SimpleGeo

SimpleGeo operated as a provider of a location-aware infrastructure platform, specifically targeting developers of web and mobile applications. The company was founded in 2009 by Matt Galligan and Joe Stump, both of whom had prior experience with successful startup ventures. Galligan had previously co-founded Socialthing, a social network aggregation service that was acquired by AOL in 2008. Stump was known for his role as the chief architect at the social news website Digg. Their collective experience in scaling web services and social platforms informed SimpleGeo's developer-centric approach.

The firm's primary business was to offer a suite of tools that allowed developers to integrate geospatial features into their applications without the need to build the underlying infrastructure from the ground up. This was a significant value proposition, as it aimed to reduce development time and complexity in the rapidly growing location-based services market. The business model was structured around an API, offering a free tier of up to one million calls per month to encourage adoption, with pricing for higher usage volumes. This freemium approach, combined with the release of a 20-million-place dataset into the public domain, was designed to foster a strong developer community around the platform.

SimpleGeo's core product was a scalable storage engine coupled with a powerful API. This allowed clients to store and manage their own location data and execute complex geospatial queries. The infrastructure was built on proprietary grid technology analogous to Google's BigTable and Amazon's Dynamo, ensuring scalability and redundancy across multiple data centers. The platform served as an intermediary, tackling the challenge of fragmented location data silos by providing a unified access point for developers. The company secured approximately $10.1 million in funding over its lifetime. In November 2010, Jay Adelson, the former CEO of Digg and founder of Equinix, was appointed as CEO, with Galligan transitioning to the role of Chief Strategy Officer. This move signaled a period of rapid growth and ambition for the company. Ultimately, SimpleGeo was acquired by Urban Airship (now Airship) on October 31, 2011, in an all-stock deal valued at an estimated $3.5 million. The acquisition was a strategic move by Urban Airship to create a comprehensive mobile engagement platform, combining their push notification services with SimpleGeo's location technology.

Keywords: SimpleGeo, location-based services, geospatial API, developer platform, Matt Galligan, Joe Stump, Jay Adelson, Urban Airship acquisition, location data infrastructure, GIS, LBS, mobile application development, geospatial queries, data storage engine, socialthing, digg, Airship, location-aware applications