Lunch Club
TL;DR
I have now had five meetings and every one has been a worthwhile conversation. Especially during the current resrictions in place it has been great to have normal conversations with people that I would not normally have had the chance to meet. A number of meetings have lead to introductions to people that may be of interest to the work that I do at HARNESS Data Intelligence and so I look forward to exploring those further.
What is Lunchclub.ai?
Lunchclub.ai positions itself as an AI superconnector that makes 1:1 introductions to other professionals which it believes may be of interest to you. Think LinkedIn meets Tinder. Their 'mission' is to to make professional connections which are easy, meaningful, and fun.
I initially heard about Lunchclub.ai in a TechCrunch post in September 2019 where they had just raised $4m in funding. At that time the service aimed to introduce people and encourage them to meet up, in-person, in the cities that they were predominantly based in (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Austin, Seattle and London).
Thankfully, the company had to pivot somewhat in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic plaguing the nation. When people were forced to stay at home, the room for a company like Lunchclub that encouraged face-to-face meetings diminished somewhat. As with many businesses across the globe Lunchclub turned to online meetings, encouraging users to meet virtually and connect online.
In September 2020 the founders gave a company update following their further $24.2 million raise (valuing them at over $100million!) announcing that during lockdown the company had grown tenfold and during the year had grown their team to 15 employees.
In November 2020 I took the plunge and decided to sign up after seeing a tweet from a friend stating what a good meeting they had with a stranger via the service.
How does it work?
There are multiple ways to join Lunchclub. You can do it directly from their homepage but most join via a referal code, (Here's mine incase you're interested!). The information needed is minimal, and this is one of the key bricks in the company’s business plan. They ask for your name, e-mail address and 'location' (so that they put you into the correct 'hub'). They then ask you to pick a few key objectives e.g. Business Development, Brainstorm with peers, Meet interesting people. There are then a few questions about interests and that's it. The company uses other information available online (Github, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. to fill in the gaps).
After confirming your identity (via e-mail) you are presented with a timeline-like view where you can view other people’s bios and say whether you think that they would be a 'relevant' match to you and the goals that you want to achieve.
After setting your availability for the coming week, you sit back, relax and wait for the matches to appear in your diary.
If anything Lunchclub has been a great way for me to brush up on my socialising skills and classic elevator pitch whilst being locked away at home!
Stay safe.