Metaverse Environment
The meeting took place in a virtual environment originally created for Activision, now repurposed for this gathering. Participants raced on a virtual track and compared times. Kevin mentioned plans to create more games including "Zombie vs. Vampires," a variation of the existing "Zombie Tag" game. Kevin also noted that Gather (the platform they're using) recently announced significant price increases, prompting Kevin to build his own platform as an alternative.
School Platform Growth
Participants discussed the rapid growth of School, noting it went from zero to 1 million users in 5 years, then expanded to 17 million users last year. The platform has added approximately 5,000 communities in recent months. Dan emphasized that this growth creates opportunities for creators with successful free communities to position themselves well for future success when the platform reaches even greater scale.
Team Collaboration and In-Person Meetings
The group discussed the significant impact of in-person meetings on team performance. Dan shared that every major shift in their business came after meeting in person, with quarterly meetings being optimal. Key points included:
- In-person meetings require 2-3 days for alignment before becoming truly productive
- A week is the ideal duration for team meetings
- Clear role definition is crucial for team success
- Hybrid approaches (primarily remote with periodic in-person meetings) will likely be the future norm
Community Building Strategies
Several effective strategies for community building were discussed:
- Creating free communities as a "tree planting" long-term strategy
- Calling new members within 5 minutes of joining increases conversion by 21x compared to waiting 30 minutes
- Using local phone numbers when calling international leads
- Finding synergy between communities through targeted partnerships
- Being selective with affiliate promotions to preserve "goodwill" with community members
- Focusing on a single specific offering rather than overwhelming members with multiple options
Tools and Technology
Participants shared various tools and techniques they use:
- WhatsApp for communicating with leads, especially international ones
- Scoot CRM for notifications when new members join a community
- Notion for automatically transcribing and summarizing meetings
- The importance of livestreaming capabilities (coming soon to Skool)
- Discussion of automation possibilities with School's unofficial endpoints