There is some irony that everyone is rushing to build their own competitors because Meetup decided to charge $2. Let that sink in. You're effectively limiting yourself to a LTV of a customer of less than $2 per attendee of their events now. You'll end up in the same vicious cycle of needing to charge for something if you want your platform to survive.
Meetup was making money before they took VC funds and eventually sold to Wework. Their old model of charging $15+ to organizers seemed to work. I paid it for years because of the extra traffic and not wanting my events to be hijacked. They never let you own your own audience though.
Meetup was making money before they took VC funds and eventually sold to Wework. Their old model of charging $15+ to organizers seemed to work. I paid it for years because of the extra traffic and not wanting my events to be hijacked. They never let you own your own audience though.