reimagining leap.club’s online game 🤹♀️
as we bring a whole new version of the leap.club app to life next week, along with some (exciting) bold bets, here’s a run through on what’s happening - the what and why - unfiltered, leap.club style
we were at galleria market in gurgaon getting coffee when someone walked up to us and asked if we were from leap.club. turns out his girlfriend is a member. he mentioned how she loves our offline events, and how leap.club has helped her increase her professional network and develop strong female friendships. he went on to mention how we need to up our online game - and well, to be honest, we couldn't agree more.
we have hosted 100+ events in the last 12 months for our members + women across india. intimate social experiences, domain-specific brainstorms, coach-led workshops, no agenda brunches, speed networking, massive (af)fairs at stadiums with 1500+ women, pickleball games, a 5k tricity run - and what not.
when we started, events were never a part of our plan but we realised that women love to come together and build new friendships + professional connections via offline experiences. we cannot stress enough on how offline events have played a huge role in our growth.
being fairly candid - we feel that we have not been able to enable the same level of ‘joy’ that we do offline, on our app. we have thousands of members who actively post content, book events, join communities - but only the 'power' users are able to truly build a network on the app - one of the bigger reasons why women join us. our app usage numbers have gone down in the last couple of quarters, and it was time to go back to the drawing board.
here’s what we’ve been upto, and what’s coming up over the next 2 weeks:
radius - meet women in your neighbourhood
select your location, pick who you’d like to meet in your neighbourhood and start hanging! want to catch up with a fellow marketeer? looking for a badminton partner? just want to get coffee/ wine after a long day at work? radius will make it super simple for you to swipe right ;) on the women you want to meet. you can also post and view hyperlocal updates, see which events women around you are attending or circles they’re a part of.
the waitlist is live on the leap.club app for members, and early access to specific subzones in our 6 major cities goes live next week. here’s a sneak peek if you’re a curious cat:
removing our first ever feature: the feed
we know this sounds like a big one. but let’s talk about the ‘why’ behind this step:
is the feed / content distribution the reason why women join us? no. they want to meet other women professionally + socially, and the feed in today’s shape and form does not enable that.
it played its part the first couple of years when we did not have other discovery features. but today, we only have a small % of power users posting and a slightly bigger cohort consuming. other features are doing much better in comparison.
a lot of tech time has gone into building this feature + sharpening the algos almost every month, trying to better the flow/ show better content to members, launching programs to drive the usage up via members - but numbers haven’t moved significantly in the last two years.
we have been getting feedback that as a new member, it's underwhelming to land on posts that might not be relevant to the larger base.
we truly feel hyperlocal updates on radius will be more relevant for our members moving forward. for ‘likes’, there is always linkedin ;)
upgrading the dm’s flow for a better way to connect 1:1
<5% of our ‘active’ users used the dm feature in the last 30 days. the current dm’s flow on leap.club has a two fold problem today:
the top 20% users on the platform end up getting 80% of the messages. these members typically have ‘aspirational’ profiles and may not have the time to respond to most dm’s. tbh, this happens on linkedin too but if it happens on leap.club, it becomes bad ux and our platform gets the blame. the ones that get replies are mostly well crafted messages with a clear intro, agenda and next steps, but it's been impossible to ensure this as we scale.
since our app daily actives have gone down, % responses have also gone down/ responses are delayed leading to bad ux for some active members.
unfortunately, we see a lot of spam from brand owners and founders which puts some members off, taking away from their experience and we aren’t able to stop this from member education alone :/
we need a better way for members to connect with each other and are tweaking the flow to let members get intimated on email when other members want to connect with them with a short agenda message. the receiver will have the option to accept and share contact details - so no spam. and yes, superconnections is making a comeback, with a twist ;)
circles have been a hit, and now we wanna take it up a notch
over 500+ online & offline circles have been created (& led by) leap.club members in the last 6 months.
social meetups & hobby groups stood first with majority stake of 66% of all offline circles followed by professional meetups - proving our thesis on solid female friendships being built by leap.club.
24,864 circle joining requests in the last 10 months since launch with an average of 60+ folks who joined a circle.
what we are tweaking:
we’re revamping the circles section for a better experience — relevance & discoverability. we’ve de-listed dormant circles and introduced a new range of guidelines for better hosting by members.
prepaid, learning & all-gender circles are moving away based on our learnings and member feedback. incase you are a member who wants to host a paid experience with us - please fill out a form hyperlinked on the circles flow instead gf.
we are now stricter with our approval process — high quality & high intent is our #1 priority.
offline circles will now also be mapped to a location. via the radius tab, you will also be able to see circle-led meet ups within your 5-10 km radius for better discoverability.
better offline interaction during our events - hello magic mixer
in 3 weeks, you will be able to see a filtered list of members from your industry/ neighbourhood/ similar interests who are attending the same event; send them a hang request to ensure they block their time to meet you during the event, and wait for it - get notified once they check into the event!
some other smaller updates:
when you open the app on the 5th of april, you will land on radius, instead of the feed. yes, we are that excited about radius.
a better advanced search is now available on the search tab to help you discover the member you want in a few clicks.
pros (vetted professionals for you to book) will also sit under search rather than as a separate tab at the bottom bar.
the bottom tab will basically have 3 options - radius, events and circles.
our goal for 2024 is to build a clean, superlative online experience for our members and mix our online + offline worlds, while keeping why women join us as our guiding principle: to build new friendships + professional connections.
always a good time to remind ourselves: always day one at leap.club :)
- ragini, anand and all your friends at leap.club
ps. it takes a village to build this community and we’re looking for bold women in events and marketing to join our team in bombay and bangalore. more about the open roles here - hit us up at jobs@leap.club if you think we’re a fit! this team could use some mini founders 🥷
leap.club is an exclusive members-only community for women. join the revolution.