Creating a community is one of the most rewarding experiences for founders.
If done right, it can elevate your reputation in your city/community like nothing else. No amount of LinkedIn and Twitter fame comes close.
For context, I run a community of start-up enthusiasts in Gurgaon, India. We have 1,200+ members on meetup.com and ~400 on our WhatsApp group. We meet once a month. I only started this on February ’24.
This post is a starting guide for anyone who wants to start a community locally.
If you like gathering a group of people with shared interests, hosting events, and interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, this post is for you.
By the end of this article, my goal is for you to feel comfortable starting up, and when you are stuck, you can return to this post anytime.
Table of Contents
1. What is a start-up community?
A start-up community is a group of people working/interested in start-ups. This group can be a broad brush for start-up enthusiasts in Tokyo or specific product managers in Bangalore. Essentially, the objective remains the same: to bring together people of similar domains under one common roof.
Start-up communities are extremely popular in hot pockets of start-ups, such as SF, NYC, London, Bangalore, LA, etc. The best platform to start a community could be a Facebook group, WhatsApp group, Telegram group, or Discord server. I prefer a mix of meetup.com and Whatsapp. I will explain as we progress. Meetup is used to organise events and WhatsApp is used for communication.
2. Why you should create a startup community
I am sure you are wondering why you created one. First, let us talk about why not to create one.
- It is essentially a service you offer without immediate returns or benefits. The dividends can take months or even years to finally show.
- It is time-consuming to plan engagement activities, manage groups, and find places to meet (if it is an offline community).
- It costs a decent investment to make it exciting. Subscriptions, goodies, snacks.
- Once you scale, you will have to get out of your comfort zone and strike partnerships with cafes or offices that allow a mass gathering. In this post, I will also discuss how to go about it.
- You will have to be innovative in creating a relatable and engaging community.
- It is a people’s problem. You will have to manage them. You will have to ensure anti-social elements stay out of your community. People will want your advice on their start-up, hiring, etc. Kids who want to do a start-up and have no idea what it takes will pitch you their ideas daily. It is crazy at times.
However, if this appears to be child’s play to you, then my friend, the upsides are crazy.
- You will create a network and you will be the focal point of it. You will end up meeting freshers, experienced professionals, investors (maybe), founders, students and everyone will know you.
- Hiring becomes super-easy. Especially when you have interacted with people in a casual setting a lot of questions about cultural fitment gets answered. You will be surprised by what details people reveal in a non-formal environment.
- You have no idea who you are meeting. Maybe a unicorn founder, a potential investor, or some amazing start-ups. During my community meet-up, I met a YC founder and a public market investor who was exploring investing in start-ups. When I went to meet-ups in London, I met an American product manager working there, and she had driven a cross-country bike in India. It blew my mind. Tons of start-up CEOs, hiring managers willing to help me land a job in London, and many Indians working in product management.
- It is a great way to socialize. Is it just me, or are we all feeling a little too isolated now? We spend too much time on the internet, delay plans with friends, and don’t go to parties anymore. For a lot of people, this becomes the only social spot they find.
- You are building a personal brand. When you have visibility in the community. People show you regard and look up to you as an expert.
- Monetization. A successful community is always in the eyes of the brands, and it can eventually become a side hustle. A very well-known bank sponsored one of my events in the past.
3. How to create your startup community
Alright, it is a process. First, you have to answer some questions.
3.1 Who is this community for?
AI engineers? Product Managers? Start-up founder? Is anyone working in a start-up?
It is good to be specific; it is a safe choice. Plus, when you bring people with a common designation under one roof, it has its own merits. The network effects are superb. However, the right answer is it depends on your city's culture. If you come from a town or a city where start-up culture is slowly mushrooming, there is no point in creating a community of PMs. Also, look around if there are 100s of communities of product managers; creating one more community may not stand out. Be creative. Feel free to create a community around a trend or software. AI, iOS18, GPT, Github etc.
3.2 Is it an online or offline community?
An online community only meets over Zoom, while an offline community meets offline. You can also do hybrids. I personally love offline communities. They have real vibes.
An online community is more like lip service. It can be great if it works out, but meaningful connections happen IRL.
3.3 Will your gatherings be agenda-driven or not agenda-driven?
Personally, I hate agenda-driven gatherings and meet-ups. The best meet-ups are organic. Sure, the first 30 minutes are awkward, but once the ice breaks, the conversations reach levels one can’t imagine.
It can be tempting to organise an agenda-driven meet-up since most are tuned that way, but the best gatherings and meet-ups have literally no agenda apart from maybe introductions.
3.4 How will you name your community?
Now that you know the theme. It is best to give the community a name that resonates.
Don’t think much here, but have a catchy name that fits the personas you want to attract and the vibe of the community. Go crazy. Some examples off the top of my head. CEOs over breakfast, Java champions, OpenAI fanboys, Innovative growth hackers. Product Pints is a famous product managers community in London that meets monthly over beer. I love the name. It is short and sweet and communicates the vibe of the community quickly.
Now that you have a group name. It is wise to put up a nice description to attract your audience. Talk about the group's why and how frequently your events/meetups will be. Not more than 3-4 lines. Use some AI tools to design a logo.
I personally use turbologo
3.5 What community guidelines will you define?
Set your guidelines from day 0, especially if you are creating an online forum.
Are promotions allowed? Can members DM each other? What kind of discussions are encouraged? Are political discussions allowed or not? What are the criteria for being added to the WhatsApp group?
For example, some people add only members to the Whatsapp group who have attended at least two or three meet-ups. Display these guidelines in your Whatsapp/Telegram group description or just create a public URL and display in your group introduction.
My community is called Tech Nibba & Nibbi. Nibba & Nibbi is a social media term for couples in love. Search Nibba, Nibbi memes, and you are in for a laugh. I wanted to communicate humor and a light-hearted place where people can have a good laugh. Nothing too serious. It worked well for me.
4. How to run your first community event
4.1 Host your first event
Depending on your group type, you can decide the event's name. If it is just a no-agenda meet-up, your event name can be #Productmanagers of LA 1.0. If you want to drive the agenda, mention it in the event name, along with a detailed description of what to expect from the event.
This is your chance to set the ground rules of the meet-up, educate people on how to reach the location, etc. This brings us to the next point—finding a location.
4.2 Find a spot
First, don’t expect a lot of people to turn up to your meet-up on the first go. Meetup.com will promote your event, but the first event is generally a pilot. My first meet-up had four people come in. I chose a cafe, and we just met for coffee. Once you have momentum, try partnering with cafe owners or co-working spaces. Co-working spaces are mostly empty on weekends. They will be happy to host a bunch of start-up enthusiasts.
The spot you choose must be accessible to a wider audience. Not far from the subway station, a familiar location, close to offices, etc.
4.3 Pick a date and time
As for day and time, you are the best judge. Weekends work, weekdays work.
I started with Saturday 12 pm twice a month, moved to once a month at 6 pm Saturday, experimented with Saturday at 4 pm and now back to Saturday 12 pm.
Keep experimenting and asking members.
4.4 Set up a group on Whatsapp/Slack/Telegram/Discord
You need to drive people to a place of discussion, hangout, or connection. Create a group in the medium that suits you the best and add people there. In my case, I shared our group's WhatsApp link in the event description. Anyone can request to join; I approve requests once a week.
4.5 Beware the RSVPs
RSVPs can be deceptive. People tend to RSVP free events, and there are last-minute changes.
RSVP depends on your city’s local reality, the work culture, the importance of the event, the supply for the event, etc. My first event had 40 RSVPs, and 5 showed up. Now, I consider a 30% turnout and call it a success.
You will learn as you keep hosting events.
Another option is to do a paid event where you can charge a minimum fee of $5 to ensure a high turnout. However, I prefer free events rather than paid ones just because paid events elevate the expectations, and it becomes a financial transaction where you are obligated to create an experience.
A better option is the money you pool is reimbursed as snacks for the entire group. The challenge is to communicate this. People scroll past paid events, generally speaking.
4.6 Bring refreshments (or not)
You are not obligated to provide refreshments, but if you have the budget, please go ahead. Just ensure water is available and there is a place where people can order.
4.7 Take photos, share memories
Don’t forget to make an album of each event and upload photos. This will ensure authenticity.
4.8 What if no one shows up?
It’s fine. Maybe two people will come for the next one. Remember, all good things in life happen when compounded. It's important to be consistent and make progress.
5. How to run and scale your startup community
5.1 How to get your first 10 members?
The honest answer is to keep hosting events and hope people like them and keep coming back.
The churn can be very high, so you need to have your core group soon. These are the folks who will always show up at the event and will attract more people. The only tip here is to not mess up. Ensure your event stays true to its essence.
If you have a friend who can be your co-host or co-organizer, it can be a significant boost to your event. First, people will tend to trust you more. Second, each of you can pull a small number of people from your circles.
Often, one of you may not be available to host an event, and the other can cover up. As they say, the show must go on.
5.3 Frequency of events
This is the single most important thing that will decide the future of your community. Pick a pattern and stick with it: the first Friday of every month, the last Sunday of the month, every second Wednesday, etc. It doesn’t matter whether your previous event was successful or not.
Once you set a frequency, you host it every time you signal that you are a serious community. Plus, it will enhance visibility on the events page of meetup.com
5.4 Build up your mailing list
There are tons of ways you can engage the community. Create an email list and start a newsletter. Ask community members to contribute and share the latest news from your community and city.
5.5 Lean in partner up, communicate, multiply events
There are tons of ways to scale. Partner with other hosts and do a joint event. Create an Instagram or TikTok account and share regular short-form content. Write about the event on LinkedIn and encourage people to do the same. The best strategy to scale is to decide on a number of events in a year and deliver them.
5.6 Avoid these 6 common mistakes with your startup community
Don’t get disappointed if no one turns up for your first event.
Have a big gap between events.
Be a host who is controlling or telling people what to do or not to do
Don’t take it very seriously. It is just a fun place
Don’t forget to have fun yourself and make connections.
People like hearing from the host. Don’t forget to address the crowd at the beginning.
Conclusion
A startup community brings together like-minded individuals to connect, learn, and network in a shared interest area. Building one requires focus, regular events, and clear guidelines, with benefits like valuable connections and brand-building. Start small, stay consistent, and use both online and offline platforms to foster engagement. The process can be time-intensive but ultimately rewarding.
About the author
Vandit Jain co-founded Bharosa AI, a health tech company based in Gurgaon, India. He runs a monthly meetup that hosts between 25 and 50 people per event. His community now has over 1,400 subscribers on meetup and 400+ members on Whatsapp.
