Is this app really worth spending time on? Let's find out from three avid Clubhouse participants.
A cross between a podcast and talk radio, Clubhouse has become all the rage when Elon Musk christened the audio-only social network as the new ‘hangout spot’, where joining the club is strictly by-invite, alluding to a sense of exclusivity. Is that what adds to its allure, or is there more?
We talk to Raja Jesrina Arshad, Datuk Ruben Gnanalingam and Joel Neoh who tell us what drew them to Clubhouse and their takeaways from the conversations that happened in closed rooms.
Raja Jesrina Azlina Raja Arshad, CEO and co-founder of PurelyB
Why did you join?
I joined back in January out of pure intrigue. I saw a lot of entrepreneurs and entertainers in the US talking about sharing sessions they were giving on Clubhouse end of last year, and I was lucky enough to get an invite to join soon after.
What features do you like on this app?
I love listening to podcasts daily, to continuously improve my mindset and approach to my business and my life, and connecting with like-minded people in webinar talks and sharing sessions. So Clubhouse is refreshing as it is almost like a combination of podcasts, masterclasses and webinars with some networking.
You do have to be really selective about which rooms you go into though, and how often you go in as well, otherwise it can take up a lot of time and may not be very productive or useful. I found that in my first week of using the app and ever since then, I only go in once in a while for very selected topics that I know will be of good use to me.
What improvements would you like to see?
To open up participation for popular rooms. Elon Musk hosted a room where he grilled Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev in the midst of the Game Stop stock market phenomenon, for the truth and inside scoop, and it was a fascinating listen! Thankfully I caught the recording on YouTube but I wouldn’t have been able to join in the live chat in the room otherwise because of the max participants of 5,000 per room restriction that Clubhouse has (even though they did exceed that for Elon Musk that day). So allowing more participants to listen in rooms especially with popular speakers would be ideal.
Also to be able to privately message (maybe via audio messages to stay true to the app’s format) to people you connect with in a room for further discussions/collaborations. How we do that currently is to DM them on Instagram, but it just feels a bit disconnected to do that. Plus, some people don’t put their IG handle on their Clubhouse profile.
What were interesting takeaways from the conversations you’ve joined in so far?
In a most recent conversation I’ve joined in, “The Future of Inclusion x Equity in Beauty & Wellness” hosted by some prominent beauty & wellness women entrepreneurs and investors in the US, it was just really interesting to hear what these women had to do to break through the “boys club” in Silicon Valley, or try to find loopholes to get funding and support when they were clearly disadvantaged due to their gender, and how they’ve managed to get where they are, with some even creating their own venture capitalist firms to help more women founders, and us participants being able to connect with them offline if there’s synergy. There was a lot of frustration aired in the room by the different women entrepreneurs and from observing how we tackle these obstacles in different ways, it was insightful to learn from one another and was comforting too.
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