Firespotter Labs, an incubator backed by Google’s corporate venturing unit, has seated the one millionth diner using its NoshList, an app for iPad launched last year that notifies diners via text messaging that their tables are ready.
Google Ventures invested $3m last year in Firespotter, an incubator which develops its own ideas and services, which was set up by some of Google’s former engineers.
Craig Walker set up Firespotter Labs after selling GrandCentral to Google (it became Google Voice) and becoming an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Ventures in September. Walker has teamed with ex-Googlers Brian Peterson and John Rector as well as Alex Cornell but said in his blog that Firespotter would develop its team’s ideas rather than third parties’.
He said: "We’re already working on too many ideas to effectively develop today (more engineers please!). As such, we’re not an incubator in the sense that we would develop, fund or build other people’s ideas or projects."
Wesley Chan, a partner at Google Ventures, has joined Firespotter’s board.