[caption id="" align="alignright" width="224" caption="Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup.com"][/caption]
In November of 2011, Scott Heiferman flew out from New York City to visit with Startup Grind Silicon Valley. From the discussion, plenty of lessons were learned to help any aspiring founder schedule a meetup with success. In this Top 10 on 2sday, we document just a few.
You don't need to be in Silicon Valley to do great things - For years, the San Francisco Bay Area has been the home for innovation, but now places like New York have turned out Tumblr, Etsy, FourSquare, and more. Scott also went on to note people are moving from the Bay Area to New York to work at startups there.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbG--_64wOM&w=640&h=360]
Work on a product that will last - Scott mentioned Meetup should be his last startup, not because he is retiring early on a stack of cash, but because it has so much potential and has become more interesting over time. It isn't just creating something that facilitates retirement. He channeled Mark Zuckerberg and gushed about getting to work on something that is worth doing.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFSRC-5VAkg&w=640&h=360]
Different markets have different styles - If Meetup had been a Silicon Valley company, Scott said it would be cleaner and less messy. Many of Scott's comments spoke to styles of innovation and design in different markets. Despite so many copycats of success, there is not a perfect design style for apps, sites, services, or products.
Building Communities is messy - There is always work needed to find, grow, and develop communities. Scott and the team got together, and worked to figure out how to make it really easy to set up, facilitate, and empower new groups. Getting the groups to coalesce frequently takes a long time. Not just to get momentum, sometimes even to start.
Don't believe the opposition - In 2002, making a community-driven web service was a formula for failure. The tech bubble had burst, but the dream of helping people connect for something other than money or romance was more compelling than listening to the naysayers.
Focus on the Good - By the nature of technology and innovation, every step has the power to do good and the power to be used for bad. So the counsel Scott took is to focus on doing good.
Pivot to make money - At one point, the Meetup service was free to use. In order to make money and increase the quality of the meetup experience, organizers were charged to create a quality filter to improve the overall experience.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOkZNkZTLeY&w=640&h=360]
Get Feedback from the Community - Last week, we reviewed how Jeff Smith drove home this point, but Scott also mentioned the marvelous stories of success the Meetup team discovered and used for inspiration came from the Community. They asked for feedback and listened to the responses. This process no doubt had a lot of noise regarding the above pivot, but the kernel of truth used to chart a new direction came from careful listening.
Human Interaction - The heart of the revolution behind Community and social networks is that people are dissolving as audiences and connecting (or re-connecting) with each other. Meetup specifically sought to do away with audience/presentation styles (which are easily shown online now), in order to facilitate true face-to-face interaction.
Don't be afraid to part ways - If a relationship is not working out in the organization or is not working out as intended, don't be afraid to part ways. Moving on helps people find where they should be and where they can make the best contribution.
Scott had many more anecdotes and insights well worth your time to take in. If you want to see the whole interview, you can watch it here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQI7o3eNx_8&w=640&h=360]
Scott represents many of the great founders making waves in New York these days. If you want to hear their stories and build relationships with fellow New York Entrepreneurs, be sure to attend Startup Grind New York City.