Eric Friedman, one of Foursquare's first 20 employees and its global sales director, has left the company to join startup incubator Expa
Foursquare confirmed the departure in an emailed statement to Business Insider Thursday.
Friedman will be joining startup studio Expa as its Executive in Residence, acting as a interim COO of sorts across multiple companies in the portfolio.
One of Expa's four senior partners is Naveen Selvadurai, who co-founded Foursquare with Dennis Crowley and left a few years ago. Selvadurai and Friedman have known each other for about seven years, before Foursquare was founded.
"It's a throwback to be doing this all over again with him," Selvadurai told Business Insider during a call on Thursday.
Friedman previously worked at Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm that invested in Foursquare. He joined Foursquare in 2010, one year after it launched, doing business development. He quickly rose through the ranks and built out the company's sales team. His final day at Foursquare was Wednesday.
Friedman was one of the longest-standing employees left at the company. Recently, a number of Foursquare employees have turned over. More than two dozen Foursquare employees have left in the past year, Mashable reported in April. Other notable Foursquare executives Harry Heymann and senior engineering director Kushal Dave also left the company recently.
Foursquare was once a burning-hot New York City startup. It quickly amassed millions of downloads and raised tens of millions of dollars from investors.
Over the past few years, Foursquare's exit potential has seemed shaky. Once downloads stalled, the company made a tough decision to split its application into two standalone experiences. One app, Swarm, now housese all venue check-ins and gamification elements. The remaining Foursquare app houses all venue recommendations.
This past spring rumors swirled that Yahoo would buy Crowley's company for about $600 million, but the report was quickly batted down by Yahoo.
Friedman says he enjoyed his time at Foursquare, but he's excited for the new opportunity and the chance to work with Selvadurai again.
"I was at Foursquare for 5.5 years. I love the company, I love everything we've built," Friedman told Business Insider during a phone call Thursday. "I've known Naveen a really long time, even before Foursquare, and I'm really excited to work with him again and all the companies in New York."
A Foursquare spokesperson wished Friedman the best and stated, "As we continue to expand revenue operations under our CRO, Steven Rosenblatt, we are bringing in very experienced talent to help accelerate our successful growing business."