Jan 25, 2021
Clubhouse-How an App Premised on Exclusion Creates Inclusion.
Clubhouse a new invite-only app that is premised on exclusion creates communities that allow Inclusion for “real outsiders.”
You may have recently been sent a random invitation to this app called Clubhouse in the past couple of months. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about (if you want to get invited shoot me a message I have a couple of invites) the app is an invite-only social network that comprises live conversations between groups of people. Basically its a large group call, but what makes it intriguing is the interesting amalgamation of people who are on the app.
I’ve been on the app for the past two months, and here’s what I have noticed about the different demographics of people who are on, and more importantly how that amalgamation leads for an app that is “premised on exclusion” to create a unique form of inclusion.
Here’s the breakdown of Clubhouse users:
- Tech elites/Celebrities
What makes the app notable is that it is backed by one of the super-elite Silicon Valley venture capital funds Andreeson Horowitz. Due to this, the app is actually largely populated by a lot of tech elites like Andreeson-Horowitz’s founders: Ben Horowitz, whose wife, Felicia, is very active on the app, and Marc Andreeson, Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, and tech journalist Josh Constine.
Celebrities are a huge fixture of Clubhouse, with Ashton Kutcher, designer Virgil Abloh, and a bunch of rappers like Meek Mill and Soulja Boy. More than anything, I think them being on just helps convince people like me that I should want to be on.
2) High Performers of Hustle Culture
Closely following celebrities are young high performers. Think Forbes 30 under 30, or the kinds of people who have feature articles on Fortune Magazine. Pretty much they are the kinds of people who you haven’t really heard of, but when you search them up on social media they have blue checkmarks. While not always the case, they usually also come with a very high educational pedigree (Stanford, Harvard, etc), and seem to use the app more frequently than celebrities. You’ll find them having tens of thousands of followers when you sign up, likely have started a company, or are Instagram famous. They’ll often be co-hosting a conversation with someone like Meek Mill or some billionaire.
3) Privileged and Pedigreed Hustlers
Following them is the hustle culture group, is the Millenials/gen z' hustle culture kids. You know, the kinds of people who you meet in college who have already tried two to three startup projects, with one may be gaining some “traction,” or they work for one of the elite big tech/finance companies or a Unicorn startup.
What is key to note about this group is that while they may not have actually accomplished anything, if you met them you’d sure think that they have. They are college-educated, and usually, elite college-educated at that. While they are primarily white/Asian, there are for sure a lot of black/Latinx people who are in this bubble.
They are young, and either through birth or through hustling, well educated, and connected. Most importantly, they know the names you are supposed to know and the topics you are supposed to care about., and probably through their family/friends’ connections have met the who’s who of entrepreneurship, finance, tech, and culture.
Think Winklevoss Twins when they were at Harvard, but nowadays it’s more economically diverse. Meaning middle-class elite educated kids who are a lot more multicultural/woke, but united in their wanting to be connected and rich. These are the aspirational future insiders.
4) Nait Jones’ “Outsiders”
The last group is the most significant. They are Nait Jones’s “real outsiders.” For those who don’t know Nait Jones, he’s a partner at Andreeson Horowitz, specifically focusing his work on culture. Jones, a black British man who didn’t graduate from college, wrote an article in which he reflects on inclusion. Inclusion is a huge buzzword the corporate bubble (even more so in the tech/VC bubble), but what he points out is that while there is a huge focus on including black/brown people and women by these major companies, what they are looking for the right kind of “outsiders.” The right kind of “outsiders” are from non-represented communities, black, Latinx, Female, who still carry with them the pedigree of elite spaces, such as Harvard or Stanford, or come from very well connected backgrounds. Jones says that these “insider” outsiders are actually the most in-demand form of talent in Silicon Valley.
This is where Jones coins the term “real outsiders” to represent people like himself. People who come from non-wealthy households who didn’t go to elite schools/come from the underrepresented group that standard inclusion doesn’t factor in-poor/unconnected people.
It’s the talented individuals who are hidden that are the unrealized success stories: The single mom from East Palo Alto who learns how to code on the weekends while she works at Home Depot; the street kid with the natural hustle and sales ability from South Los Angeles who was kicked out of school before we could learn that he has naturally gifted abilities that translate to sales operations; and on and on.
Nait Jones’ “Real Outsiders”
How Clubhouse creates Inclusion:
What is most noticeable from my two months using this app, is that the group the most frequent users of Clubhouse are Nait Jones’ “real outsiders.” When you go on to Clubhouse and you sit in on a call, the majority of the participants that you see are minorities who aren’t in the Silicon Valley Bay Area tech bubble. They are typically black/brown people who when you click on their profile don’t list their academic pedigree the way that the “hustle culture” young people do.
This creates inclusion in a couple of ways. Firstly, what it allows is for the “real outsiders” to build networks and learn from the real “insiders” of tech, music, entrepreneurship, and culture. Back in the day, the only way you would be able to hear a lecture by a billionaire would be to go to a Harvard or Stanford pedigreed institution. However, with the internet, you can watch whoever you want to lecture on Youtube. With Clubhouse, not only can you listen to them, you can actually participate in a live conversation, asking whatever question you may have about their careers or how to grow yours.
Beyond that and perhaps even more useful is that while most of us who are outside of the entrepreneurship bubble may know some of the major names of tech people like Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, or Jack Dorsey, what Clubhouse allows is for is “the real outsiders” to get to know the names of the people who work at the major VC firms, tech companies, or have founded their own business. I actually learned about Nait Jones through Clubhouse where he is one of the more followed users. Learning the names of the less prominent than Peter Thiel/Mark Zuckerberg Venture Capitalists/entrepreneurs is vital for people who wanna learn how to pitch their company to the real big wigs down the line. Or for “real outsiders” who as Jones says would be stellar in VC, but because they lack the network/pedigree of top-tier colleges/privileged families are filtered out without a chance.
While Clubhouse is creating a new form of inclusion for the “real outsiders”, what is worth noting is that it continues a problematic theme that Rap Genius founder Mahbod Moghadam told me during his interview for my podcast. That black culture has helped build many online platforms, making them become cool/trendy (Twitter-Lil B was one of OG power users, Soundcloud-most of SoundCloud rappers are black/brown, Youtube-SouljaBoy had one of the first-ever viral videos) but despite being the first movers into the new tech, these groups don’t get compensated financially for it. While there are benefits of building online clout, which is an ever-increasing asset in today’s digital age, there isn’t any reward for the majority of users who help build billion-dollar valuations for typically White/Asian founders and Venture Capitalists.
I actually listened in to a conversation about this on Clubhouse talked about the fact that Clubhouse was “once again rich people raising millions of dollars off of us” and “pretty soon this will be a billion-dollar app off of us building it up.” Chances are the dude was right. As we all know, the reason why these tech companies get huge checks is that they have us as users. We are their product, and once again a social media company will be able to build themselves off of the “real outsiders” while the compensation only goes to the people in the first three categories I mentioned of Clubhouse users.
Like most new inventions, Clubhouse provides some uniquely cool benefits. Specifically, it creates a form of inclusion for the “real outsiders.” However, while it does this, it still reinforces some of the harsh inequities of the present tech and political reality.
Note- This article doesn’t focus on if “invite-only” apps are moral, I am totally not the person to answer that question. The article lends itself heavily to the idea’s that Nait Jones writes about in his article on inclusivity, which I suggest you check out if you found this to be interesting!
Be sure to follow me on social media, including Clubhouse ;)
I’m @ jacobkozhipatt on pretty much everything. Also, Check out my baller podcast-Keepin Kozy!
