Maxwell Social: A New Type of Social Club for a post-COVID world
The TL,DR: We’re building a new type of social club. Join us at maxwellsocial.com and subscribe to our newsletter here: Something To Look Forward To
In conversations with friends during this crisis we’ve continually heard about how this is all going to change social interaction. Will we be hesitant to go back to big events like concerts? Will we eat-in more and avoid restaurants? Will we be on virtual reality headsets or will Segway robots with tablets with our faces on them interact with each other in our stead?
But if these past few weeks have taught us anything it is that there is no replacement for in-person social interaction.
No, we won’t be doomed to group Zoom calls forever.
But we think the method in which we meet IRL is about to change drastically, and it’s about to get more intimate, smaller and more curated, not because we’re scared, but because COVID will make us realize what we liked most about IRL experiences in the first place, and we won’t want to deal with the rest.
Maxwell is building a social club that is more like your living room. One where you don’t pay for anything in the space. One that is small enough, at 600 members per club (unlike other private clubs that scale to 5000 members, sometimes 85,000), that you feel like everyone is a friend of a friend. One that is only open during social hours (6pm onwards) so it doesn’t become a glorified co-working space. And one where you store your own drinks onsite and you are the one behind the bar serving your friends.
And most importantly, one that is laser focused on one thing —YOUR people.
We believe that in a post-COVID world, curation and privacy will be more important, and Maxwell is building for that future.
Your Social Life Had Already Gone Underground
We don’t think this is as far of a departure as it seems — somehow the gathering spot, whether a bar, nightclub or restaurant, just wasn’t doing it for our demographic anymore, even before COVID hit.
Most people’s real social lives had already gone underground. House parties, dinner parties & pre-games organized by individuals are where real connections are made, through friends of friends and most of these are held in people’s homes.
“But I like ____ bar” you may think. Well, according to Diageo, 80% of their alcohol sales happen off-premise, at liquor shops. Assuming most people aren’t drinking alone, that means that basically 80% of all social interaction is happening away from official gathering spots. Bars, nightclubs and restaurants are all focusing on a small sliver of social use cases, ones that are increasingly less and less popular.
Social Clubs Were Missing The Point
At the same time we saw a rocketing interest in private clubs, there seemed to be a “Soho House for ___” popping up every month. However, every one of these followed the same model — large amounts of real estate, combine restaurant+bar and add some combo of coworking space/spa/yoga studio/pool, drive up huge operational costs, and onboard way too many members in order to pay for it.
We felt attempts at trying to build private communities all missed the point — it wasn’t about the amenities.
It’s the People, Stupid.
People don’t join social clubs for the fancy cocktails. They don’t join for the restaurant or the spa or the yoga studio or even the pool. They join for one thing and one thing only.
They join for the people.
They join for the sense of identity that being associated with that group of people bring, and they join for the community around those people. But we realized something even further.
Its About YOUR People
Yes, we’d like to meet new people. But I have great friends. I don’t NEED more friends.
We’re all super busy.
I need to see those friends more. I need to run into them more.
I’m primarily looking for a spot that allows me to double down on my existing friends, run into them more often, kind of like you used to on a college campus.
But this doesn’t exist.
We found that every social club we were a part of or had experienced had such delusions of grandeur, added too many amenities and features, took on so much real estate liability, became so attached to the idea of itself as a lifestyle brand or all-in-one spot that it became necessary for them to accept thousands of members to pay the bills, quickly sacrificing the core mission.
COVID is going to make curation more important. It’s going to challenge us to ask ourselves why we’re going out. We are going to be forced to ask ourselves why we are exposing ourselves to large groups of random people? If I’m only going to speak to a few people, why would I want to be packed like Sardines into a crowded dive bar with loud music.
Small will be beautiful again. And going that small requires a radical reimagining of the social club.
A Radical Reimagining of the Social Club — Screw the Amenities
If you believe that a social club is all about the people, then it should be obvious that you can have a much better social club at 500 people vs. 5,000.
Our goal is to religiously focus on one thing — maximizing the chance that every time you walk in the door you run into someone.
And if you believe that it’s all about the people, we asked ourselves . .
Why are we bothering with all these other amenities that usually just require more manpower to operate, driving up costs and making higher membership numbers necessary? Why add unnecessary features when it means they’ll require economies of scale, when we know that . . .
Community Doesn’t Scale.
We believe a space where you can do what you want, with minimal staff costs, sets us up to best deliver on the promise of actually being able to focus on the one thing that matters — a highly curated group of people.
Whats a “Maxwell”?
Well, in short, a Maxwell is a 600-person social club that never gets bigger — store your own drinks in our loft onsite, serve yourself, and feel like you own the place.
You’re the Bartender For Your Friend Group
Instead of focusing on high class cocktails, dining or any of the other things private clubs traditionally focus on, we’re leaning 100% into making this feel like YOUR spot, because well, it will be you behind the bar (well, Kitchen Island), mixing Gin and tonics for your friends from the Gin you left in your liquor locker.
And when we started researching, we found our spirit animal in Elsa Maxwell.
Elsa Maxwell: The Coolest Person You’ve Never Heard Of
Elsa Maxwell was the premiere socialite of the 1930s and 1940s.
Known for gathering royalty, intellectuals, the Hollywood A-list, and anyone she found interesting, Elsa’s parties were legendary — they attracted everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Gershwin, the Shah of Iran to Arthur Miller, and featured scavenger hunts through Paris, hoe-downs at the Waldorf Astoria and troupes of trained seals.
When we ran across Elsa’s story we knew we had found our muse.
Maxwell’s first club, and all subsequent clubs will echo Elsa’s joie de vivre and joy of bringing diverse groups of people together.
Built for a Post-COVID-19 World
We were about to start accelerating on our plan for a physical space when Coronavirus struck. We were going to wait to announce what we’re up to closer to the time when we could have a physical space, but, well, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.
We were fortunate not to have signed a lease quite yet, but we view this crisis as accelerating this change in attitudes.
COVID Is Calling Our Bluff
In short, COVID is calling our bluff. We don’t go to bars for drinks, we don’t go to restaurants for food. We go to be out in the world. Every time I see a restaurant trying to sell me takeaway margaritas it emphasizes this point — I was willing to buy those margaritas at a 1000% markup due to the people, not because their margaritas were that amazing.
I don’t believe for a second that people will be paranoid to go out — the impetus for human connection is just too great. Even now I hear about underground dinner parties and speakeasy’s popping up.
This too, shall pass.
But there will be an irreversible sea change towards more intimate, curated events and spaces, not because we’re scared, but because COVID has made us realize what we liked most about IRL experiences in the first place, and we won’t want to deal with the rest.
What Now?
While we wait out this crisis we’re going to focus, as much as possible, on helping you connect with people during these trying times, to start with our Something to Look Forward To Newsletter.
We’ve continually heard the same thing over and over again, which is that the biggest thing everyone misses is that they currently have “nothing to look forward to.”
Every week we’ll give you our own thoughts, a compilation of interesting links to thought pieces or interesting things having to do with social life, some of which written by us on this Medium channel and links to digital events going on.
Yes I Want Something To Look Forward To
If you’d like to be involved in our next steps, I’d love to chat and please feel free to reach out to david@maxwellsocial.com, follow us on Instagram or Facebook.
David
