Meetup

Meetup was founded in June 2002[5][6] by Scott Heiferman and five co-founders.[7][8] The idea for Meetup came from Heiferman meeting his neighbors in New York City for the first time after the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers.[9][10] Heiferman was also influenced by the book Bowling Alone,[11] which is about the deterioration of community in American culture.[12] Some initial funding for the venture was raised from friends and family, which was followed by a funding round with angel investors.[13]

The early version of Meetup generated revenues by charging a fee to venues in exchange for bringing Meetup users to their business.[14] Once enough users added themselves to a group, Meetup would send the group members an email, asking them to vote on one of three sponsoring venues for the group to meet at.[14][15] Within a few months of Meetup launching, 56,000 users had joined the site.[6][11]

Meetup was originally intended to focus on hobbies and interests,[5] but it was popularized by Presidential hopeful Howard Dean.[16] Meetup developed paid services to help the Dean campaign to meet with Meetup users.[11] Dean also publicized Meetup groups of supporters in his speeches and on his website.[17] At the peak of Dean's campaign, 143,000 users had joined Meetup groups for Dean supporters.[5] Afterwards, Meetup became a routine part of internet campaigning for American politicians.[11][18]

Meetup started charging a fee to group organizers in early 2005.[19] Initially, changes to the website had to be approved by two committees.[20] In 2009, Meetup started running hackathons, where employees came up with new features that would be implemented if their coworkers supported it.[20] The website was redesigned in 2013.[21] Meetup had 8 million users in 2010,[22] and 25.5 million users by 2013.[23]

In 2013, Meetup acquired a struggling email collaboration company called Dispatch.[24][25] In 2014, a hacker shut down Meetup with a DDoS attack, the hacker claimed to be funded by a competitor.[26] In 2017, Meetup created 1,000 #resist Meetup groups in response to the Trump travel ban.[27] This caused some Trump supporters to leave the site[27] or call for a boycott.[28] Meetup also partnered with a labor group to organize anti-Trump protests.[27]

Meetup was acquired by WeWork in late 2017 for about $156 million.[29] WeWork spaces are predominantly used during work hours, while Meetup events take place mostly on evenings and weekends.[30] Some former employees said there was a 10% layoff after the acquisition.[31]

In 2018, Scott Heiferman stepped down as CEO and former Investopedia CEO David Siegel took his place. Heiferman became Chairman of the company.[32][33]

In October 2019, Meetup began to test a different pricing model in two US states,[34] reducing the costs that must be paid by organizers of $23.99/month or $98.94/six months, but requiring users to pay a $2 fee in order to RSVP for events leaving several users angry.[35]

In March 2020, WeWork sold Meetup to AlleyCorp and other investors, reportedly at a substantial loss[36]. The deal added AlleyCorp's Kevin P. Ryan onto Meetup's board.[4]