Six months after SocialRadar bought D.C.-based location tech startup Gridskippr, the three-person Gridskippr team has left to launch an independent startup called Parkour Method.
SocialRadar acquired Gridskippr back in November after a long partnership, bringing both the team and its technology on board. The Gridskippr team started thinking about going independent as soon as they had helped SocialRadar integrate the location technology into their SDK, said Yonis Benitez, formerly CEO at GridSkippr and now CEO of Parkour Method.
The three team members asked to leave SocialRadar around the same time as several other employees, although they are the first to launch their own company since.
Parkour Method has released what it termed the next generation of Gridskippr location tech. In the two weeks since leaving SocialRadar, Parkour has closed its first funding round and has signed its first paying customers in the retail space.
"It was a totally amicable parting," said Phillip Zakas, who is now CTO at Parkour. "We accomplished what we wanted to do at SocialRadar. We are going back to our fundamental roots to serve developers with new ways to use location data now using context."
Using location data to improve apps built by other companies is what the team brought to SocialRadar, which launched a software developers kit using it at the same time the company was acquired.
Parkour is currently working on the beta of its own SDK right now, with plans to release it in July. At first glance, the technology sounds very similar, but the Parkour team said that there are important differences.
"SocialRadar caters to a different market but there may be some overlap," Benitez said. "It's up to developers what they choose to use."
"It's more about user activity at that moment," said Parkour COO Emily Wrobel. "Are they indoors or outdoors, on a bike or driving or walking."
As for the name, Parkour doesn't exactly evoke ideas of technology as it is basically a way of using a city as a jungle gym. But that's a deliberate comparison.
"It brings a feeling of freedom from having to build their own location tech. They can have the tools available from us," Wrobel said.
