{"id":18923,"date":"2024-02-05T11:48:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T16:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/?p=18923"},"modified":"2024-02-05T12:38:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T17:38:52","slug":"recent-changes-and-a-look-toward-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/recent-changes-and-a-look-toward-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent changes and a look toward the future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi there, Meetup community,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m Luca Ferrari, the co-founder and CEO of Meetup\u2019s new parent company, Bending Spoons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bending Spoons, we\u2019re firm believers in radical transparency. In that spirit, I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to share with you an important update about recent changes at Meetup and give you a glimpse of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team restructuring & moving operations to Europe<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Bending Spoons and Meetup teams have been working together to bring the acquisition to a successful close and to ensure the vibrant Meetup community continues to thrive for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After evaluating the team structure, overlapping roles, and other logistical considerations, it became apparent that the best way to support Meetup\u2019s continued success is to integrate it fully into Bending Spoons.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regrettably, moving Meetup\u2019s operations to our home turf in Europe means significantly reducing the size of the US-based team. We\u2019ve now communicated to the whole Meetup staff that a layoff is taking place that will impact many of them. We then promptly informed the impacted individuals, who will receive a substantial separation package that includes sixteen weeks of pay and up to twelve months of health insurance coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The layoff decision was not made lightly, and the entire Bending Spoons team is grateful to those departing for their work in building Meetup and helping millions of people create their own communities around the world. We\u2019re honored to take the reins and build upon their efforts, and we hope to make the entire Meetup community proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future of Meetup<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a member of the Meetup community, this news might make you curious about what\u2019s in store for the future of your much-loved platform. I\u2019d like to address that now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bending Spoons acquired Meetup because we believe in its mission to foster human connections, and we have an ambitious vision for its future.<\/strong> Over the next few years, we intend to invest nearly $50 million into improving the product and growing membership. <\/strong>To do so, we\u2019ll leverage the expertise of the strong, sizable Bending Spoons workforce. The team has been hard at work these past few weeks to get familiar with the intricacies of the product and understand how we can best serve you, the Meetup community, going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the top opportunities that we’ve identified are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n