Episode I of Chris Dixon’s Founder Stories interview with Scott Heiferman‘s concluded with Heiferman giving Dixon some of his thoughts on the future of social media. In this episode, Dixon, who is a light Facebook user, seems mildly surprised that Heiferman is a Facebook fan—mentioning privacy as one reason why.
Heiferman tells Dixon Facebook makes “great product (Dixon agrees) … it’s an elegant beautiful product and what else matters?” He then adds, “I don’t trust people in our industry who don’t use Facebook” saying “it’s the soul of how hundreds of millions of people are really experiencing their first time of participating online.” However, as the two round out their conversation Heiferman also expresses doubts that Facebook will maintain its dominance indefinitely.
Their discussion weaves into the topic of the singularity. Heiferman suggests that “the real singularity is when everyone on the planet has a phone and is connected and is on Facebook or however that social networking happens, and what gets unleashed when that happens, we can’t even imagine.”
In the video below, Dixon switches topics and inquires about Meetup’s origins. Heiferman tells Dixon after 9/11 he read Bowling Alone and was inspired to find a way for people to connect and trust one another. Living in what he calls “a coarser, nastier world” Heiferman says Meetup is designed to show folks that “there are people in your neighborhood who would be really damn helpful to you” so “you all should meet up and meet up regularly and a community can emerge.”
Watch both videos for additional insights, along with episode I of Heiferman’s interview. Past episodes of Founder Stories including interviews with Dustin Moskovitz, Kevin Ryan, Christopher Poole and Dennis Crowley are here.
Episode III is coming up.
CrunchbasePerson:Scott HeifermanWebsite:Companies:Meetup, Familybuilder, Wee Web, betaworks, Founder Collective
Scott Heiferman is a Co-Founder and CEO of Meetup, the world’s largest network of local community groups. Over 50,000 Meetups (self-organized community events) happen each week. Millions of people in over more than 100 countries “use the internet to get off the internet” using Meetup, which is built on the idea that every town needs support groups, playgroups, bookclubs, business circles, running groups, community action groups, etc. Previously, Heiferman co-founded Fotolog, a photo sharing network where over 30...
Learn more Person:Chris DixonWebsite:Companies:Hunch, SiteAdvisor, Founder Collective, TechCrunch, Bessemer Venture PartnersChris Dixon currently works as the CEO and Co-founder of Hunch. He is also a contributing writer for TechCrunch. He previously was the CEO and Co-founder of SiteAdvisor, which was acquired by McAfee. Chris is a personal investor in early-stage technology companies, including Skype, TrialPay, DocVerse, Invite Media, Gerson Lehrman Group, ScanScout, OMGPOP, BillShrink, Oddcast, Panjiva, Knewton, and a handful of other startups that are still in stealth mode. In addition to his personal investments, Chris is also a...
Learn more Company:MeetupWebsite:meetup.comLaunch Date:July 1, 2002Funding:$18.3MMeetup is a local community organizing network. Over 6.5 million people have created and joined long-lasting local Meetup Groups around shared interests and purposes. These groups and clubs have held over 1 million local meetups.
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