the guild for gathering
The standard, network and voice for the places that bring people together.
Drinking in 20yr decline
NA drinks +22%
54% adults drink
Gen Z going sober
8 pubs close weekly
Drinking in 20yr decline NA drinks +22% 54% adults drink Gen Z going sober 8 pubs close weekly
88% distrust green claims
2.3x certified growth
$1.57T impact investing
9,368 B Corps
95% want IRL events
88% distrust green claims 2.3x certified growth $1.57T impact investing 9,368 B Corps 95% want IRL events
1 in 2 lonely
sober gatherings up 92%
3x more people have no close friends
39% Gen Z plan fully dry
Board game events up 700%
1 in 2 lonely sober gatherings up 92% 3x more people have no close friends 39% Gen Z plan fully dry Board game events up 700%
We are more connected than ever.
Yet, we have never felt more alone.
Over the past thirty years, life has reorganised itself around convenience and screens. While the moments that actually bring us together have quietly disappeared.
At the same time, we care more than ever about what we consume, how it's made, and what it does to our bodies and the world.
The systems around us haven't caught up.
The Problem
Drinking culture is broken.
Consumers
If you want to drink less or differently, your options are often limited to sugary drinks, watered-down “wellness” brands, or simply not joining in. Moderation is an afterthought, and sobriety is absence. People across every age group have noticed. The way we drink is changing. Fewer people drink at all, and the ones who do want more from it. Gen Z are the clearest signal, drinking differently from any generation before them, but the shift runs wider: millennials pacing themselves, older drinkers cutting back, more people choosing the occasion over the volume. The appetite to come together hasn't gone anywhere, but what's on offer often doesn't reflect how people live now. The formats, the tempo, the serves, the rituals. All need to move with the times.
Small Brands and Makers
The people creating new drinks and social products face a market built for incumbents. Distribution is controlled by a handful of players. Shelf space is pay-to-play. The route to market rewards volume over innovation. If you've made something genuinely better, a functional ingredient, a new format, a smarter serve, the system makes it almost impossible to reach the people who want it.
Hospitality
Venues know their customers are changing, but don’t yet have the tools or the supply to respond. The back bar has been slow to evolve. Staff aren’t trained to sell beyond the usual categories. Non-alcoholic options sit at the back or the bottom of menus, if they’re there at all. We can do better.
The venues that move first, with a lower tempo, more intention, and a focus on quality through connection, are the ones the next decade is built for.
Investment and Financial
The drinks industry is a trillion-dollar market undergoing a structural shift. Moderation, functional beverages, and new social formats are growing categories, but capital still flows overwhelmingly toward legacy brands and line extensions. There is no credible platform connecting the emerging consumer, the independent brand, the forward-thinking venue, and the investor. The opportunity is the infrastructure itself, the thing that connects all four and makes the shift investable.
The Opportunity
Three Forces
Together, they set a new standard for how we gather, and what we reach for when we do.
Social health
Connection is becoming a measurable driver of health. Loneliness, isolation and fractured social lives are now health, workforce and policy concerns. The places that help people belong are more than nice to have; they are social infrastructure.
Behaviour shift
People have not stopped wanting to gather. They have become more intentional about where, how and why they do it. The old rituals are weakening. Better rooms, richer experiences and stronger reasons to gather are where the value is moving.
Trust deficit
The old claims no longer work. Consumers, investors and institutions increasingly expect evidence over assertion. Credibility has become one of the most valuable assets in hospitality.
The shift is real, but the proof is missing:
A way to measure the connection a venue creates, and reward the places that do it best.
No single brand can build it alone, which is why we’re creating a shared standard.
The Guild
Good Measure exists to do what the best guilds have always done.
Bring the right people together.
Raise standards.
Share knowledge.
Advance the craft.
A working guild for the people shaping how we come together.
A system for better gathering.
01 The Standard
A shared definition of better gathering.
The hospitality industry has standards for food safety, sustainability and service. It has no recognised standard for connection.
Good Measure is building one.
A practical framework for what helps people arrive, belong, connect and return. Built with operators and grounded in evidence, designed to recognise the work great venues already do.
02 The Community
A guild built around a shared craft.
The best operators have always learned from one another.
Good Measure brings together venues, operators, brands, and researchers to share knowledge, test ideas and push the craft forward.
A community of people committed to raising the quality and value of social gathering.
03 The Advantage
Making better hospitality stronger.
The best rooms create enormous value, but too much of it goes unmeasured and unrewarded.
Good Measure gives members recognition, group buying power and visibility, turning the social value they create into commercial advantage.
Doing better should pay better.
Credibility drives demand. Demand attracts capital. Capital enables scale. Scale reinforces the standard.
The Case
Connection is not soft.
It is the most undervalued asset in hospitality.
Six ways the Footprint helps you prove it, grounded in category research.
+18-24% Dwell time
Comfortable, well-designed rooms keep people longer, and a longer stay is a higher-quality one.
Propel & CGA Venue Insights, 2023
−£10k Per retained hire
Replacing a team member costs the sector around £10k. Venues built around care keep more of their people.
Caterer.com Hospitality Report, 2023
−37% Paid marketing
Strong programming earns word of mouth, and word of mouth replaces ad spend.
CAMRA / Pub is the Hub, "The Social Value of Pubs," 2024
+15-30% Repeat visits
Venues rooted in their community see materially higher repeat custom.
CGA, 2023
2 × Crisis retention
Community-rooted venues held their custom through the pandemic when others didn't
British Academy / Power to Change, "Space for Community," 2023
+18-25% Guest satisfaction
Engaged, well-led teams lift how guests rate the room.
"Employee Engagement Drives Customer Loyalty," HBR, 2022
The Team
Operators, not observers
Built and run by people who have spent their careers in the room. Now they are building the standard for it.
Claire Warner
Drinks strategist and hospitality advocate. Former Head of Luxury Advocacy at Diageo, co-founder of Æcorn. Leads public voice and Future of Socialising.
Cyrus Vantoch-Wood
Founder of Insurgent; 20+ years across business design and venture building, Working with, advising and building Axia Spirits, The Guggenheim, UN, Nike, WWF, Sonesta, and many more.
Andrew Stephen
Partner at Faraday. Former CEO of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (12,000+ kitchens) and Chief Impact Officer at Foodsteps. Leads the standard.
Dr. Colin Habberton
Co-founder of Relativ Group. Impact strategist and researcher in impact investing and systems change. Builds the proof layer.
Kristin Hughes
Board member and Global Head of Sustainability at Diageo. Formerly led the circular economy platform at the World Economic Forum. Brings the systems and policy lens.
Join Us
This isn't built for you.
It's built with you.
Get in touch.
Good Measure is built by the people who believe in it. Whatever brings you here, we'd like to hear from you.