Keep Connected with Meetup CEO David Siegel

Before he was a co-founder of General Assembly and founder of Common co-living spaces, Brad Hargreaves was a Meetup organizer hosting tech events in New York. In this conversation with David Siegel, a legendary entrepreneur talks about how he’s made community building an essential part of his business strategy. Learn how the right community can help you make a major change in your life, whether it’s a long-distance move or a career...

Aldwyn Altuney’s path took her from a rebellious teen who ran away from home to a world-class journalist working with major news organizations on multiple continents. Her latest effort is Good News Day, a campaign to change the tone of the contemporary news cycle that always skews toward fear, panic, and negativity. Aldwyn sits down with David to discuss the influence of negative news on our daily state of mind, and how to make spa...

Amnoni Myers has persevered through addiction, abuse, abandonment, homelessness, and the many difficulties of the foster care system to become an author and nationally recognized child welfare advocate. Her success story (recounted in the new memoir You Are The Prize) is not only a tale of resilience and self-discovery but a brilliant guide for anyone struggling to thrive after a difficult past. Amnoni and David sit down to discuss...

Kat Vellos is a certified connections coach and the author (plus illustrator!) of We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships. She and David sit down to discuss why platonic relationships between adults are so important, why they’ve become difficult to maintain in the modern social landscape, and how to buck that trend through intentionality. Their conversation includes everything from the growing fear of a...

Tara Schuster was Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central, and much of her identity and self-esteem was founded on that Emmy and Peabody Award-winning work. But when she was laid off during the pandemic, a severe identity crisis followed. Now, Tara is the author of Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies and the forthcoming Glow in the F*cking Dark, two nonfiction powerhouses that use Tara’s life story to explore univers...

Bakari Akil is a self-described scrappy entrepreneur bridging the gap between the corporate world and homegrown success stories. He’s also the organizer of two Meetup groups. His first, the Alternative Investment Club, has more than 5,000 members and is officially the largest private equity and hedge fund Meetup group in the world! Bakari and David sit down to discuss the keys to this club’s great success, as well as how the intens...

Ximena Vengoechea listens for a living, as an expert in UX Research for Pinterest, and previously for Twitter and LinkedIn. She is also the author of Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection. Her book is a practical and immediately-applicable guide to empathy and understanding of your fellow humans through conversation. Ximena and David sit down to discuss the United States’s cultural hangups with listeni...

Less than one year ago, Anthony Paul moved from Brooklyn to the Boston area without a single previous social connection. Today, he’s the organizer of the Cambridge "Finer Things" Culture Club, a Meetup group with more than 760 members! Anthony and David sit down to discuss the key elements behind this community’s meteoric rise and its place within a larger “human empowerment” movement. Topics include the often misundersto...

Dr. Marisa G. Franco is a psychologist, an interdisciplinary professor at the University of Maryland, and a top writer on Psychology Today. In her new best-selling book, Platonic, she shares her expertise in the subtle art and social science of adult friendship. Marisa and David sit down to discuss the value of platonic relationships, and why they ought to be treated with as much care and responsibility as romantic relationships. T...

Dr. Rick Hanson is a renowned psychologist and a New York Times best-selling author of several books, translated into over 30 languages with more than a million copies sold worldwide. His latest work, Making Great Relationships, shares the wisdom Rick has gained through a half-century as a professional psychotherapist, 40 years of marriage, and decades of parenting. David and Rick sit down to discuss the neurological angle on the b...

Ann Marie Rakovic and David first met on an eight-mile walk she organized through Meetup. Today they sit down to talk about the transformative power of her group, Central Park NYC Ever Walk, and “the collective effervescence” that springs naturally when people get together to socialize through physical activity. David seeks advice for fellow organizers who want to literally and/or figuratively follow in Ann Marie’s footsteps. Ann M...

Before becoming the world famous singer-songwriter, Jewel was a teen in rural Alaska surrounded by people in pain. Performing in bars with her father, she became acutely aware of the unhealthy ways people deal with their emotions. After leaving home at 15 and facing her own struggles including anxiety and bouts of homelessness, Jewel learned to prioritize mental health over everything else. In this special two-year anniversary epis...

Brenda Bea grew up being described as “shy” and “quiet.” In her adult life, she’s owned her identity as an introvert, and helped many other women do the same as an organizer of Introverted Girlfriends of Dallas & Surrounding Cities. This Introverted Girlfriends Meetup group is just one of fourteen different chapters around the United States. David sits down with Brenda to discuss her mission to inspire and educate introverted w...

Known as the Renaissance Rabbi, Dovid Cohen is a spiritual leader, lawyer, therapist, writer, public speaker, and part of an organization that services individuals with special needs throughout the United States. In the course of these many roles, he hasn’t “got it all figured out,” but he has learned a tremendous amount about people’s ability to transform themselves and their ways of thinking, as well as how they grow from painful...

Monique Rhodes was adopted into a difficult situation in New Zealand. By her early teens she was quite depressed, and at 19 years old hit rock bottom when she attempted to take her own life. Since then, she’s been on a journey of resilience and self-discovery that has utterly transformed her experience as a human being on Earth. From a four-year motorcycle trip through India, to studying with the Dalai Lama, and moving to Costa Ric...

From investment banker, to four-time CFO, to operating partner at a top venture capital firm, to board of directors member, to lecturer at Stanford University—Jeff Epstein has done it all. Over the years, his experience, contacts, and willingness to both teach and learn have helped him become what David refers to as “the trillion dollar connector.” In fact, Jeff has facilitated nearly 9,500 high-level business connections, leading ...

Andrew Horn is the co-founder and CEO of Tribute, a company that has been called “Hallmark 2.0” because its modern technology is keeping the old tradition of showing appreciation alive. With nearly 6 million collaborative videos created, Tribute has brought 82% of its customers to tears of joy! Andrew and David sit down to discuss the relevance of appreciation in both professional and personal life. They touch on the habit of grati...

JeVon McCormick has a success story for the ages. The son of an orphaned sex worker and a drug dealer, JeVon grew up poor in the 1970s without reliable access to food, water, and electricity. Experiencing an identity crisis and lack of belonging as a mixed-race person, he also faced long periods of abandonment and several stints in juvenile prison. Today, JeVon is not only a mentor to high-risk youth, but the CEO of Scribe, a publi...

Alysia Allen is the founder of Mocha Girls Read, a Meetup book club that began with 12 women in Inglewood, California, and now has more than 10,000 members across the United States in 14 cities and two virtual communities. 11 years ago, Alysia was an introverted bookworm who never quite saw herself as a leader. Now she sits down with David as an award-winning organizer to share her own personal transformation and the “secret sauce”...