The platform, led by Anna Ford from Camden, takes the hassle out of starting and managing a book club so users can focus on reading, discussing and being together.
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Anna Ford is co-founder and CEO of Bookclubs, an online platform that helps users start, manage or join a book club. Mainebiz caught up with the Camden-based entrepreneur for a readout on the startup, which has six full-time employees (including three in Maine) and works with eight remote developers on a contractual basis.
Mainebiz: What did you do before starting Bookclubs?
Anna Ford: My career was in public health policy and advocacy, but I’ve been a book club enthusiast since I joined my first club in 2005. Even now, I participate in six active clubs.
Running Bookclubs has a public health tie-in for me. Book clubs combat social isolation and bring people together. When you’re reading and discussing a book together, that experience will bring you closer and highlight what you have in common. It builds community.
MB: What inspired the idea for your business?
AF: I was leading a book club that quickly grew from four to 40 members. We had so much fun together, but I wasn’t having much fun handling the logistics. Scheduling. Figuring out who was showing up and who wasn’t. What to read. Inviting new people. Setting up the discussion questions. I was drowning in email, and attendance was waning.
I loved my club and wanted to make sure we stayed together. In a serendipitous twist, I met my co-founder (and future husband) Ian Campbell through book club friends. Ian is a programmer and developer. I pitched him on the idea of helping us, and we launched Bookclubs at the end of 2019. We’re now helping over 100,000 book clubs read together.
MB: What does the platform offer?
AF: We take the hassle out of starting and managing a book club so you can focus on reading, discussing and being together.
You can set up online or in-person clubs, schedule meetings, arrange discussions, and vote on what to read next. You can also manage members, schedule meetings, track RSVPs, conduct polls, streamline communication, keep a digital library, share community reviews and track books, all in one central place.
Bookclubs is great for building culture in the workplace, too — we see that as a promising growth area.
MB: Who and where are your users?
AF: The majority of our clubs are traditional, in-person groups. Most are U.S.-based, but we’re growing quickly in the U.K., Canada and Australia. We’re serving nearly a million readers. Many are women, and we see an equal age distribution between 25 and 70-plus, but there are more men and young people than you’d predict.
We’re also seeing strong growth in online the number of corporate groups, libraries, bookstores, schools and churches using Bookclubs.
MB: How do you finance the free services?
AF: We offer core organizing features for free, because accessibility and community building are important to us. We do this by offering more powerful tools through a paid subscription. About 30% of clubs upgrade to Bookclubs Premium.
MB: What premium services do you offer?
AF: We offer three paid tiers with lots of advanced features.
The first tier is designed to streamline all club logistics for the admin by adding additional polling options such as ranked and multiple choice; direct messaging; and automatic calendar integration. The pro tier includes all premium features plus text messaging and custom branding. At the top tier, we offer more customizable management tools and the ability to host video meetings within the platform.
MB: How have you financed your business so far?
AF: Bookclubs was fully bootstrapped in the early days. After a small angel round, we raised our first equity round in 2022, working with Maine Venture Fund and Maine Technology Institute.
MB: What’s next for Bookclubs?
AF: We are on track to reach profitability this year. We’re also really excited about reaching more businesses and university alumni groups. We’re building technology to support more chapter clubs on our platform as many large, online and celebrity book clubs want to also foster local connections. Long term, we’re keeping an eye on international expansion.