Random Thoughts on Community Building

Community building is a long-term game. I think it requires the kind of patience that is often unheard of in the tech world where everything is often about speed.

I've had the joy and fortune to have been involved in many communities over the years. One thing that is more clear to me as time goes by is that communities cannot be scaled with the mindset we often use to build products and startups.

Our natural tendency is to want to increase the number of members that attend our events or that are part of our Slack channel. But this should not be a North Star. It's true that communities thrive on network effects, like products rooted in social media and marketplaces dynamics: The utility grows with the number of nodes. But they require more nurture, curation and controlled growth.

Communities should have a ceiling. A group of 5000 people is hardly ever a community. The "feeling of community" is diametrically opposed to anonymity.

I believe a "feeling of community" can only be achieved when there is intimacy and when people feel safe to express themselves with a high amplitude of freedom. This is my north star for community.