With a sharp eye for new ideas and solutions, Walt has worked on the leading edge of consumer media and technology for over 15 years. On graduating from Emory, he began his career in Hong Kong with Dow Jones, where the transfer of information came to interest him more than trading itself. Settling in San Francisco, he worked for a series of technology start-ups before becoming a general manager of MapQuest (AOL) in 2001.
Then, in 2005, a new opportunity lured Walt back home to Boston, where a small company was connecting location-based software with cell phones to generate commerce for local businesses. He promptly joined Where.com as its CEO, putting his talent for identifying emerging trends, creating corporate strategy, and building successful teams to work in the company’s North End office.
Today, more than four million people readily use the Where.com free app to find places to “eat, drink, and play” anywhere in the United States. Just by specifying the kind of restaurant, nightspot, or museum they are looking for, users can explore the options closest to them – and learn about the latest deals – bringing new customers to local merchants. “It’s a very powerful tool to direct real-time foot traffic into brick-and-mortar stores,” Walt confirms.
Already a self-supporting enterprise, Where.com has also developed an ad network that is used within other online products to reach 50 million customers. To manage the app and the ad network, as well as the 120,000 businesses involved with them, the workforce has expanded from 20 to 140 in the last two years. In April, Where.com was acquired by eBay, another milestone that bodes well for the company’s ability to evolve along with technology and consumer behavior.
“As we’ve grown,” Walt says, “we’ve seen that the mobile device could become a very personalized wallet – one that will store people’s loyalty cards and that they will use to purchase goods in stores.” Thus, buyers will receive special offers and discounts from the places they frequent most when they pay with a tap of their phone instead of the swipe of a plastic card. “It could change the way that people interact with the world around them,” he suggests.
In the meantime, the transition from the desktop to the mobile device is exciting territory for Walt – and challenging, too. “So much of this industry has to do with having an idea and the conviction to pursue it – and endurance because it doesn’t always happen overnight,” he adds. It’s a lot of ups and downs.”
Reminded of the influence of his Middlesex years, he jokes, “I’d like to say that Jim Beaton taught me about endurance on two fronts: on the cross-country team and in English class, where he made me read Bleak House. Now that was endurance!”
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