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Last year, Foursquare had revenue of $2 million; this year its revenue has grown fourfold thus far, with a reported progression of $20 million in sales by the end of 2013 (though it’s unclear whether it’s a net or gross estimate).

In April, Foursquare secured $41 million in debt financing and has since been on its way to reinvention — starting with opening up advertising avenues to stream to its 1.4 million user base.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve had to build a lot of stuff just to fight for survival, so we don’t get crushed by a Facebook or Google,” CEO Dennis Crowley told Austin Carr of Fast Company. “We’re now at this point where it’s really hard for us to go away,” Crowley says. “People will say, ‘Oh, you’re not killing it like Google.’ Well, Google’s got 50,000 people. ‘You guys aren’t as profitable as Facebook.’ Yeah, well, they have 4,900 people and have been around for 10 years. We’re [four-and-a-half] years old with 160 people: Give us a chance to grow into what we are.”

Ben Horowitz, an investor in Foursquare, told Fast Company that the company has already exceeded last year’s sales by four times.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates Foursquare is thus on track to take in around $15 million to $20 million in 2013 — and the revenue growth could speed up as the company begins to charge more merchants and roll out more ad products,” according to Fast Company.

Samantha Cortez

Samantha primarily writes for the business section at Wall Street Insanity. She has previously written forBusiness Insider, 20/20 magazine, Marie Claire, the NY Daily News and Parenting magazine. She is also a contributor for ReviewFix.com and OpenForum.com. Samantha admires and loves speaking to startup founders who have taken an idea from conception to execution. Her private obsession is perusing through travel blogs and guidebooks, and she hopes one day to visit all seven continents and write about her experiences.

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