Hornet Appoints Community Builder Douglas Atkin to Board of Advisors
The queer social network taps one of the most renowned thought leaders, who built community and purpose at AirBnB and MeetUp, for its board
West Hollywood, Calif., Sep 9, 2021 — Hornet Networks, the world’s queer social network, today announced the appointment of Douglas Atkin, the former Global Head of Community at Airbnb (airbnb.com), where he was the architect of the company’s Purpose, Culture and Core Values. His appointment adds more expertise to the leading queer technology platform, which is rapidly expanding to allow queer people to authentically connect to their community anytime, anywhere, around the world.
Prior to AirBnB, Atkin was Co-Founder of ‘Peers,’ a movement for the Peer-to-Peer economy; Co-Founder of ‘Purpose,’ an organization that creates Movements; and was on the Board of one of its creations, AllOut, the world’s first and largest LGBTQ rights Movement. In 2007-08 he served as Partner and Chief Community Officer at Meetup.
Douglas Atkin worked at Airbnb from 2012-2017 during its hyper-growth years as a member of the leadership team. He led the development of Airbnb’s Purpose to “create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.” He also led all community initiatives, including grassroots organizing and movement-making techniques to mobilize Airbnb Hosts and Guests to take political action that changed laws to recognize home-sharing.
“I am excited to support the team at Hornet to create a world where queer people can find a safe space to be themselves,” says Atkin, who is the author of The Culting of Brands: Turn Your Customers Into Believers. “The queer community is a perfect example of the great cult paradox: people don’t join communities to conform, but they join to become more themselves. Instead of being condemned for one’s difference, you’re loved and celebrated, and that’s exactly what Hornet can be about with respect to queer people.”
Atkin joins Ravi Mehta, former Chief Product Officer at Tinder and now at Reforge; Niklas Lindstrom, former Chief Technology Officer at Skout and Meet, now at UnitQ; Michael Edelstein, former President at NBC Universal International, now at Edelstein Company; and most recently Marten Mickos, CEO at HackerOne and former CEO at MySQL.
“We are delighted to recruit yet another key thought leader into our advisory group, helping us to accelerate our growth as the world’s leading queer social network,” says Christof Wittig, CEO and co-founder of Hornet. “Douglas has been paramount to define our upcoming roadmap to broaden the role of queer technology in helping to build communities online, and we are excited to have him take on a more prominent role in steering our destiny at Hornet.”
About Hornet
Hornet is the world’s queer social network with over 35 million diverse users, providing a community home base that is available anytime, anywhere. Amplifying the radical, affirmative power of the queer community with cutting-edge technology, users feel comfortable sharing their experiences with friends who understand and validate their life.
To find out more, please visit: hornet.com
Press contact: press@hornet.com
Douglas Atkin hi-res headshot here
