Yorkshire duo go global with new virtual networking tech
Two Yorkshire businessmen have gone global with a virtual networking platform, meeow, after attracting an additional host to roll out meetings in the United States.
Chris Rabbitt and Simon Glenn have welcomed Ohio-based Keith Engelhardt to help satisfy increased global demand for meeow’s four-person virtual meetings (meeows).
As a host, Engelhardt will lead the delivery of twice weekly meeows, timed to appeal to a business audience on the East Coast of America.
Engelhardt is the 19th professional to become a meeow host since the platform was launched in May 2020.
He said: “I have attended a good number of meeows over the last two months and have been quietly impressed by the format, the quality of conversations and the opportunities each session has created for me.
“meeow offers a terrific opportunity for every member to speak to more people in a deeper, more secure, more meaningful and cost-effective way, and I’m delighted to be able to introduce America to this amazing concept and platform.”
In 2020, traditional networking was badly disrupted by the economic fallout and social restrictions brought about by COVID-19.
Rabbitt and Glenn, whose partnership blossomed from a chance meeting, developed a solution that allowed businesspeople to meet.
Using a platform designed for business networking, meeow brings four people together, at random, to talk about their businesses, creating a virtual business community full of opportunities.
Rabbitt said: “I couldn’t be more excited about this move into the North American market. Meeow is such a personal labour of love for Simon and I.
“We’re career networkers and truly believe in the power of making connections and helping out those you meet on the way.
“Meeow allows everyone the chance to network effectively – we’ve even included subtitles for those hard of hearing.
“The platform is just the start of some great ideas we’ve got to revolutionise the whole process of finding and winning business through the power of random.”
Engelhardt’s appointment comes just days before meeow launches a crowdfunding round on Crowdcube which will help finance the development of the UK’s first self-hosting, virtual networking platform.
Glenn said: “Our plan was always to expand in line with the growing demand for our unique form of networking.
“We’ve had to add a lot of capacity in the last two months and this US expansion is the icing on the cake. We’re so pleased with the reaction we’ve seen.
“We’re already in talks with additional US hosts who can assist us until the self-hosting meeow platform takes over and we hope our crowdfund investors will see this move into the US as a further incentive to get involved.”
