Comment by mncolinlee
1 year ago
> It's my understanding that despite the high cost to run Meetups, the company itself has never been in a good financial position. They've been bought and sold multiple times.
Former Meetup employee here. A company being bought and sold multiple times is not a sign of being in a poor financial position.
2017: Meetup was first bought by WeWork for $156M.
2020: Meetup was then sold for a fire sale price to AlleyCorp as WeWork was trying to avoid bankruptcy from their unsustainable office rent deals. Watch any of the streaming shows like WeCrashed if you want to know what happened to WeWork.
2024: Meetup was then sold for a very nice multiple of their 2020 price to Bending Spoons after being profitable for several years. However, it had been profitable over those years by keeping it all together with only a small team. Bending Spoons moved operations to Italy, where most developers are cheaper.
Thanks for the extra context! I was operating off of (faulty) memory with that statement.
You're 100% right that it's not necessarily a sign of being in a poor financial position and that's my bad for assuming as much.
From an outsider's perspective, it makes it seem as if the local events space is not necessarily a lucrative business to be in. If it was, it would likely stand on it's own independently. Instead, we see more tools integrate events as a feature of an existing community platform. I think that's where there's an opportunity, especially for smaller shops or solopreneurs.