The National Journal

From the K Street Corridor

Grassroots Grit
One of the Internet phenomena of the 2004 presidential cycle --
Meetup.com -- has inked an alliance with Grassroots Enterprise,
the online communications company chaired by former Clinton
White House press secretary Mike McCurry. Meetup.com was
launched just over a year ago and enables Web users to link up
with like-minded individuals in 580 cities across 42 countries
to discuss topics ranging from pets to politics. It has received
a lot of attention for helping supporters of Democratic
presidential hopeful Howard Dean organize across the country.
Dean ranks as the Web site's No. 1 topic of interest.

The new alliance is designed to marry the complementary
strengths of Meetup.com and Grassroots Enterprise, said
Grassroots President Arvind Rajan. Grassroots keeps the leaders
of campaigns and issue-oriented groups in touch electronically
with supporters that they already know exist. Meetup, in
contrast, offers a model for attracting new supporters to a
campaign. Under the alliance, the two privately held companies
will integrate their technologies and team up on marketing and
sales. "Our partnership with Grassroots Enterprise is a
double-barreled blast of grassroots grit," said Meetup.com CEO
Scott Heiferman.

Meanwhile, in an illustration of Grassroots' bipartisan
approach, McCurry's company has recently been helping the
Republican National Committee send e-mails to supporters. Rajan
said he could not comment on the details of client business. --
Louis Jacobson