I can throw my site Partey.io into the mix. Works without VC backing for free (I run it and it’s cheap for me).
No need to expose your phone number, an invite is just a link you can share.
I can see that my site Partey.io[1] is used by several small communities for events.
I like a local beekeeper club or town hall meetings.
Maybe that is something that works for you as well if everybody is already connected. It is completely login-less but does only provide event planning features, maybe you need more…(?)
I’ve just won yesterday with https://partey.io and tried to contact you via mail (hello@) because I have several issues.
Mostly I cannot answer any comments (or delete mine). This is especially awkward because I could post one asking for questions, I got some and now I cannot answer them… this was the case since yesterday and it’s very frustrating.
Also I am also technically the most voted product, yet I am in third place for all which kind of makes me feel cheated. I guess the comments count there as well (which is additionally frustrating)…?
Other notes:
* login sessions are extremely short
* links and upvote buttons need to be bigger(!). People are posting here to get people to visit the site and it is not prominent at all in the detail page
* the upvote button as a logged-out user leads to errors
(I don’t want to be “that guy” but are you aware of the Zen Browser? It was a drop in replacement for me and I love it)