Article · ~25 min read

A Founder's Guide to Community

David Spinks · Lenny's Newsletter Freemium Intermediate

From the founder of CMX and author of The Business of Belonging, a practical framework for deciding whether to build community and tying it to real business goals.

  • To build community you help people help each other, not build an audience.
  • Use the SPACES model to map community goals to business outcomes.
  • Start with founding members and events before scaling to a big open space.
Open on lennysnewsletter.com ↗

It answers 14 questions

  1. What is community-led growth and is it right for my startup?
  2. How do I start a community from zero?
  3. What's the best channel to launch on, Product Hunt, Reddit, Hacker News, or LinkedIn?
  4. How do I keep a community engaged instead of dead?
  5. How do I build up an audience before I launch so it's not just crickets?
  6. How do I tie community to real business outcomes?
  7. What does a thriving Indian startup community actually look like in practice?
  8. My first launch went okay but the second felt embarrassing, like 'why are they back again already?' Is relaunch fatigue real?
  9. How do I launch in India where there's no single 'Product Hunt moment' that reaches Indian founders and buyers?
  10. How much of my own time should I personally spend in the community before I can step back?
  11. How do I build a founder community when I'm building outside the big startup hubs and don't have a local scene?
  12. How do I turn a launch into an ongoing drip instead of one spike that flatlines two days later?

And 2 more across the hub.

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  2. This is the canonical argument that you do not need a mass market to build something real, you need a small number of people... The Technium (kk.org) Essay · ~15 min read 1,000 True Fans Kevin Kelly
  3. The definitive playbook for network and community-led products, drawn from Andrew Chen's a16z experience and interviews with... Harper Business Book · Book (~368 pages) The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects Andrew Chen
  4. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  5. The official, primary-source guide straight from Product Hunt, it dispels myths and sets realistic expectations, unlike the sea... Product Hunt Article · guide / multi-page Product Hunt Launch Guide Product Hunt
  6. A blunt, practical guide from Demand Curve's founder on which paid and organic channels fit which business, and why most... julian.com Article · Long-form guide Startup Handbook: Customer Acquisition Channels Julian Shapiro
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