Written by Helené van Tonder
As a leap.club member, you’re probably familiar with clubhouses — the feature that allows members to form micro-communities around shared interests and passions. Clubhouses have become our favourite part of leap.club, and many seem to share this opinion. They’re buzzing with activity!
A couple of fellow clubhouse-enthusiasts have been kind enough to collaborate with us on this article. What follows below is their take on some of the clubhouse events they attended last weekend. (Yes, all of the events you’ll read about below happened on one weekend!) They also share what their favourite clubhouses are 🙃
Big thanks to Ria Sikdar, Sonam Dave, Kritika Kulshrestha, Pooja Prakash, Shambhobi Bhattacharya and Surbhi Aroraa for this collaboration!
clubhouse: women in finance
By Ria Sikdar
This clubhouse was started by Sayantani Mukherjee, and the latest huddle was on the topic of mentorship. Sayantani is great at facilitating conversations! Although it was essentially a free-flowing conversation, Sayantani had clearly come prepared with a few great questions on the topic of mentorship. She used these questions to move the conversation forward, and it made for a multidimensional discussion where we got to share our perspectives, learn from each other, and explore the topic of mentorship together. A few of the attendees had some great pointers and hearty stories to share — which made the conversation endearing and insightful at the same time.
Ria’s favourite clubhouses: let’s get quizzical, women in finance, simplifying personal finance for women, crossroads, and a peek into the industry.
clubhouse: social media marketing
By Sonam Dave
This clubhouse was started by Ria Sinha, and we got together on Saturday for our first huddle with the aim of getting to know each other. We discussed everything ranging from our career paths, interests in marketing, social media, to how to craft strategies for different types of clients.
It was fascinating to hear everyone’s career story! None of us set out to become marketers, rather we stumbled upon this trajectory through earlier roles or experiences. And since each of us learnt on the job our experience is richer and we are also open to experimenting. We’re all looking forward to doing more of these huddles and including more people!
Sonam’s favourite clubhouses: simplifying personal finance for women, creative strategies and brand identities, crossroads, and social media marketing.
clubhouse: product professionals
By Kritika Kulshrestha
This clubhouse was started by Vandana Khatuja, and we recently had our introductory huddle. Nearly 20 women with varied backgrounds joined in! The huddle was all about sharing our life stories, our experiences with product management, and our career pivots. It was great to discover all the things we have in common over and above product. We initially planned to have a product teardown, but since the introductions were so fabulous, we decided to have the teardown in an upcoming huddle. Another evening of fun conversations with leap.club ladies. It was totally worth it!
Kritika’s favourite clubhouses: wanderlust, and let’s get quizzical!!!
clubhouse: let’s get quizzical!!!
By Pooja Prakash
This clubhouse was started by Pavithra Krishnan, and it’s been a hit right from the start. People are always talking about it! So I decided it’s time for me to join in and see what the ‘hullabaloo’ is all about. And now I understand! Pavithra is an amazing quizmaster. She meticulously plans the quiz and that cannot be an easy task.
This time, the format was a little different — kind of like an open night with all of us buzzing for the right answers. The questions are not at all easy, but deciphering them is the fun part. By now we know that with Pavithra, the devil is always in the details! The quiz session filled everyone with a sudden bout of energy, so much so that those who were taken a little ill were full of energy. I am certainly looking forward to more quizzes!
Pooja’s favourite clubhouses: wanderlust, gin & wine, and binge or cringe.
clubhouse: crossroads
Also by Kritika Kulshrestha
This clubhouse was started by Helené van Tonder, and the latest huddle was focused on casual sexism at work — a topic suggested by Lavanya Manickam. More than 25 women joined in for this conversation, and it left me with a mix of emotions. I’m thankful I haven’t had to face that much of sexism in my career so far. However, a part of me realised that we have such a long way to go in terms of bringing about societal change. The women were coming up with solutions, speaking up, and challenging the norms. So, even if I haven’t personally gone through such a situation, I feel confident that I have so many leap.club sisters to look up to.
clubhouse: the sales club
By Surbhi Aroraa
This clubhouse was started by Gayatri Gajupaka, and she brought together folks from different industries for this huddle. I really loved the conversation — specifically the fact that everyone is from different industries and has very rich experience to share. It’s a wonderful platform where we can deep dive and learn about sales with respect to our own industry and also from diverse domains. Since this was our first huddle, we also spent some time discussing the structure we want to follow for our next huddles.
Surbhi’s favourite clubhouses: the sales club, and crypto-club.
clubhouse: all things food
By Shambhobi Bhattacharya
This clubhouse was started by (chef!) Smriti Walia. About 10 of us hopped on a call to talk about our go-to comfort food. Firstly, did the huddle make everybody hungry and go ahead and order all the food discussed? Hell yes! Throughout the huddle, we realised ‘comfort’ means a lot of different things to each of us. For some it was their mom’s special dish- ‘ghar ka rajma chawal’ or ‘the dosa made at home’ or the ‘rasam, rice and dahi’ they would lick off their plates as kids. For others it was their favourite go-to cuisine in their current city- that darjeeling momo stall that is absolutely loved or that bowl of pho at this restaurant that’s so close to their tummy or sushi at their favourite date place in town.
For some again, it was the exotic dishes they had tried out in their travels across the globe and tried to replicate at home. The most common comfort food turned out to be — rajma chawal, dahi rice and, surprisingly, Korean food! The highlight of the huddle would be when one of the members concluded that “the only gourmet food you’ll find at my place would be my cat’s” and everybody started laughing. All in all, we had an evening of so much sharing, so many belly rubs, a lot of cooing and aah-ing and just non-stop banter ‘all about food’, staying true to the clubhouse’s name.
Shambhobi’s favourite clubhouses: let’s get quizzical, and all the many book clubs —📚 novels about women, design book club, leaper’s book club.
ready to join the action?
If you’re not part of any clubhouses yet, we’ll encourage you to immediately join 3–4 clubhouses that are relevant to you. In addition to the clubhouses mentioned above, you might want to try out these: ‘founders @ leap.club’, ‘squats, sprints & coffee’, ‘queer leapers’, ‘impact sector folks’ ‘the mentor hunt’ or any of the other 50 clubhouses not mentioned yet.
Loads of professional and social interactions are happening here. You’ll meet like-minded people, find allies, learn from others’ experiences, and contribute your own knowledge, perspectives and gifts. You’ll also find that clubhouses are safe spaces where women get together to discuss difficult topics and open up about their struggles. Last but absolutely not least, you’ll have loads of fun!
Not a leap.club member yet? Join the waitlist right-away!
