Newsletter · 25 min read

A founder's guide to community

David Spinks · Lenny's Newsletter Freemium Intermediate

The structured counterweight to the two case studies: when community is worth investing in at all, the SPACES framework for tying it to a business goal, who to hire, and the advice to start with 10 to 50 founding members instead of launching to everyone.

• Use SPACES to name why the community exists: support, product, acquisition, contribution, engagement, or success.
• Start with 10 to 50 founding members who have a clear need and time to participate, then double every two weeks (10, 20, 40, 80, 160).
• Aim for at least 50 percent monthly active in a founding group; mature ones run far lower (CMX Slack 14 percent, its Facebook group 18 percent).
• Measure activity, value and belonging, not headcount. Salesforce has 83 percent of questions answered by other customers.