revelations and an evolution
we’re impatient executors and there’s a lot that’s happened in the last quarter. here’s a front-seat view into some of our recent launches, the thought process behind them and what's coming up next 🤹
as we approach our 3rd birthday on the 1st of may, we found ourselves reflecting on our product journey over the years. it's tough to imagine now, but when we started in may 2020, we didn't have an app. or even a website. we used emails and whatsapp, and eventually made a scrappy website (ngl, we loved it) and that was our first ‘product’.
in november 2020, we launched our first app (can’t believe it looked like this, but we loved it even more).
fast forward to 2023, we’re now on the 4th gen of our product with lots of learnings under our belt, and having faced more than a few pivots along the way. for a young business like ours, where members are invested in the product, feedback (good, bad and ugly) hits us pretty fast. constant iteration, failing fast, and doubling down on what's working are some of the tenets that have helped shape our product roadmap. internally, we joke that there are always big projects going on at leap.club, and to be honest, we wouldn’t have it any other way 👀
we’re trying to build this business slowly, but we’re impatient executors. there’s a lot that’s happened in the last quarter, so here’s a front-seat view into some of our recent launches, the thought process behind them and what's coming up next:
1. jobs by leap.club
hiring has always been extremely popular on our platform. members have found co-founders, team members and freelancers. fun fact: a lot of our team at leap.club were members first.
we saw interest from employers and constantly got emails to post about their open positions on our platform. while we can’t match the scale of bigger platforms just yet, it was obvious that the quality of our members was attractive. from a demand pov, 70% of our members were either actively or passively open to new opportunities.
it became evident that our 13,000 members today are easily equal to 100,000+ users on any other platform as our members represent the top 1% talent.
we launched jobs by leap.club in feb 2022 with 100+ top companies including bcg, heads up for tails, swiggy, zomato, paytm insider. members can apply for these jobs on our app and recruiters can scan these profiles on their dashboards and contact the applicants. they can also scope out profiles recommended by us. we feel this is a win-win and a natural extension to our product and here’s why:
for members:
instant application for top jobs using their leap.club profile — no cv needed. they can add a voice note for their application to stand out; connect with other members working in those companies to learn more about the interview process and culture; connect with exec coaches to help them prepare for these interviews, and keep a track of their profile views and application status.
for employers:
high-quality inbound applications, the ability to scope out thousands of profiles, easily shortlist and connect with candidates, and view voice notes to eliminate screening calls. they can also build their brand on our platform by posting on the feed.
we already see great traction for jobs by leap.club and here’s an abridged report card on how we have done in the last month:
overall, we’re mildly satisfied with the start and super excited for the coming months and years. we plan to onboard 1000 employers in the next 12 months and aim to disrupt the premium jobs space in india with our engaged, top member base.
2. clubhouses → clubs
in our first year as we touched 1000 members, we noticed groups of members coming together for professional or social interests. there were groups being formed around sports, relationships, workplace growth, cities, books and many many other topics. to enable this better, we launched clubhouses (micro-communities) in early 2021. we invited active members to become ‘founders’ of these clubhouses and members could join and participate in these discussions. clubhouses quickly became a popular feature and by the end of 2022, and we had 200+ clubhouses and 1000+ members in some of the top ones. these clubhouses also started hosting their own events, on an average ~25 events/month.
2 weeks ago, we decided to retire clubhouses and launch clubs. here’s why:
with 200+ clubhouses, discovery became a challenge. members would join 6 clubhouses but rarely went back to discover more.
we noticed duplication: multiple clubhouses getting launched around the same topics.
clubhouse founders got fatigued, and while we tried rotating the founders, we found ourselves spending too much time on this process. the founders also felt pressure to manage these clubhouses.
gating these clubhouses by requiring members to join before participating ultimately proved counterproductive: it built friction and members began missing out on discussions.
all these learnings enabled us to go back to the drawing board and reimagine this feature.
what’s changed:
we now have ~25 top clubs based on the most popular topics and themes.
members can view and participate in any club they want. no joining required. they can follow a club to get notified of new discussions and events.
no ‘founders’. members can participate as and when they want without any pressure.
events are linked to relevant clubs, and members can attend events across the board. we’ve also improved event discoverability through clubs, where members can easily browse and register via the club.
threads and bookmarks to better keep better track of discussions they want to participate in.
popular cities get their own club for members to interact with other members from their city.
members continue to host events in these clubs and are now able to invite a larger audience.
3. the feed
we have divided the feed into three parts: the default landing page will have posts from ‘members you follow + cxos’ (i.e. the most active members on the platform); the ‘all’ tab will have posts from all other members, you can choose to follow the ones you like; and now we have also launched a companies tab where you can view posts shared by companies that are recruiting on leap.club (and follow them).
4. a focused search and my network page
(coming soon) - based on learnings, we’re narrowing our default search options and are doing away with the connect tab at the bottom. members will still be able to search for other members by clicking on the search bar at the top and use our advanced filters.
the ‘my network’ page will help members connect with other members based on their interests, industry, city, current and previous workplace, alma mater ++; we hope this will help members curate their feed as well.
members will now easily be able to keep a track of their activity on the app - members you follow, members who follow you, clubs you follow, your jobs apps, your events. fun fact - some of the popular folks on the platform now have 1000+ followers and are using this distribution to build their brand, advance their businesses, share learnings and a lot more.
5. events flow
we usually have between 25-30 offline + online events live on the app. we’ve now added filters for members to better discover relevant events for them. additionally, all our solid past sessions are listed as podcasts for members to browse through and consume. trust us, they are a goldmine :)
6. voice notes
members can now add voice notes on their profiles and share the highlights of their career journeys (or fun facts!) with other members. we already see great organic traction here and members are using this feature to introduce themselves, their businesses, and their expertise.
other things that are lined up in the coming quarter -
laser focus on 100,000 members - we feel one of the biggest levers to delight our members is to rapidly increase the total member base. this unlocks larger distribution, better events, more members to connect with, higher quality jobs as more employers get attracted to our network, and enables our team to launch new features even more to get to 100,000 members.
we’re also experimenting with the pricing and duration of our membership. even though fluctuations in pricing mean a loss in revenue for us, we’re adamant about enabling our members to derive the most value out of this community, and for as many women as possible to make use of the network. ‘more’ women in leadership, always :)
universal search - we heard you, members! type whatever you want in the search bar at the top and we will show results covering feed posts, clubs discussions, members working there and jobs around that keyword soon.
reimagined onboarding - earlier new users would create a profile, directly land on the app and often get confused about how to start their leap.club journey. we have completely reimagined new user onboarding on the platform to help you make the most of your membership. going live soon!
a more fun and social leap.club - soon members will be able to see other members who are online, dynamic status messages, who is typing, the guest list of events and more.
our biggest priority for 2023 is to make our current product 10x better — and we promise to deliver 👩🏻🎓
signing off with big plans (and a lot of excitement!)
- ragini, anand & your friends at leap.club