Passion Economy: Not All Communities Are Created Equal

Written by lijin | Published 2020/07/15
Tech Story Tags: venture-capital | startups | hackernoon-top-story | li-jin | vc | marketplace | passion-economy | business

TLDR Many companies/brands/creators profess to have community, when they really just have customers or followers. Building a community can indeed provide a moat. But–I find many companies profess to having community, many just have followers. To have a truly defensible community, I believe the following need to be present: high intentionality, P2P interactions, & UGC content. The hallmarks of ‘real” community:Intentionality. Members seek out the community as a destination, not just as part of a broader platform’s feed.via the TL;DR App

Building a community can indeed provide a moat. But–I find many
companies/brands/creators profess to have community, when they really
just have customers or followers.
To have a truly defensible community, I believe the following need to
be present: high intentionality, P2P interactions, & UGC content.
Hallmarks of “real” community:
  1. Intentionality: Members seek out the community as a destination, not just as part of a broader platform’s feed
  2. P2P interactions: Strong engagement and ties between members
  3. UGC content: Members contribute content vs. just engaging w/ what’s broadcasted to them
More thoughts on community:
Originally published as “Not all communities are created equal"

Written by lijin | I am a founder and Managing Partner at Atelier, an early-stage VC firm.
Published by HackerNoon on 2020/07/15