9/11 Inspired Meetup

A story about how Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup.com, was inspired to start the company after experiencing community connection during 9/11.

"He lives a few miles away from the twin towers. September 11th happens, he sees the planes hitting the building. He was on the rooftop of his building or outside, and it was the first time he had ever met any of his neighbors. He'd been living there for a while but just didn't know anyone. Now that they were all outside seeing this crazy thing, they're all talking and meeting.

He was struck by how he really lived a pretty solo life and was just on the internet. A week later, he reads this book called 'Bowling Alone.' He ended up giving this book to every Meetup employee. The book was basically about statistics showing that more and more we're doing less things with other people. Less interaction with strangers causes you to trust strangers less, which causes you to spend less time with them - it's this terrible cycle.

He noticed this in his own life too. He was a big fan of this band Aluna and would go to their shows. They were a small band, so he'd be in conference centers and hotel ballroom B's. He used to go alone, dance alone, and go home alone. Soon he started seeing other regular faces there, but they still didn't talk to each other much because it wasn't clear that it was okay.

That's where he decides to narrow down his list of ideas from 30 to 2, and one of them becomes Meetup - what if we made it where the internet could help people meet up in real life and solve this 'bowling alone' problem."