Scott Heiferman
Co-founder and CEO, Meetup
Discussion
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
Hi, I'm Scott Heiferman, Founder/CEO of Meetup. We're working on a world full of real community -- that's the dream. Happy to chat about the future of community, a future where people are more powerful, and making products and companies that have major positive impact. Ask away!
upvotesharetweet・
Thomas Stöcklein
@tomstocklein · FoundersFundersFuture.com
What was the best meetup you ever attended ?
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@tomstocklein One of my favorites was a Future Meetup -- the month's topic was religion, and everyone in the room had to make a prediction about religion in the future. I love meetups where everyone talks and everyone listens. (aka community)
Mohamed Abbassi
@pixmonkey · Founder @Peps / Peps.io
Hi Scott, thanks for joining PH live chat, what prompted you to create Meetup and how is Meetup solving a big issue ?
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@pixmonkey We're solving the problem of finding the people in your city that you'd like to find -- so you can do what you love. We make the best thing in the world. And it heals things.
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
Hi Scott! What are 5 things you found that the most successful Meetups have that others don't?
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@theo_dimarhos
1. leadership teams. a community that distributes power and responsibility is stronger than one that doesn't.
2. regular meetups, eg. a regular monthly meetup such as "1st tuesday of the month at 7pm"
3. treating members as a true members, not just as audience members; welcome them, give them responsibility (see #1)
4. enough small meetups for people to have an experience of being heard
5. members paying
Ravi Yadav
@raaveyadav · Developer Evangelist
Would Meetup provide tools for organizers at some point to record every meetup? I see a lot of folks asking for recorded sessions.
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@raaveyadav good idea. we've thought about this. hasn't been a priority. (note: >80% of meetups aren't tech meetups -- many categories aren't good for recording, eg. hiking meetups)
Charles Kunene
@charles_kunene · Co-founder & Product Designer @Obaa
Hi Scott, how do you ensure that the meetups users attend are always high quality and keep them coming back and engaged? Additionally, how are meetup organizers evaluated and which metrics are you looking for since they (organizers) are de-facto ambassadors of your company?
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@charles_kunene interesting questions. we can't guarantee quality but you can see which meetup group get the most activity. we want to make that more transparent in the future. we want to make it easy for people to find the meetups that might the most positive impact on their lives. that's the ultimate measure, and we hope to reward and celebrate organizers that are creating communities that have impact on members' lives. lots of product & invention to do on that
Farhan
@frrank_1 · CEO at Avveu
As an organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening?
Rogério Moreira
@rgllm
Is there anything in Meetup you initially thought would be in a way but turned out to be another?
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@rgllm most of what we originally thought people would meetup about -- didn't happen. most of what people do meetup about -- we didn't imagine.
Ben Center
@benhcenter · Investor Relations Associate, Onevest
What are some of the biggest challenges of community building that people don't often talk about? aka, what are some unexpected difficulties? Thank you!
M
Scott Heiferman
@heif · Founder/CEO, Meetup
@benhcenter Many of the best communities are incredibly warm and welcoming and valuable to people who fit but are strict about fit / codes / behavior.