Meetup.com goes beyond chat room

NEW YORK — From Elvis fans to supporters of a presidential hopeful, Meetup.com is bringing together people with a common interest, taking the talk out of the chat room and back into the real world.

It was at a crowded 2001 opening of the movie "Lord of the Rings" that 31-year-old Scott Heiferman found himself surrounded by strangers yet inspired by a sense of community.

That experience and others led him to launch Meetup.com, an Internet venture in which people with shared interests meet online to plan offline gatherings in their own communities.

"I think people involved in the Internet were obsessed with this idea that the Internet was global," said Heiferman, Meetup's co-founder and chief executive officer. "They loved the idea that you could now be best friends with a fellow Chihuahua owner in the United Kingdom. . . . Well, what about grabbing a beer, grabbing coffee, having a gathering of the Chihuahua owners in town?"

The site was launched in June 2002 with $1.25 million in startup money. The company, with its staff of 16 people, is "turning the corner right now on profitability," Heiferman said, and succeeding in ways he and his co-founders hadn't imagined.

Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean's campaign was the first to tap into Meetup's networking potential in a high-profile way, using it to mobilize supporters around the country after a staffer noted that political candidates were a popular topic on the site.

Supporters of congressional and statewide candidates also have plugged into the site's potential.

Stirring such political power was not something Heiferman had expected.

"The closest thing we thought about is we said, 'Oh it could be (used) for an issue, like campaign finance reform advocates,' " he said.

He is quick to point out that political groups are only a fraction of what draws people to Meetup, and topics range widely, from knitting to the burlesque to raising grandchildren.

The site works like this: Visitors pick a topic, then enter their ZIP code to see if there's a face-to-face meetup at a public venue near them. If there is, they must register (for free) to obtain the time and location of the meetup; at least five people must sign up for a meetup to take place.

There is a fee to be listed as a Meetup site, one of three revenue sources for the New York-based company. Money also comes in from organizations that benefit from a link to Meetup, and from users who opt to pay for a membership with more features.