The Soul of Startups

CHAPTER 8The Community Builder

When a startup outgrows itself from its founding location, they spurt into expansion activities to spread their progeny elsewhere in the hope of solving more of the world's problems than they initially set out to. And to do this, most startups harness the communities they have created both internally and externally.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY?

Depending on the context and the company, communities are ultimately a group of people who have come together under a shared purpose. This either refers to the company's mission or, very simply, the product they have created together. But whatever that is, these are people who have intentionally stayed together to communicate, learn, and share.

In recent years, “community” has turned into one of those buzzwords that proudly hailed from Silicon Valley as we saw more swift growth startups talk about their magic to success. We've since seen more startups around the world adopting this method as their core marketing tool, but People leaders (including HR) were beginning to use them to create culture frameworks. Its loyal advocates call it “fundamental in entrepreneurship and culture‐building.” This is because while most entrepreneurs tend to focus on themselves as the key to startup success, most have connected the reality to the reliance of their community, be it their customers or their employees.

As I work with entrepreneurs in my coaching time, I often see their frustrations from building a startup in the wrong ...