Building a $1 million Social Club with Draymond Washington (Three Cities Social Club)

Alan Li (00:01)
Today we have Draymond Washington, who's the founder of Three Cities Social Club, which is a Chicago-based membership club built around helping adults make real friends and build a genuine community. And before launching the business, he played professional soccer and also worked in finance, giving him a pretty unique path into entrepreneurship. So Draymond, thanks so much for joining the Opening Soon podcast.

Draymond Washington (00:23)
Yeah, thanks for having me. Excited to dive in.

Alan Li (00:25)
Awesome.

great. Likewise. So before we dive into what you've built at Three Cities, we'd love to hear a little bit more about what you did in your background with soccer, finance, and anything else.

Draymond Washington (00:39)
Yeah, yeah. So I grew up in the DC area, played soccer at George Mason, played professionally for about three years afterwards, blew out my knee. So then moved back to DC to kind of start life ⁓ and always kind of miss that community feel of playing sports, right? Sports always kind of gives you that team feel. You grow up in it. mean, it was pretty much my identity at that point. But then I got married, moved to Chicago right after, right after the wedding.

wanted to try a city where we didn't know anyone. At that point, was so now I'm about 26, 26, 26. And I'm forgetting myself 26.7. And then moved to Chicago, didn't know anyone basically threw a dart at a map wanted to see a new city. So got here as financial advisor at Merrill at that time.

Alan Li (01:11)
Hmm. And what age is this now?

Draymond Washington (01:34)
And so I started joining other social clubs to meet people personally and professionally. And I kind of found that there's, a big social club scene here in Chicago. And I kind of found that the community side was missing. It was more kind of like you're buying into a hospitality space, buying into a bar. So I was never really meeting anyone intentionally. So wasn't growing my financial advising business and I wasn't really growing my personal side.

Alan Li (01:38)
Mm-hmm.

Draymond Washington (02:01)
So by the time I jumped to the third social club, my wife was like, I'm done. joining these clubs. We're not doing anything with them. And that's when the idea kind of came.

Alan Li (02:12)
Hmm. So the move to Chicago was purely throwing a dart on a map or were there any other reasons?

Draymond Washington (02:20)
Yeah, knew nothing about it. I'd never even been to Chicago until I walked into my apartment. Yeah, it was really between here and LA and LA was a little far from home and time zone difference from the DC area made it a little tricky. there we'll try Chicago. We were only going to come for a few years. We were working at jobs. It was very easy to obviously move back to DC and we're still here. So nine years later.

Alan Li (02:47)
This is nine years after you moved to Chicago. Okay. And you said you tried a bunch of the social clubs and none of them felt like a community, but more renting a bar. What does that mean specifically?

Draymond Washington (02:51)
Yeah.

Yeah, I like, I mean, I think every social club does what they do great, right? But I think once you add a bar and a restaurant in, it becomes more of like a hospitality scene than they've had to like the community building scene. So I really just felt like I was going to the bar all the time at the club or going to eat and never really felt like there was a way to like actually walk in and feel like you could talk to the person next to you. was more like reservation based. ⁓

That's great events. think they all, I mean, some of them have around hundreds of years. So think they all kind of have their lane that they've paved. But for me, I was looking for the community side and I never really was getting that.

Alan Li (03:39)
Makes sense. So how many years was it into your journey in Chicago before you realized, you know, there's nothing out there. I got to start my own.

Draymond Washington (03:52)
Yeah, so I've been about four years. So I started putting together events in October of 2022. I was kind of getting in tune with the tech space a little bit getting enthralled by the startup culture. So was like, all right, my my biggest problem my face is finding community, right? And building my financial advising business as well. So I was like, okay, maybe I'm just going to build a Rolodex of 50 people where we're all just like,

connectors for each other, right? Like one lawyer, one doctor, one dentist, one entrepreneur, one accountant, that we would just all kind of just throw things each other's way. And I was going to just build kind of an event business around things people already like to do. So was going to book clubs, going to the theater, playing tennis, things like that. And what I realized is that I was slowly building out this kind of connector hub.

Alan Li (04:21)
Mm-hmm.

Draymond Washington (04:48)
you realize that a lot of these people are looking for community, right? And actually we're leaning in more to the friendship side. And that's what it kind of clicked like personal always turns professional and no one really attacks the personal side. So why not build off the personal side and everyone else can kind of build off the professional side. So 2023, I did about 95 of that. Right now and.

Alan Li (05:12)
Whoa.

Draymond Washington (05:14)
When you don't have a brick and mortar, gotta be at all of them. So I think I missed like one or two. So it was a lot. So then I was like, okay, I need to find a space. Space is needed. I need to have a place where people can go when I'm not there. Cause I'm just one of the sustainable by doing this method.

Alan Li (05:30)
So, I mean, 90 events, that's what, one every four days-ish that you're hosting? Okay. ⁓ And are these paid events? Are these free events? Are they a mix? Like, describe the event.

Draymond Washington (05:35)
We're out to a week at least, yeah.

No, back then

it's funny. was cost more to become a member back then when there was only eight events a month and you were just going to play tennis or book clubs. And so people were paying 250 bucks a month to find community or find like a source of people. Right. And yeah, so those are those. Yeah. We would go to the theater. We go have game nights. It was very sporadic, very, very based on what was happening around town.

We were trying to get into different neighborhoods. So it a lot of it was like what events are going on and we'll basically book it and then people just show up.

Alan Li (06:22)
I see. So it's 250 bucks a month and they can go to unlimited events throughout the month.

Draymond Washington (06:27)
Unlimited events, no brick and mortar. You just had eight things to choose from. It fell on the day that you could make it if it was something you liked. really, mean, only 30 % of that is applicable to everyone, right? ⁓ But it was good because we would just have dinners and it was a small group and people felt like they were really learning from each other. So that helped really shape everything now because I think once you get that core group that really made it work.

They could be the blueprint ⁓ for what's next. So yeah.

Alan Li (07:02)
And

when you started it, said there was an accountant, a lawyer, a doctor. Were they the ones that started this with you or were you the one spearheading all of this?

Draymond Washington (07:11)
No, yeah, I just, no, was just spearheading it. They were, we are to this day, still a very much a members led club. So it was very much me planning everything and people showing up. to how it is now, but members really helped kind of shape everything about the club from everything. So from day one, ⁓ people would come in and I would plan it they would show, but they would help.

help me figure out what to plan next, right? So yeah.

Alan Li (07:43)
Okay. I mean, 90 events a year, twice a week. Do you also have your full-time job at Merrill still or how are you balancing the two?

Draymond Washington (07:54)
Yeah, the whole time. ⁓ It was fine though, because I mean, in that industry, need to be busy every night anyway, right? I mean, it doesn't stop when you get off the clock at all. So I mean, this was really just like a normal part of being in that industry. So the events didn't really feel like anything. It actually felt a little better because I felt like I was actually being connected with people and not going to an event hoping to be connected to someone. ⁓

Alan Li (08:03)
Mm.

Draymond Washington (08:22)
So it was actually pretty easy in that sense. It was more just like the planning of everything and maintaining both. just became a lot.

Alan Li (08:28)
Yeah.

Was this started as more of a reason to help with your financial advising business and then it shifted into a standalone entity? Is that how it happened?

Draymond Washington (08:40)
How diverse that.

100%. I mean, it definitely started as like, how do we build a circle, right? Like how do we, how do we, how do we master this game of sales? Like, you know, I mean, cold calling was dead. Merrill had this thing, Merrill had this big lawsuit and they had, they basically put ⁓ a pause on cold calling for a while. So you had to figure out a different way. And for someone who wasn't from here, I had to find that different way. ⁓

So that's really how it all kind of, was like, okay, I got to find a way to build this business out. then, and then you realize how close people were getting and you're like, they're like, dang, it's so hard to meet people. And then you're like, obviously the gears start turning like, wow, it's so hard to meet people. I already, I've always enjoyed this. I mean, I've had social clubs on my mind for a long time. So I was just like, okay, let's just do it then. Let's just go all in. So I went, I, I, I,

quit at Merrell when I opened up the brick and mortar, so that was in July 2024.

Alan Li (09:45)
July 2024, nice.

Draymond Washington (09:46)
So

yeah, I so I 16 months of doing both. It was a lot.

Alan Li (09:50)
Wow, it's funny, I used to be an intern at Merrill on the financial advising side in college. And I remember those cold calling scripts that I would read off.

Draymond Washington (09:54)
Okay. Yeah. So you know, ⁓ yeah.

And I don't mind that my very first job was all cold calling. So I mean, that was definitely my bread and butter. So when they, it was about three months and I'd started it, it was about three months and when they were just like cold calling is done. And I was like, Whoa, like that was like what I was making on. ⁓ and I was like, okay, this, gotta figure out a new way to figure this business out.

Alan Li (10:22)
There's always another way, but yeah, those were funny, fond memories. ⁓ Okay, so it morphs into an actual business because you realize the quality of relationships that you're building amongst the members. ⁓ Walk me through the process of that realization and what it takes to actually find open a physical space.

Draymond Washington (10:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, so was probably about October 2023 that I was like, all right, let's do it. Let's just open a space. My net was cast pretty wide across Chicago, real estate wise. I didn't have a neighborhood that I was enthralled by. I just knew it was kind of going to be somewhere in Chicago and it just needed to be the perfect space. And it actually took forever to find.

⁓ It took about eight months that I found this space that I liked and it just happened to be some, new tech company had gone out of business and they needed someone to move in right away. So I didn't even have to do much build out of this war, kind of revamping it to furniture lighting and all that jazz to kind of fit our mood.

Alan Li (11:39)
Yeah. Was this through a broker or

were you looking on loop net or how are you, how are you even seeing spaces?

Draymond Washington (11:44)
Yeah,

I had a broker at that, I had a broker looking and the broker found it. So that was about, so then it just happened to me in River North. And I was like, all right, that's perfect. Grabbed the highway, top floor of an office building. It fit what I needed for the sense of like, we are a social club with coworking space. So it needed to also be feasible for coworking in the sense that private offices, conference room, things like that sort of as well.

Alan Li (12:13)
Mm-hmm.

Draymond Washington (12:15)
Yeah, I it just worked. ⁓ It's funny because Wicker Park I found in one day River North took me about eight months. So that's all kind of its own story in itself. that's a yes. Go ahead.

Alan Li (12:25)
⁓ How

big is the River North space? What are you paying for rent? Give me all the details.

Draymond Washington (12:34)
Yeah, River North is 7,500 square feet and that one's 14,000. Wicker is about 10,000 square feet.

Alan Li (12:38)
Wow, it's quite big.

Draymond Washington (12:48)
Yeah, pay about 20, 27,000 a month. Yeah.

Alan Li (12:51)
Okay, that's a decent

amount of rent too.

Draymond Washington (12:56)
It's decent amount of rent. It's a decent amount of rent. But it's our biggest overhead. I I just hired my first employee about two months ago, Ali Schaubers. So before then it was just me. So I didn't have a ton of overhead. The lights just need to stay on. The cleaning crew comes every night and then really just...

Alan Li (13:04)
Yeah.

But this is your business,

like the space needs to be nice because it's somewhere people come to hang out. It is your product. ⁓

Draymond Washington (13:23)
It is a product.

And when someone's paying a monthly dues, they expect something, right? It's not like it's a one-time payment of this or that where I can just have a space that people are just coming in to buy one shirt, right? This is the place that people are signing up to be their third space. So it needs to be, it has to look like something, right? So I found a great ⁓ interior design company who designed both spaces and they really had a good eye for Flair.

With the the budget I had right like I if I had unlimited budget, who knows what it would look like. Well, they were able to pull out a rabbit out of a hat with the amount I gave them so.

Alan Li (14:04)
Nice. ⁓

So when you found the space after eight or so months, how quick was it to set up? I know you said you didn't have to change too much. And then how much were renovation costs?

Draymond Washington (14:17)
It took four months. That one, all of them are about $300,000 to open. I did have to touch a wall and I didn't get any money from either them.

Alan Li (14:32)
No TI from any landlord.

Draymond Washington (14:33)
said

no TI from that one. I will for this one coming up on this lease for news, but no TI for that one. See, they had just built out this space for this client and they just had gone out of business. So they weren't, they weren't budging there. They built every wall in there for them. And I think they went out of business in like three months. So no TI, so about four months, it kind of turned around with.

Alan Li (14:46)
⁓

I

Yikes.

Draymond Washington (15:01)
the city licensing plus, well, we did a big electrical kind of revamp. ⁓

and then painting wallpaper, that type of jazz, but about four months.

Alan Li (15:12)
Got it.

Sure.

Where did you get the funds for this? Was it personal savings? Did you raise capital?

Draymond Washington (15:23)
Yeah, both of them personal say both impersonal. We'll see. The goal is to expand here next year or so, and we'll probably need to do something where it's not out of my pocket for the next one. So we'll start to need to explore what that even looks like. I never I've seen what venture does to some social clubs for sure that I followed. I pretty much I track a. A lot of social clubs.

Alan Li (15:52)
a lot

in New York.

Draymond Washington (15:53)
a lot, a lot. I have a kind of a spreadsheet of venture back and I mean, don't know, obviously, the ones that are out outgoing of what our venture back and you can kind of see like the changes they make bi weekly almost from pricing to who they are, their identity and stuff. So never really wanted to do that. But also at end of the you need money to expand and you just do so that's on the docket. But I definitely wanted to get established.

and set the pace of what I wanted the company to be before I touched the dime. So now that I'm there, think I can, I think I know what I'm getting into now. So it's a little easier, but expect.

Alan Li (16:34)
Okay, well talk to me a little bit more about

the thought process between venture versus not venture because it seems like you've done quite a bit of work on it.

Draymond Washington (16:43)
Yeah, because when I was thinking of the idea, was basically when venture was like the most popular thing in the world, Like October 22, Twitter is going crazy. That's when I started hanging around the tech space. So I was like, OK, maybe the tech industry would be my clientele ⁓ for Admiral. So I just started going to a bunch of stuff. And so you just hear so much about venture. I don't come from a startup family or background or anything of that sort.

So of course I was enthralled by it, then I was just, and then it just hit where it was like just hit in a wall, right? And so I was able to see that too. And that's what I was like, okay, this is interesting. And I was like, and if I can do it, I can do it, right? Like I only got to get to a certain amount of members for this thing to just be flowing, right? I mean, my expenses don't go up per member. So I just got to hit that number, which should happen by the end of the year.

where it's just like, okay, everything can pay for itself and be golden, right? But I could also be super dangerous with more money, right? Like the more money you have for ad, I mean, every extra dollar I spend on ads is two extra numbers. So like, I look at some companies who have millions of dollars and I'm just like, I could fly. I mean, I think I have the blueprint down. I think I know what to do. just...

Alan Li (17:45)
Mm-hmm.

Draymond Washington (18:09)
So we'll see what that looks like, whether that's just like some silent investors, whether that's venture firms, ⁓ just get kind of nervous from some of the companies I've seen. And again, it's not necessarily a billion dollar product, right? So you deal with a very finite amount of venture people who would even take that risk, right? I mean, we're not, ⁓ mean,

I could get to about 20 social clubs and who knows what the valuation would be at that point, but I don't think it's on its core, right? I'm not pushing it as a technology company like some other social clubs who are venture backed. I mean, we are building an app. do have, that's almost done. Like it does have all those capabilities, but I just haven't leaned in until like, my God, we are a tech social club invest. So yeah.

Alan Li (18:59)
Yeah.

That's a point. And I mean, it's probably pretty interesting that your first one took over the space of a failed venture startup too, which might've given you a pause on taking money as well.

Draymond Washington (19:14)
Exactly. Even though I do think that, I think they went out of business. I think from what I've, I think the company who bought this company first kind of just wanted the engineering of the tool that they were using and not necessarily the company. ⁓ But hey, the owners are like 30 years old and they sold for a hundred million a few months prior. So I'm sure they weren't too upset at the end of the day. Well,

Alan Li (19:39)
⁓ so it didn't go out of business, they were sold.

Draymond Washington (19:42)
They

sold and then I think the company who bought it, well they went out of business because it was a five year lease that went out in three months. So something happened. ⁓ Yeah, something happened. I don't know if the company wanted to just buy them out and get them out of the industry. ⁓ It was a very COVID heavy product.

Alan Li (19:53)
I see.

Got it.

got it. But it seems like, you you wanted to get your feet under you figure out how this thing works and potentially take venture or not. You know, as it gets going. Cool.

Draymond Washington (20:15)
Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah.

mean, I didn't want to answer to someone else when I didn't even know the answer. Right. So I mean, it actually I mean, it's kind of it's an interesting one. Right. Like for a year and half, it was just me. And I think when it's just you want, can only know what you know. But I also think it gives you the ability to just try things and just run.

Alan Li (20:22)
Fair. That's better than most.

Draymond Washington (20:40)
And so just ran, I sprinted, I tried things, things worked, things didn't work. I was able to scratch it really quick. And I think I was able to get to that point where I could open the second company without having, or the second location without having to like sit in meetings all the time answering questions. And so I think it, I think that was where I was, benefited from. think it was just like, okay, we're just doing this and we're trusting our members and your people are your biggest.

your biggest answers and your questions. So all I have to do is ask them and the answer is right there. So yeah.

Alan Li (21:14)
Yeah, yeah.

Walk me through the business model. Is it as simple as just a monthly membership or what other inputs are there or outputs too?

Draymond Washington (21:25)
monthly

membership plus private event rentals. do about four, but not at the second location. I do about six private events a month. ⁓ So ⁓ that's big revenue driver. Like River North is rented out this entire week. ⁓ So like little things here and there. And that's also the benefit of a second club because I wouldn't have done that before the second club, because I do feel guilty closing the club every now and then.

Alan Li (21:33)
Okay.

wow.

Draymond Washington (21:53)
I don't feel guilty now that I have a second club just because they can go here or there, you know. So I do about...

Alan Li (21:55)
Mm.

Yeah. Is River North and Wicker Park

fairly close to each other? Oh, so okay, very close. Got it.

Draymond Washington (22:04)
Yeah, it's my mom.

It's long way in the city grid of Chicago. Chicago runs very north, south, east, west. And Wicker is west and River North is north, south. So in the sense of like, if you live in River North, it's hard to get to Wicker, but at the end of the day, it's still a mile and a half. Yeah, so.

Alan Li (22:24)
Yeah. Got it.

⁓ and how long was it just you running it? seems like you have a few other team members now. Is that correct?

Draymond Washington (22:36)
Of one, I've hired a senior director of operations. I mean, again, I say it was just me because it's just me, but we've had like, have member operations teams where every quarter about six members are volunteering for a quarter of like helping us grow, right? Like I've always had business advisors that I've rotated through. I've always had fractional this or that, CMOs, COOs. So I've always had help. ⁓

Alan Li (22:51)
Mm.

Draymond Washington (23:05)
But this was my first time hire. So someone who's thinking about the business, not as much as me, but close to as much as me. Whereas before everything was so fractional, you're really only getting them during the time that you have them, know? So it's a lot different.

Alan Li (23:18)
Yeah,

I see. So you had some fractional paid contract help, some volunteers, you've had a...

Draymond Washington (23:24)
I've always had

contract help for sure. I've always had the business advisors. Without them, I wouldn't be here today for sure. and members and members.

Alan Li (23:31)
Yeah.

And when someone signs up for a membership, do they get access to both clubs or a single club or you can pick?

Draymond Washington (23:39)
They get access to both clubs. So both clubs are 24 seven. So they get access to both clubs and then we do about 35 events a month now.

Alan Li (23:49)
You went from two a week to one a day, or more than one a day.

Draymond Washington (23:53)
At least.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, today we have three events,

Alan Li (23:57)
And I mean, are these events that you put on or the community puts on or both?

Draymond Washington (24:04)
I organize them and they all have their own kind of leader. Like, so like tonight we have Pilates in house. So have a Pilates instructor. Then we'll partner with Barry's, the fitness class. And some people are going to a private class there. And then we have Spanish club that meets on Tuesdays. Tomorrow we have trivia league on Wednesday nights. Two members lead that. So I just kind of organize it. then it's kind of free flowing. Now it's at the point where

Alan Li (24:16)
Yeah.

Draymond Washington (24:32)
we're kind of getting regimented. like, we have what it's called like move, play, talk, serve social. Those are kind of like our headers. So move days are all fitness based stuff. Talk things are all kind of like you're meant to build connection type events, book clubs, wine tastings to restaurants and things that are meant to be intimate to like social events. We have happy hours, game nights, things like that. Serve events. have about a volunteer event a week.

And then play so kind of league based stuff, trivia league, volleyball league, mahjong league, pool league, things like that.

Alan Li (25:06)
Nice.

Okay. That's really cool. And you are helping organize all of that. I mean, with the lead member.

Draymond Washington (25:14)
Yeah,

definitely, yeah, members give, tell us what they like and what they see around town. So about 30 % of our events are also held around town, right? So a big thing about us is we try to get around Chicago, whether that's going to theater, restaurants, neighborhood tours, things like that. So those are sometimes harder. The things that are in-house are kind of free flowing now. We kind of have them on a repetitive schedule. So it's not a ton of planning.

It's about eight to 12 events a month that need to be refreshed and thought of. So those are kind of like the things I think of monthly. The other 20 are kind of just, what's it called? They're recurring, yeah.

Alan Li (25:57)
recurring. Yeah.

When did you open Wicker Park? And like, when did you know, or get the confidence to open the second location?

Draymond Washington (26:07)
So I always knew I wanted Wicker Park next because it's a very walkable neighborhood. It's a very trendy neighborhood. It has our demographic age-wise. It's always new. And there's not any other social clubs in Wicker. It's always new Wicker Park. I was probably, I was thinking the same thing, right? Like was like, River North took eight months to find. That was with my net cast across the whole city.

So was like, Wicker Park, and I had done some research on what was in Wicker Park and nothing was there. So I was like, this is gonna take forever. So I just made a LinkedIn post. I was like, hey Wicker, I wanna come one day. And of course someone replied that day. That day that they had a sublease of all things that they had a sublease ready to go. So I went and saw it and I was like, I had everything across every box I needed.

Alan Li (26:47)
You

Draymond Washington (27:02)
space is perfect. needed an outdoor terrace and had nice outdoor terrace that has the perfect skyline views. I was like, all right. And a sublease obviously gives you a discount it for a while. So it was a good run rain and it didn't lock me into five years, right? So was like, okay, I have a year and a half to see if this actually works. And I was like, if I'm going to Wicker, then this might as well be it. So it took a little...

Alan Li (27:12)
Let's go.

Yeah.

Draymond Washington (27:30)
They had to move, were building a space, the company moving out. So they had some time until that was done. So I had some time from saying yes to like it actually being done. So that was about like four to five months. So I gave me time to get all the licensing paperwork done and start amping up and getting people excited about it. So I had a little bit of time there, but it was.

Alan Li (27:46)
Mm-hmm.

Okay, but River North

opened, remind me, in July 24? And then Wicker Park opened.

Draymond Washington (27:56)
July, 2024.

October 2025.

Alan Li (28:03)
Okay, so a year and a few months after.

Draymond Washington (28:06)
Yeah, remember I always remember is always numbers always had access to both. So wasn't like, let me open this and it's scary. Like no one will be there. It was very much like, there's just open and people will come.

Alan Li (28:17)
Yeah, got

it. ⁓ How many members do you have the first month and how many members do you have now?

Draymond Washington (28:25)
when I open River North.

Alan Li (28:27)
Yeah.

Draymond Washington (28:29)
When I was in River North, was about 20 members that had come through kind of like that journey of what I was ever I was building at that point. Now it's 325, Open Wicker with about 150. So it's been good. It's been good. It's funny because about it's funny because about 99 % of our members don't live in River North. River North is a very like post college high rise type neighborhood.

Alan Li (28:45)
Wow, that's great growth.

Mm-hmm.

Draymond Washington (28:56)
So everyone who joined was really looking for community. was like they were actively commuting in to be part of this. ⁓ And then when we opened, Wicker's a very walkable neighborhood. We're on like the main street of Wicker. ⁓ So you have a lot of people that were walking by, saw the sign, Googled it, ⁓ things like that. So it's a whole different flair in that sense.

Alan Li (29:15)
Nice.

That's really cool. And what does the membership go for? Or are there tiers to a membership?

Draymond Washington (29:28)
Back to $249 a month. So full circle, we're back to where we started back in the day. For a long time, it was $199 a month. Then I opened the second location, it's about $249. And that gives you, again, all of the access and then about 98, 95 % of your events are included in your membership. like when they have the Pilates class tonight, that'll be included. The berries will be included.

wine tastings, to whiskey club, to mahjong meetups, to every theater that we do, all the Cubs and White Sox games, all those, like, we will get the tickets and they just have to show up.

Alan Li (30:07)
Yeah. That's interesting. And then I know you said a portion of it is focused on coworking and then obviously another portion is focused on the social. ⁓ What do your members mostly come for? Is it for the coworking? it social? Is it a mix?

Draymond Washington (30:25)
We are a social club with co-working space. ⁓ So we're social first and we make co-working easy. Like that's how I describe it. I've never ran a co-working ad. I've never hashtagged co-working. We've never been a co-working company. But if you see the space, it is very much a great co-working location, right? Like River North has six private offices.

Parker Park has 14 private offices like really nice offices. have monitors, keyboards, docking stations, we proper boardroom, bottomless coffee snacks, and I don't do any of that before 630. So it's very much like what else is going to happen there during the day and we're going to go co-work, right? So it's different from your normal co-working space because those would be companies that are signing up and their employees coming here it is.

Alan Li (31:08)
Hmm.

Draymond Washington (31:18)
my social club is a good place to go work from.

Alan Li (31:23)
I see. I see a small interesting distinction. Yeah. Cause when I think of a, a we work or industrious, the busiest time is probably, you know, afternoons and then, but for you guys, I assume it's, you know, after work is,

Draymond Washington (31:24)
So yeah, yeah.

huh.

Mm-hmm

Yeah,

it's definitely after hours. mean, again, those are the distinction is that it's a co-work. Those are co-working spaces that want to be social. But most people don't want their co-working space in their social space to mix. But Wicker and you do see most of the people who work out of here during the day may not go to as many events. mean, you have families, have this or that. ⁓ But you'll get a lot of like

Alan Li (31:48)
you

Draymond Washington (32:07)
I'll go work for the afternoon and be there for when the event starts. So little things like that. But at the end of the day, I will make sure and I just brought on a new social media team and like on their content brief, it is in caps. We are not a co-working space. are the we can say it's say it's easy, right? We make co-working easy, like work and then stay for the fun. But I think you lose a little bit of that community focus part.

That's the funny part is like the one of the biggest one of the bigger venture backed social clubs I follow in California. They were all they were all social. Everything about it was social club. Meet new friends, build community. This is what we are. And now they are a co-working space all over their website. That is their jam. So and they raised the price by like 150 bucks a month. So.

Alan Li (33:03)
Huh.

Draymond Washington (33:07)
I guess I ever get in a bind, that's gonna be the... That's gonna be the... That's gonna be the... But yeah, my life's work is community and I get the most happy when I see our members hanging out outside of the club, at the club, wherever they're hanging. We do trips every quarter now, like seeing like someone move to Chicago and not know how to meet someone and being able to...

Alan Li (33:09)
That's what you're gonna do.

That's funny.

Draymond Washington (33:33)
meet someone quicker than they normally do. That's where I get like kind of my pride and joy, but we make co-working easy. We make co-working easy for you. So.

Alan Li (33:38)
That's cool. Yeah. I like that. ⁓

So at three, like 300 plus members, 250 month, you should be profitable now, I assume, right?

Draymond Washington (33:52)
Yep, profitable. I'm not paying myself. Someone once told me you're not profitable until you're paying yourself. So I like, oh yeah, that's a point. I brought in the new hire. I have some current contractors on the books that are going to drop off soon that I'm paying a pretty hefty penny to.

Alan Li (33:54)
or close to it.

Mm.

You

Draymond Washington (34:21)
And then I spent a lot on marketing. like when I have extra dollars, I spend it on marketing. ⁓ So in terms of like, are my can I control the expenses where I didn't don't they can be low? Yes, but I'm also in such growth spades. I just keep recycling it. ⁓ But I make sure right now it's like at least a dollar a month is profitable. ⁓ That makes me happy. So ⁓

Alan Li (34:26)
Got it.

Draymond Washington (34:48)
It'll be good to see a positive tax return this year. mean, past two years, obviously, with it being about $400,000 to open each space, that's come out of the negative out of my pocket. So I think it'll be nice to see this year unless something crazy happens and some new location happens.

Alan Li (34:56)
lot. Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

What are some of the biggest lessons you've learned since opening a couple of spaces? Is it everything you sort of imagined, or were there unforeseen things?

Draymond Washington (35:17)
No, definitely say I'm learning a lesson every day. ⁓ Again, I don't come from a startup background. just am trying to learn daily something new, which also means you're learning something you shouldn't do. I really reach out to a lot of social club owners and try to pick their brain quite a bit. It's fine because I've taken about 30 calls this year from people who are starting social clubs.

So guess people have kind of become an expert in the industry. So that feels like something, you know, I know I actually had a lady I followed on LinkedIn in London, who I've just, I heard her on a podcast and I was like, she's like a legend of this connection building. I just follow her. And then yesterday she messaged me and was like, Hey, have you ever thought about opening in London? I've been following you. I was like, Whoa, I've been following you.

Alan Li (35:52)
Yeah, that's awesome.

Whoa.

Draymond Washington (36:15)
I followed you. That's the only way you followed me. the fact that you messaged me here was like, all right, we must be building.

Alan Li (36:21)
Wait, she's a...

She runs a social club in London?

Draymond Washington (36:25)
She was she she's in the social club scene. She runs like a home for connection series. She talked to the TEDx speaker. I heard her on a bunch of podcasts ⁓ just talking about connection building. ⁓ And then for her to message was like, I love to look into starting that too with you. Like, how can we collaborate? This was yesterday. I was like, wow. ⁓ But I've and so I've.

Alan Li (36:31)
⁓

Got it.

That's really cool.

Draymond Washington (36:51)
I've learned the lessons I've learned when I talk to these people because I'm like, wow, like I'm helping you from day one, realizing like, wow, I went through some, some, some battle wounds. I've done nothing has hit me in the face yet. Like I haven't been like, wondering where the next dollar is going to come from. There's always another dollar to be made, especially when you have a venue. mean, at end of the day, venues can, I can turn this into a venue rental space and just be caking in money. ⁓

So there's always something you can turn to. I haven't been hit in the face yet. ⁓ But you learn something new every day because you have 350 adults who are paying a monthly dues that have a say. So you use very strong opinions. ⁓ And I'm very accessible. That was the other. From day one, I was very accessible and I'm trying to scale back a little bit because I'm too accessible. ⁓

Alan Li (37:35)
have strong opinions.

that people are just like texting you.

Draymond Washington (37:50)
Just in the sense, like

I was like, you could text me at midnight and need to give me an answer, right? Like, I mean, when you're 24 seven and someone forgot their key card at 1 a.m., their first thing you're like, let me call him. I've gotten questions like, do we have a microwave at 1 a.m. before? I'm like, man. And so, but I think that has been kind of the glitz and the glam of it a lot too, right? I think that's what's made it work. think when people trust the founder, they trust

Alan Li (38:01)
Yeah.

Ha

Draymond Washington (38:20)
the process. So I've learned a lot just from members chatting about right. I've been in a bunch of different group chats with members as well. So I'm always learning lessons. I haven't been hit in the face yet and I know I will be. I know when you run an adult company where people are partying at times, I know I will get hit in the face one day. But that hasn't happened yet. But I'll be ready for it when it does.

Alan Li (38:43)
Yeah.

I see. Yeah.

I mean, based on your 30 plus conversations with prospective founders of social clubs, ⁓ is there a pattern that you've noticed or is there, are there good reasons to open one or there are bad reasons to open one? Like why does everyone not just open a social?

Draymond Washington (39:07)
Yeah, that's actually a good two part question is I was actually talking to someone telling them that people had actually, I'm actually getting called a lot. And I may need an advisory fee here in a second. And he was like, isn't it just having capital and being able to open a place? And I like took that thought and I was like, is that all it is? Cause one, I don't have access to capital. have what's in my back pocket.

Alan Li (39:22)
Yeah.

Draymond Washington (39:35)
and it's worked, so I think some people think that it's that easy. But then I also remind myself I was at four social clubs before this and didn't find what I was looking for. So it's not just money and access to a space. So that's why I'm like, from this connection, community.

I'm not, it's definitely not a fad. mean, it's a fad right now for sure, but it's not a fad because we always need community. It's just top of mind right now. ⁓ It's something that's always going to be needed. And I think there are things we do that some people don't do differently. So I'm building out a playbook and kind of writing everything down, writing these stories down so that I have it. when I, social clubs are popping up like crazy. And it's funny because the ones that are getting the biggest valuations and the biggest.

venture-backed company are the ones that are just have events and not brick and mortar. So kind of full circle of where I started. I'm sometimes like, wow, these, you know, like, I don't know if you ever heard of two, two, two, but they're, they just got to raise a huge round and they just throw events like I used to, right. ⁓ maybe it's tech to match people and things like that, which we need to, but again, I don't, I don't put that out there really. ⁓

Alan Li (40:37)
Hmm.

Draymond Washington (40:57)
But that's where the money's flowing into because community building is being, a top sought after thing now and people see it as of the future. And so I've talked to different ones where they've been just event based and I've talked to some social owners who are opening a brick and mortar. And I've always said brick and mortar is the first step.

to really community building, because people need to know that they have a shared space that they can go to without having to make a plan. ⁓ When you go to just events, you're still making the plan and you're still giving yourself an out. ⁓ When you're paying for a space and you're paying for it, you're like, have to go. And I know I'm going to see the same people. So some of the, lot of the ones popping up have thousands of people.

attending events, it's a lot different. So whenever I talk to these people, always kind of first start with, are you building a community? Are you building an events business in that sense? There's a huge, or a hospitality space for people who want to throw a bar and things like that in there. There's a huge distinction between the three and I don't know if a ton are in the bucket that I am pursuing.

Alan Li (42:03)
Mm.

Draymond Washington (42:20)
So it's nice to talk to people from other places that are looking to build on that. Because I think there's a lot of collaboration that can be done from social club owners. think there's a lot of reciprocities, things like that. Yeah, so.

Alan Li (42:34)
Yeah, I mean, I also imagine members can feel how intentional the founder is about the experience, whether it's like, oh, social clubs are really hot right now. Let me do one just to make money from it versus this is something that I was looking for even before I opened the space. I threw 90 events a year and like I can imagine it's a little bit different from maybe someone doing it just for the bucks.

Draymond Washington (42:47)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And I think they, I think they know that. think, I mean, I pour pretty much everything I can into each event, right? Like, I mean, there's very much not nickel and diming at all. So I think members see that and I think they can talk about it. I think the members are my biggest advocates. ⁓ So that helps a lot. But yeah, I mean, definitely pouring everything into it for sure.

I community, think, I think that I have to feel, I have to build and feel the community feel in order for everyone else to feel it. ⁓ And so yeah, so that's kind of like the North Star. How do you help people build community? So.

Alan Li (43:44)
What do the next few years look like for three cities in your mind? More locations, opening in London, other cities, franchising.

Draymond Washington (43:53)
Yeah, I just built out my growth roadmap today actually for 2026. ⁓ And so by the end of 2026, my goal is what 450 members by December paying on average about a 199 a month, doing about six to seven private events a month. ⁓ If I can get to that, can justify October by October starting to scout out other locations. ⁓

Alan Li (43:58)
Perfect.

Draymond Washington (44:22)
Goal is probably about, I mean, I would say my two to three year plan is probably about four to five locations. ⁓ That's my like short term plan is how do we build locations? ⁓ I think my long term goal is probably how do I roll up social clubs under an umbrella that I run? ⁓ That's probably like my ultimate. That would be where, cause then I could go into different buckets. Like I've always wanted like.

Alan Li (44:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Draymond Washington (44:50)
a paddle club or like a coffee shop that's all about building community. Like how do you build like different avenues under this community umbrella? So I think I can get.

Alan Li (44:55)
Hmm.

And when

you say roll up, do you mean you going out and buying other businesses or starting different types of businesses under the social three cities?

Draymond Washington (45:13)
Well, the umbrella would be people that are already doing it, kind of in this hub, like in this like, so like a coffee shop that's already kind of built on community, how do we have like a, how do we have like an overarching company that's basically helping run these and give blueprints and all working together to get to this common goal of community, right? And you see it from other social clubs. I mean, you have social clubs that are like,

500 social clubs under this one umbrella. They all have their own thing. You get access to all of them, but they're all social club focused. My goal would be like, how do you have kind of different industries built under like, how are we all building community? So I don't necessarily know what that looks like. I wouldn't be the owner of all of them. I would just be kind of like the, we would have like the blueprint or the playbook that fit out into each of these kind of industries or whatever. ⁓ So that's like my big.

Alan Li (46:07)
Hmm.

Draymond Washington (46:09)
That would be my dream. Just having a social club arm, a coffee shop arm, a panel club arm, a bed and breakfast arm. That when I dream, that's what I dream. But in the short term, in the short term, it's gonna be about five, I think five social clubs. And I don't even know what that looks like. Does it end up, do you end up buying? you end up franchising? I don't know what that even looks like.

Alan Li (46:12)
Interesting.

That's cool.

Mm.

Draymond Washington (46:38)
I got to get these two like really flowing before like, don't want, I don't want eyes to get too big. ⁓ but I think now that I have the help here, I can start to focus probably about October of identifying other spaces where it could work and finding partners. I think partners and investors in those cities is probably what I would do. And so someone else can technically lead it with our kind of playbook. So that's my short and long-term.

Alan Li (47:02)
Mm-hmm. That makes sense.

Draymond Washington (47:07)
goals, but for now it's growing these two. To be the best I can and making sure people love it, right? mean, social clubs is, I mean, it's about a three year arc. That's what they say about membership stuff, right? Like you're a member for about three years. So don't want to hit a wall where three years happens and everyone's gone. So making sure it's still flowing at a good rate and not getting, yeah, I don't want it to feel like, everyone's just excited about it now, right? And that's why it's doing so well. So.

Alan Li (47:28)
I'm sure you're adding good numbers too.

Yeah.

Draymond Washington (47:37)
Yeah.

Alan Li (47:37)
Well, I'm bullish on the space. feel like we're just so chronically online and AI and people, people seek and crave human connection. So.

Draymond Washington (47:43)
Is he?

Craven, that's why I just don't, I don't even bring up the word tech, right? I do think our social, I do think our app is half the bread and butter. I've always said that. We have members join who ask, like, do people actually chat in here? I'm like, okay, wait till you join. And I think it's the way that it's kind of broken out. And I think that is...

half the bread and butter and I still I don't I just don't I don't want to run on tech but I am building out an app now that should be one should be done soon I've just been white labeling absolutely which costs about 28 grand a year so it'd be nice to now have my

Alan Li (48:31)
You need to be

live coding that now.

Draymond Washington (48:35)
Yeah, I vibe coded it. That's how I built, so I vibe coded this entire app. I built it to where the, could understand it. And then I just put it in an engineer's hand and said, you finish it. Because obviously there's so much that goes into it when you want to scale to 300 members and things that I don't know. Right. But at least I don't have to explain this button needs to go to this button. So that's the beauty of vibe code. spent a month every night building it out to the point where like they could understand it.

Alan Li (49:05)
How cool is that?

Draymond Washington (49:06)
And then

now they're now it's so cool because I've tried it before. I've typing it out and explaining what I wanted. I've tried Figma, but like, it is not the same as being able to sit there and vibe code the app and see it and see which buttons aren't working. cause I already know what I want and need. So it's not that hard of an app. ⁓ and so that was cool. And so now the engineer is finishing it and V1 should be done here after the next week. So I'm excited about that. So I think I'll slow play it.

⁓ This current app doesn't renew till September. So I think I have few months to get it into everyone's hands and just make sure it works first.

Alan Li (49:41)
Yeah.

What a time we live in that we can, we can vibe code and create a functioning app with just.

Draymond Washington (49:48)
It's crazy.

it's crazy. And I wouldn't be able to have a business without AI. I mean, at all. ⁓ Not by myself and not by myself, right? There's just so many things I don't know. And the fact that you can train something to know what you want and get you there. It's kind of insane. It's kind of insane. Even navigating the crazy Chicago licensing water.

Alan Li (49:55)
wild times.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean.

Draymond Washington (50:15)
was the start of it all. That's when I was like, wow, this can, I've been Googling this and have not found the answer. And then that, and then I found ChatGBT, was like, whoa. And then now Claude, I feel like it's just taking it to a whole new level.

Alan Li (50:30)
Yeah, I mean, they said AI is going to be the genesis of single person million dollar businesses and it seems like that's where it's going here.

Draymond Washington (50:38)
Oh my God. Yes. I mean, have people where I have people working for me and I'm sleeping now. It's like crazy. It's just the craziest. was just talking about a group chat this morning and we have AI haters and we have AI lovers and I'm like, I'm not getting left behind. And it's not like you need to fall in love with it, but it is to help you. And everyone has different needs. Like you're a hating perspective. You're also not running your own business where like it would not be sustainable without the help. So.

Alan Li (50:42)
There you go.

Yeah, I'm right there with

you. ⁓ Awesome. Draymond, looking back on this journey over the last two, three years and ⁓ building what you've built now, is there anything you would have changed if you can go back in time?

Draymond Washington (51:23)
that's a good question. ⁓

That's a good question. I don't know if I would have changed much. I probably would have documented a little more at the beginning. ⁓ I think it was all right there in my face. It was like 20 members. I think I could have documented a little better. ⁓ But I don't think I would change much because I still feel like I'm on the first step. Like I still feel like

Alan Li (51:47)
Mm-hmm.

Draymond Washington (51:57)
I feel like we're getting the traction now, but I do still feel like it's just starting. ⁓ So I think what we're changing is just what we're changing. ⁓ Like, so I think that's the other beauty of being a one person shop forever. It's like I'm just changing what I need to change ⁓ every day. But I think when I look back on it, I've been like, well, when you are one person shop, you do keep you do tend to keep too much in your brain. ⁓

Alan Li (52:14)
Yeah.

Draymond Washington (52:25)
And that's what I've noticed a little bit now that I've brought someone on. And I'm like, whoa, like, I'm just hoping you know, it's in my brain and she is very good at processes. So she's really helped me there. ⁓ But I think that's what I would have changed. I think it's hard to be very organized and structured where you're first starting. And I think it would have been nice to just kind of had that when I first started, but no, not much outside of that.

Alan Li (52:49)
Yeah, so you mean more like standard operating procedures that were written down. it's.

Draymond Washington (52:54)
I think standard operating

procedures would have been the number one thing that I would have liked. just being, cause like I know what works now, but I don't remember what didn't work too, right? So like just being able to have that, I think would have been very important. ⁓ But in the sense of like the theme of the business and what it is, I think I'm always reshaping it. Like I've rebranded, I've changed the logo, right? I spent about.

Alan Li (52:58)
That's a good one.

Mmm.

Draymond Washington (53:21)
$80,000 building out our brand at the beginning of this, right? From our website to our brand, to our name, our name change and everything when it started. And then about eight months into it, I changed it all, all the branding, the website, everything. So like that 80 grand was kind of lit on fire. ⁓ So, and it was just three cities social, but it was very much.

Alan Li (53:40)
Peace.

Draymond Washington (53:47)
kind of leaning towards an events company. I think people were seeing us as an events company when we first opened. So I added the social club and I was able to know what we were. I didn't know what we were. So it took about eight months to figure that out, kind of the branding, theme of what our look was. ⁓ So to see me burn kind of like that 80 grand, to redo it, right? Or redid it. I think that is like when I say like, when I've changed anything, it's like I'm just changing it.

Alan Li (54:03)
Yeah.

It's tough. Yeah.

Draymond Washington (54:16)
I'm just doing it. I'm already doing the changes. So.

Alan Li (54:20)
Yeah, when I have moments like that, I chalk it up to, it's just cost of business. You're not gonna get it right and perfect the first time, it's impossible. So it's what it takes.

Draymond Washington (54:26)
business.

No, and I always

pointed out to my wife like when we passed by restaurants, I was like, that logo has changed. That logo has changed. Once you do it, you notice it, right? So many businesses are rebranding daily from billion dollar companies. So was like, and I don't even know what they were doing on the first time, right? They may have been changing all the time. So I was like, this is just a part of business.

Alan Li (54:35)
Hahaha.

Yep.

Yeah.

yeah.

There you go.

Jerma, this is awesome. If people want to follow along, get in touch, what's the best way for them to do so?

Draymond Washington (55:01)
Yeah, yeah, follow us on Instagram, threescities.social. Follow me on LinkedIn, Draymond Washington. Check out our website. then also you can always shoot me an email as well, draymond at threescitiessocial.com. I always answer, so.

Alan Li (55:17)
Perfect. Awesome. Well, this is really fun and I'll include all those links in the show notes, but I'm excited for your ⁓ continued success and openings.

Draymond Washington (55:29)
Same with you, well thank you for having me.

Alan Li (55:31)
All right.

Draymond Washington (55:33)
toxic.