The Brilliant Growth Model of Clubhouse
My boss asked me to join a Clubhouse conversation on angel investing a few weeks ago. I had heard of Clubhouse, but hadn’t yet been extended an invitation. I then asked my boss for an invitation, and he swiftly secured one from the host of the event, a Chicago-based venture capitalist named Chris Deutsch, who was happy to do a favor for my boss. The conversation was engaging, the audio was high quality, and it was entertaining to scroll through the names of the attendees.
I was struck, however, when I saw a note attached to my profile. Just below my personal bio was the note “Nominated by Chris Deutsch.”
I clicked on his account and was brought to the extensive profile of this prominent venture capitalist. Am I attached to this guy now? For how long? When people click on my profile, they will see this nomination and know that he offered one of his scarce Clubhouse invitations to Jesse Bloom. Whoa. I must be pretty important. I also noticed I had 2 invitations myself to share.
I have to admit I thought two things:
- If I’m going to send these out, I better send them while it’s still exclusive enough to be cool.
- I can’t send these out to just anyone. My name will be attached to these people in perpetuity. I better pick people to which I’m proud to be attached.
Then I caught myself and smiled. They got me. That’s the brilliant Ponzi scheme growth model of Clubhouse. One thing people will always care about is personal brand. The product itself, an audio-only chatroom platform, is well designed, novel, and provoking, but it has nothing to do with why I wanted to recommend it to my friends.
