The Community Playbook Cheat Sheet
In this The Community Playbook Cheat Sheet post, I share a short Q&A + a check-list and my notes to get you started on building your company’s community.
Q&A
Before you launch a community you need to answer a few questions.
- Why — Why do you want to build a community? Do you see the community as your product or does the community add to your product development and your company’s growth?
- What? — What mission/values will bring your community together?
- Who — Who is the target persona for your community? In other words, what kinds of people will it bring together?
- Where? — Where will your community come together? Are you planning to leverage a proprietary platform, Slack, Facebook groups, WhatsApp?
Check-list
After you answer the questions above, make sure you check off the check-list below for a smooth sailing community. A solid community has:
1) A community foundation that includes…
- a clear purpose + values members align with
- a community that’s easily accessible to members
- incentives and rewards for participation
2) A community manager with the following skills…
- Customer support
- Content generation
- Social media marketing
- PR and branding
- Internal navigation
3) A community manager that works with her/his principal to…
- be intentional about building community (see Q&A section above)
- looks for opportunities to leverage and integrate community into product/service with feedback loops
- designs a self-sustaining community that supports itself and where members can create/share value with one another
4) A community manager that measures community return on investment (CROI)
- Why do it? To justify spend and lean into the community efforts that are working (and lean out of those that are not)
- What are the community benefits to expect? Increase in sales pipeline + deal size, increase in product adoption, product improvement, lowering CAC, developing a differentiation moat, and more
- How to measure Community Return On Investment (CROI)? Use this formula: CROI = (value gained — cost) / cost. For details and examples of how to use this formula, visit The Community Playbook, Chapter 4.
CROI = (value gained — cost) / cost
Notes on Community Dynamics
- The community manager can sit in different parts of a company
- A community manager should help guide community members through 3 stages: awareness of, attention to, and engagement with your community (in this order)
- Your community members ideally go from casual to regular to core (integral) members in your community
Where can I learn more about the community-driven companies and Ganas Ventures?
You can learn more about the community-driven thesis in this thread. You can learn more about Ganas Ventures on our site and in our FAQ. And if you’re a community-driven company who want us to review your company for investment consideration you, let us know here!
More Resources
To dive deep into building a community-driven company, follow me at @lolitataub and @ganasvc. 😊
Other resources you may enjoy:
- Thread — community-driven companies
- Thread —community experts
- Thread — community builders
- Thread — The Community Fund
- Book — People Powered by Jono Bacon
- Book — Get Together by Bailey Richardson
- Post — Community-Driven Companies: What They Are and Why We’re Investing in Them
B2B Community additional reads include:
About author: Lolita Taub is a GP at Ganas Ventures where she invests in pre-seed and seed community-driven companies in the US and Latin America. With 15 years working within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, she has accomplished $70M+ in sales and made 90+ investments as an angel investor, Scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and VC at Backstage Capital and The Community Fund. Lolita is also a Co-Founder of proprietary matching tools Startup-Investor Matching Tool, the GP-LP Matching Tool, and the LaaS community which brings along a community of over 4K+ founders, funders, and ecosystem friends. Forbes and Inc Magazine have featured her as a woman promoting investment in underestimated founders and funders. She has a BA from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the IE Business School. Lolita is currently in LATAM, hunting for unicorns, and most importantly, she is a dog mom to the cutest Dachshund mix, Choco.
