Community Doesn’t Scale — Soho House, MiniClubs & The Future of Social Interaction

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When I moved to NYC two years ago I joined Soho House. I had spent the last 7+ years living in San Francisco where there wasn’t any real tradition of social clubs, and I had spent a lot of time in London (though never lived there), which was the opposite, so I was excited to be part of one as an actual member. Plus, I heard the pool was quite the scene in the summer.

The rooftop pool at Soho House New York. Photo: Soho House

I was sorely disappointed. On acceptance I was given no onboarding. I realized it was basically a glorified co-working space during the day (and admit, that’s basically how I came to use it as well). No one seemed particularly interested in meeting people — it mainly seemed a way to show off to potential people young creative freelancers were trying to close that they were indeed hip enough to be a member.

My Soho House membership was, in short, a fashion accessory — you could get most of the same amenities in various other places, but you paid the premium for the same reason you pay for a Gucci label — it was fashionable to be a member.

I tried to meet people, I actually attended 3 breakfasts that Summit Series, who invested in my first company Mozio, put on in the space and met a few people.

But what I realized was that between 85,000 worldwide members (this has been confirmed by Soho House), 8,000 NYC members (this one is hearsay) the people staying in the hotel, everyone’s guests, well, you might as well have been at any other somewhat trendy bar in Manhattan . . .

Facilities, Not Communities

What we realized is that as Soho House has expanded, they’ve added gyms, spas, pools, cinemas, restaurants and more, and lost track of the fact that for every feature they add, that requires additional members to support it, and for every additional member, that degrades the community.