“We believe that a thriving community is a company’s most valuable asset,” Community-led writes in its Declaration. “Community scales your business, resources and presence in ways that traditional marketing or advertising channels can’t. When done right, community enables and improves customer acquisition, streamlines support and success, bolsters retention, and provides crucial product insights. Community is the beating heart of the business that keeps the rest of the team running.”
It’s a matter-of-fact document, aiming to emphasize the importance of community in building a forward-looking startup, while highlighting the concept’s elasticity. But it leaves a lingering question: What, precisely, do we mean when we use the word “community” in the world of startups?
You’d think that’d be a question answered easily by a panel titled, “How to Cultivate a Community for your Company that Actually Lasts” during TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 last week. But if I’ve learned anything from moderating said Disrupt panels, it’s that there’s no easy answer to the question, due in part to the aforementioned elasticity. So, is this just one of those “we know it when see it” things, to paraphrase a famous Supreme Court ruling?
“It depends on the person, the context and the company,” says Commsor’s chief community officer, Alex Angel. “But ultimately, to me, community, at its most basic, is a group of people who’ve come together with a shared purpose. That shared purpose could be your product, it could be a company, it could be a topic, it could be whatever, but they’re all there intentionally around that thing to gather and talk and learn.”
“Community” has grown into one of those buzzy Silicon Valley terms over the past few years, but long-time advocates explain that the concept is fundamental in entrepreneurship and venture capital investments.
“Last October, when we launched Community Fund, people were asking investors and founders in the industry, ‘What is this community thing?’ It’s very fluffy,” says Lolita Taub, corporate Development VP at Catalyte, and co-founder and general partner at The Community Fund. “All of a sudden, we started seeing companies like Reddit, Peloton and Glossier become unicorns. You’re seeing the real generational wealth that exists in community-driven companies.”
She outlines the following questions in her Community Cheat Sheet — a check list for venturing into the territory.
- Why: Why do you want to build a community? Do you see the community as your product or does the community add to your product development and your company’s growth?
- What: What mission/values will bring your community together?
- Who: Who is the target persona for your community? In other words, what kinds of people will it bring together?
- Where: Where will your community come together? Are you planning to leverage a proprietary platform — Slack, Facebook groups, WhatsApp?
The concept has evolved to resemble a lightning as companies attempt to determine how to best embrace it, both with consumer-facing products and internally, among employees. In some circles, it has even eclipsed the concept of social media, where platforms have too often been a one-way street in terms of person-to-person communication.
“I feel like the three of us have been screaming about community into the void for so long. We’ve all been evangelists in our own right for the power of community,” 776 founding partner, Katelin Holloway, explains. “To see it finally catch thread of the Zeitgeist of what’s happening right now is overwhelmingly exciting. One of my favorite parts about community — something I’m watching these nodes connect into now — is that the things that you love become so much better when you get to enjoy them or geek out about them with others that love them too. And the things that you need, like healthcare, become a lot less daunting when you’re working through it with others who have experienced or are experiencing the same thing.”
While community as concept has been bubbling up for a few years now, the pandemic has no doubt been a major accelerator.
“We’ve all been locked down; we’ve all been missing these connections. It’s been important for people to reestablish connection with others,” says Angel. “They’re turning to the internet and online community spaces to do that now that they can’t do it in person. It has been really cool to finally see companies take this to heart and use this point in time to drive forward their goals, and start focusing on how they can start bringing people together better.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOy4jHGAyrc
Taub adds that, as ever, authenticity is key. Chasing a buzzword is a recipe for failure.
“How it’s related to your business is really important. Ask yourself if this is going to be a marketing tactic, because if it is, just don’t do it,” she says. “It’s not going to work. Authenticity is important. If you do run a community-driven business, it’s important to tie back the community with your bottom line. How is this impacting the growth and the scalability of your business? Why does this become a differentiation moat and the scaling edge that your company has?”
Comment