Scott Heiferman of Meetup on TWiST #160
TWiST #160 with Scott Heiferman of Meetup
0:00-1:30 Thank you to MailChimp for sponsoring TWiST.
1:30-3:00 Demonstration of how you can segment your lists to target your emails using MailChimp.
3:00-3:15 Welcome to Scott Heiferman of Meetup.
3:15-4:15 Tell the audience what Meetup is.
4:15-5:00 So the idea was to get people off the Internet and back into being involved with their communities?
5:00-6:00 So you're at nine years and nine million members?
6:00-7:00 Is that the magic, that you're able to reach this many people?
7:00-8:15 How much of the activity is in the US and how much is abroad?
8:15-9:45 The breakout moment for Meetup was the election in 2008, yes?
9:45-11:15 There is a business model to this, but what is it?
11:15-11:30 Almost 100k people paying $15 a month. That's a lot of revenue.
11:30-13:45 In between companies, you famously went to work for McDonalds. Why? When did you do that and what was the impetus?
13:45-14:45 So you cracked? Was it a breakdown?
14:45-16:30 What did you learn in selling the Dollar Menu?
16:30-18:00 What lessons did you learn from Web 1.0 that you put into meetup?
18:00-20:00 Did you go subscription-based because you were so sick of ads?
20:00-22:15 So a level of focus is obtained when people are paying?
22:15-23:15 You like going long? Taking a long look?
23:15-24:15 Who are your investors and why did you pick them?
24:15-26:30 What was going through your mind at the age of 24 that led you to start an ad agency?
26:30-27:30 Thank you to iStockphoto for sponsoring the show.
27:30-32:00 Demonstration of how easy it is to purchase photos within iStockphoto.
32:00-34:00 You've collected an incredible group of investors. What do you look for?
34:00-36:00 So now you look at board meetings like a time to catch up?
36:00-37:15 So if you let them go on sabbatical you let them go for three months instead of losing them?
37:15-39:00 What Scott would like to see more entrepreneurs do--build something to last.
39:00-40:00 The hours you put in, you'll reap later in your career, don't you think?
40:15-42:30 What has the biggest challenge in running the company been over the past nine years?
42:30-43:45 Are you saying you don't make 500 million friends without making a few enemies?
43:45-44:00 How can TEDx be tight about the rules if they let their members make them up?
44:00-44:45 What's the worst thing that's happened on the platform? Have you ever had to kick people out?
44:45-46:00 Jason tells a tragic chihuahua meetup tale.
46:00-47:00 Scott tells a story about a baby meetup scheduled in the same park as a pit bull meetup--with a happy outcome.
47:30-48:00 Do you have a live map of where people are going?
48:00-49:00 Scott, thank you so much for being on today. Everyone, go to meetup.com and start something.
48:30-49:00 Thank you to our sponsors and Belgrave Trust for hosting us.
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FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Scott: @heif
Meetup: @meetup
Special Thanks to the members of the TWiST List Producer Program!
Executive Producers
Louis-Eric Simard
Benjamin Gifford
Jacek Artymiak
Octavian Mihai
Will Paoletto
Geoffrey Clapp
Eien Hyett
Jeff Hoffer
Kyle Lonzo
Austin Miller
Rashaun Sourles
Robb Kunz
Greg Berry
Sean Lynch
Mary Ann Halford
Jim Joyce
Morgan Howard
Margaret Johns
Kyle M. Brown
Paul Cole
Nick Duncan
Magnus Ingvarsson
Amir Ayalon
Carlos Zaidenweber
Producers
Eli Coler
Ted Inoue
Radek Rybicki
Hunter Owens
Christian Owens
Ben Altieri
Casey Wach
Cam Collins
Ildar Khakimov
Matti Hallanoro
Rodrigo Dauster
Rodrigo Fuentes
Anthony Ortenzi
Daniel de la Cruz
Michael Hofmann
John Meneses
Associate Producers
Brad Pineau
Kat Ganesan
Nicholas Christian
Mau Frontier
Kyle Braatz
Serena Ehrlich
Nathan Hangen
Lauri Hahne
JD
Trudy Baidoo
Ian Gerstel
Julian Hearn
Alex Lotoczko
James Kennedy
Benoit Curdy
Asher Nevins
Mike Kaltschnee
Paul Higgins
Patrick Altman
William Doom
David Lee
Jake Kerber
Sarp Coskun
Giuseppe Taibi
Tyrone Rubin
Keno Vigil
Paul Peters
Supporters
Ryan Hoover
Michael Cranston
Josiah Thomas
João Fernandes
Petrus Theron
Michael Wild
Adrian Grant
Dale Emmons
Kieran McGrady
Tim de Jardine
Alejandro Vasquez
C. Dain Miller
Joshua Opatz
Milan Babuskov
Chris Rowe
Nelson Melo
James Dawson
Toddy Mladenov
Daniel Torres
Chris Macke
Piotr Zuralski
Armand Konan
Brian Vogel
Paul D
Jennifer Sun
Zach Fogelson