The $50 million sale to Zomato

In our conversation with Patrick, we explore his journey of disrupting education and the early days of building Urbanspoon. He shares insights on balancing the demands of startups with family life and recounts how Urbanspoon was featured in an Apple commercial, sparking discussion on whether its innovative UX was truly groundbreaking or simply a gimmick. Patrick reflects on scaling a product during a paradigm shift and the differences between transitioning from founder to employee after an acquisition. Now, with his new venture, FreshChalk, Patrick is focused on productizing personal recommendations and shaping the future of word-of-mouth. He is currently taking on Yelp with FreshChalk, a friend recommendation startup aimed at reinventing local discovery.

Launched on the day the App Store opened, Urbanspoon was one of the most iconic apps created in the early iPhone era. Having been through a few exits already, Patrick co-founded and helped to grow Urbanspoon to millions of users and a successful acquisition by IAC and Zomato.