Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

news.crunchbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 114 posts

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#31

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #13
siquick wrote: post #12

Most Meetup events and groups have become a vehicle for salespeople and self-promoters.

So, what is an effective means to try to connect with people for work related stuff? Say, if you freelance and need a water cooler type group?

You get back what you put into meetups. There needs to be one or a few people who are motivated to make them happen and plan interesting events/talks/whatever, or otherwise they just wither. If there is no one to step up.. well.. be the person to step up if it's something you care about.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#32

Post by jasonbarone »

Would love to hear from others who run groups/events on Meetup and/or Eventbrite. I used to love Meetup, but the interest has been dwindling and the pricing for Meetup is very odd. You can't run a multi-city Meetup from a single account, which makes it very difficult to expand your Meetup without greatly increasing your costs. Meetup then came out with https://www.meetup.com/pro in order to help you wrangle your cluster of fragmented accounts all over the world. Between Eventbrite, Facebook Events, and Facebook's direct integration to Eventbrite ticketing, I'm not sure I see the point in using Meetup at all anymore.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#33

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

GuiA wrote: post #15
DoreenMichele wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what is an effective means to try to connect with people for work related stuff? Say, if you freelance and need a water cooler type group?

Prefer smaller, more specific meet ups (eg functional video game programming) over larger, broader ones (eg Python meetup) if you can. Even better, try to start your own meet up for one of your interests! In any reasonably sized city it’s not hard to get 10-20 people to get started.

I find the opposite is true. Really niche meetups are a great way to make sure no one attends except for you and that other person you know.

EDIT: I find it works best if the meetup group topic is really broad. Then you plan specific meetups with narrow topics that indulge your interest. That way you have a very diverse group of attendees to pull from.

Of course, things may vary depending on region. In places like Silicon Valley, maybe it benefits you to have more niche meetup groups.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#34

Post by hellofunk »

m52go wrote: post #4

I haven't followed Meetup in much detail, but it seems like they lost their way. "Meetup" has become a common noun in many circles tech-related and beyond...i.e., most people know about meetup.com and what it does. But despite this ubiquity, what happened? I stopped going to meetups a while ago because most just didn't seem worthwhile. A lot of people I know did the same. If this trend persisted across the service, d…

Your experience is not everyone's experience. Meetups are extremely popular in big cities, I attend a few each month with probably a total 300 attendees among them.

In fact, our local meetup has even had high-profile language contributors and members of the ISO speak.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#35

Post by forgotmypw »

sitkack wrote: post #28

I wish them luck. Meetup itself is stagnant kludge that could have been innovative, other than their stylesheet revamp like 8-10 years ago, Meetup has innovated on zero. I am sure WeWork will use the platform to drive bodies to their physical locations which is a smart move.

I loved Facebook in 2006. I would've kept loving Facebook if they didn't change a single thing about it for the last 11 years. As it stands, with all the innovation they've been doing, I deleted both my social account and my family account, and now only stick around for the event calendars.

What parts of Meetup seem stagnant to you? What other innovation is there left to do? They let you create a meetup and describe it, make it paid or unpaid, allow +1's, post pictures, let people join, and have a message board. What else is missing? It already doesn't degrade to no-JS, but is not yet at the point where there's random shit happening all over the place without me asking. Please don't encourage them to move in that direction.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#36

Post by hellofunk »

puranjay wrote: post #22
badestrand wrote: post #8

I don't really understand the WeWork valuation of $20 billion. I guess they buy all their properties so they greatly profit from the rising property prizes in capitals around their world. I work a lot in coworking spaces and they usually don't seem like a cash cow for the owners. Now WeWork seems to target the B2B and luxury segment of coworking with prices 1,5x-3x of the competitors'. Interesting strategy. So is the…

I gave up on coworking early this month. I've been using a coworking space for nearly 2 years, tested out various spaces and realized that they're just bad for productivity. Far too many people at coworking spaces seem to be there for networking, or are simply not serious enough about work. I moved to a 'business center' (like Regus) which has a much quieter and more professional environment. Couldn't be happier.

I have found that a really good library is typically a much better work environment than these coworking spaces, and at 100% less the cost.

I tried Regus for a couple days, but it felt no different to me than a coworking space. Maybe it was that particular Regus location.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#37

Post by hellofunk »

siquick wrote: post #12

Most Meetup events and groups have become a vehicle for salespeople and self-promoters.

Hm, out of the nearly 100 meetups I have attended in recent years, all were about the content, with an emphasis on the speakers. Nearly zero self-promotion and never once met a salesman.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#38

Post by estreeper »

hammerbrostime wrote: post #23

Having run Meetups for the last ~4 years or so, with my current one being a nice size (~100/month attend), I can tell you the absolute biggest challenge for myself and for others is getting a good affordable/free space to run the events. As WeWork has so much prime real estate, I can easily see the Meetups being a natural feeder to get more people exposed to their spaces, and also to create community events for those…

As far as finding spaces, I've found that local bars/restaurants/coffee shops are usually quite happy to host events during off-times like Monday through Wednesday nights. I always ask nicely, thank them in the event description, during the event, and in an email after, and try to go out of my way to make things easier for them (checking in with estimated attendees a few days before, helping put chairs back in order afterward, etc.) It's nice because these places are inherently social so people feel more comfortable talking, you don't have to worry about food/drink, and it brings attention to community-minded businesses.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#39

Post by bcherny »

forgotmypw wrote: post #35
sitkack wrote: post #28

I wish them luck. Meetup itself is stagnant kludge that could have been innovative, other than their stylesheet revamp like 8-10 years ago, Meetup has innovated on zero. I am sure WeWork will use the platform to drive bodies to their physical locations which is a smart move.

I loved Facebook in 2006. I would've kept loving Facebook if they didn't change a single thing about it for the last 11 years. As it stands, with all the innovation they've been doing, I deleted both my social account and my family account, and now only stick around for the event calendars. What parts of Meetup seem stagnant to you? What other innovation is there left to do? They let you create a meetup and describe…

As someone that runs a 200+ member meetup in SF, I wish I had better tools to promote my meetup and put events in front of people.

From the other side, discovering relevant meetups is hard. Searching all meetups in my area one keyword at a time sucks.

Re: WeWork is going to acquire Meetup

#40

Post by pmontra »

m52go wrote: post #4

I haven't followed Meetup in much detail, but it seems like they lost their way. "Meetup" has become a common noun in many circles tech-related and beyond...i.e., most people know about meetup.com and what it does. But despite this ubiquity, what happened? I stopped going to meetups a while ago because most just didn't seem worthwhile. A lot of people I know did the same. If this trend persisted across the service, d…

People go to "meetups" even if they are announced and booked on Eventbrite with absolutely no counterpart on meetup.com. It became a word to define an event format. From that point of view they've been pretty successful. How they fare financially, I don't know.

The platform is in the middle of a revamp, with parts accessible only through the old interface. The messages subsite always felt like it was engineered with the technological limitations of 10+ years ago and never improved. Not good signs.

I have no idea of the impact of the acquisition. WeWork doesn't operate in my country. Luckily I have found a zero cost location for my semi technical meetup. I'll be happy if nothing changes.

By the way, there are many technical meetups around me, but there are many more non technical ones (meeting people, yoga, hiking, foreign languages, politics, really anything). A friend on mine told me yesterday he estimated a 90/10 ratio. Not what you can fill coworking spaces with.

Post reply on HN