”
About Gary Little
Gary joins Foursquare as its incoming CEO beginning January 2021. Currently, Gary is a Managing Director at Raine. Based in San Francisco, Gary leads the Technology practice with a particular focus on advisory assignments and principal investments in the consumer internet, enterprise software and emerging technology sectors. Prior to joining Raine, Gary helped the founding team establish Buckthorn Partners LLP, a London based private equity firm specializing in growth capital investments and acquisitions in the oil field service sector. Before joining Buckthorn, Gary spent several years in London and New York at UBS, Lazard and Credit Suisse advising Financial Sponsors and their portfolio companies on a range of M&A, capital market and strategic advisory assignments. Prior to his time in finance, Gary spent the first six years of his career as an operator in the internet sector, most recently as a senior member of the Media Group at Yahoo! leading monetization strategy for $1bn+ portfolio of properties. He also serves on the board of directors of Foursquare.
Gary received a B.A. from Seattle University in Finance and Economics and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.
