Startups: Web users go face-to-face

by David F. Gallagher
September 2002

Scott Heiferman, the cofounder and CEO of a New York Internet startup called Meetup, wants to get people off the Internet. The Meetup Web site coordinates real-world gatherings of people who share an interest, whether it be Weblogs or Weezer. The site uses a database of 11,000 venues worldwide to suggest locations for meetings, and it lets participants vote for their preferred spot.

Backed by $250,000 from a group of investors that includes EDventure Holdings’ Esther Dyson, Meetup has already caught on with some online communities—including 1,200 fans of the geek news site Slashdot—whose members are curious about the faces behind the user names.

When Mr. Heiferman talks about Meetup’s potential to strengthen communities, he sounds like an Internet idealist. But he has a business plan: venues will have to pay to remain on his list of suggested spots, with fees based on attendance. Mr. Heiferman notes that he has already built one profitable Internet company, the online ad agency I-Traffic, which he sold to Agency.com in 1999. “We are this sort of positive-social-change dot-com,” he says. “But at the same time, we are very serious about it being a business.”