Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon, is back with a less useful but certainly more interesting service known as Detour. This app gives its users a GPS-assisted walking tour that guides you through a unique tour that bypasses the usual tourist destinations and instead takes you through some of the lesser known, quirkier areas.
Freaky fact: The Post Office by my house used to be the Peoples Temple, where cult leader Jim Jones recruited the followers that would ultimately commit mass suicide with cyanide-laced Kool Aid at the cult’s outpost in Guyana. I discovered this only recently, after a year and a half of living in the neighborhood, thanks to a GPS-assisted walking tour I took with my iPhone. The app that facilitated it, Detour, was created by Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon. A walking tour app may seem like an unlikely follow-up for a guy who made a fortune in group coupons, but Mason sees a connection. “Groupon was trying to create a catalyst for people to get out of the house and experience their city. This is kind of just a continuation of that same desire,” he says.