Keeping It Local Austin Startup Raises $3 Million From Texas Angel Investors

LOCALEUR, AN AUSTIN-BASED STARTUP, IS A 4-YEAR old app that lets locals find and share the best places to eat, drink, and play. Joah Spearman, Localeur’s co-founder and CEO, recently spoke with BLACK ENTERPRISE about how he got his company funded.

- Sequoia Blodgett & Samara Lynn

Tell us about Localeur.

Localeur is a community of locals who recommend their favorite local places to help travelers experience local instead of going where only tourists go. It started out four years ago—only in Austin, Texas—with about 15 of my friends sharing places they go in Austin, and today we span nearly 60 cities in the U.S. and around the world including London, Sydney, and Toronto.

What is your entrepreneurial background?

I used to own a local business in Austin, a sneaker boutique. Over 60% of my business was people visiting Austin. An app like Localeur would have helped my business; you go on Yelp and typically you will see Footlocker, these chain [stores].

How did you first fund Localeur?

When we started, we launched at SXSW in 2013 and unlike a lot of startups we didn’t have Silicon Valley connections and money. So the day we launched, March 1, 2013, we only had 17 days of money left in the bank.