Findery

Findery was a venture-backed software company founded by serial entrepreneur Caterina Fake, who previously co-founded Flickr and Hunch. The platform originated from a personal desire of Fake's to digitally bookmark a physical location and its associated memories without defacing it. Initially launched in February 2012 as a limited beta called Pinwheel, the San Francisco-based company was renamed Findery in July of the same year. By April 2013, the company, consisting of 12 employees, had successfully raised $9.5 million from a combination of angel investors and venture capital firms.

The core of Findery's business was a social platform designed to let users annotate the physical world. It functioned as a crowdsourced travel guide where individuals could leave digital "notes" tied to specific geographic locations. These notes could contain personal stories, local history, hidden gems, or practical travel tips, effectively creating a user-generated layer of information on top of a world map. The service was accessible via its website and mobile applications for iOS, Android, and Windows, targeting a broad audience of travelers, storytellers, and adventure-seekers. The platform aimed to encourage users to explore their surroundings by providing a rich tapestry of human experiences and knowledge connected to real places. The business was classified under Social/Platform Software and operated as a B2C entity.

Despite its novel concept and the backing of a prominent founder, Findery eventually ceased operations. The company officially went out of business, and its website now confirms that it has shut down as of 2021.

Keywords: Caterina Fake, social mapping, geotagging, user-generated content, travel guide, location-based notes, digital annotation, mobile discovery, local stories, travel storytelling, social travel platform, Pinwheel startup, Flickr founder, Hunch founder, venture-backed, augmented reality app, crowdsourced information, place discovery, online community, digital wayfinding