WeWork sells Meetup (techcrunch.com)

Article summary

WeWork has sold Meetup, a social networking platform, to AlleyCorp and other private investors for an undisclosed sum, reportedly less than the $156 million WeWork paid for it in 2017. Meetup will continue to operate and serve its 49 million registered members and 230,000 organizers. The sale is seen as a positive development for Meetup, which had been struggling under WeWork's ownership. Meetup's future is uncertain, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting in-person events and the company shifting its focus to online groups.

Main themes

• Meetup sale
• WeWork struggles
• lean startups
• VC funding
• growth vs sustainability
• pandemic impact
• software engineering jobs
• startup culture
• value creation vs extraction

What commenters say

• Some commenters believe that Meetup's sale is a good thing, as it will help stabilize the company's future and allow it to maintain its service.
• Others think that Meetup's business model is not sustainable and that it requires a large team and significant funding to operate effectively.
• There is a debate about whether a company like Meetup can be run leanly with a small team, or if it requires a large team to handle complexity and edge cases.
• Some argue that the focus on growth and VC funding can lead to unnecessary complexity and over-engineering, while others think that this is a necessary part of running a successful global business.
• The pandemic has affected Meetup's business, and some commenters think that the company will need to shift its focus to online groups to survive.
• Others believe that the market still has strong demand for software engineers, but that there may be a shift towards more 'mundane' jobs and away from over-engineering and VC-funded startups.
• Some commenters think that the idea of running a company like Meetup with a small team is absurd and that it requires a large team to handle issues like translations, international money handling, and content moderation.
• There is a disagreement about whether the current situation will lead to a change in attitudes towards lean and mean startups, or if this is a lesson that will be learned and then forgotten.
• Some argue that startups that focus on value extraction rather than creation are not sustainable and that the market may be shifting towards more practical and useful applications.
• Others think that the excesses of the VC-funded startup model will continue until the next crash or correction.