Challenges & Rewards of Building a Community of Communities

When I first attended 4YFN Barcelona, I knew very little about entrepreneurship, startups, innovation. But I felt it was what I was supposed to be and to do in my life.

As an inexperienced entrepreneur, I was wandering around the venue, observing, learning and searching for opportunities. As an inexperienced entrepreneur, I was wondering around the venue, observing, learning and searching for opportunities.

When I first met Rune from Rockstar. After 2 years he helped me make the decision of shutting down my startup.

I met so many people that are actually still part of my professional life and that helped me to grow, understand, and make tough decisions during my short startup experience.

They contributed to what and where I am today.

It’s no surprise then that, as soon as I joined GSMA and the 4YFN team, my first contribution — inspired by our Investors Club — has been the Community Club because, for me, enablers have played an essential role in my professional path.

Alone we are nothing (learnt in the hard way!), together we can build a beautiful future. I want to give back to the network that has given me so much.

At 4YFN Barcelona 2019 we had, the first time, a private area for our members

At 4YFN we know the importance of communities, and the Club (which I selfishly consider my baby) is our vision to bring together bright and passionate minds, with no agenda other than to make an impact in the startup ecosystem.

In this project we are beyond being individuals: we are skills, creativity and, yes, love. For what we do, for our future.

With that in mind, I wanted to share some of the challenges and rewards that building a network like the 4YFN Community Club has presented over the last year and our vision for what it can achieve in the years to come.

My challenges and rewards building and engaging with a global community

• It’s not easy to sell this vision: of course we are all businesses and we need to be profitable in order to tangibly help the next generation of entrepreneurs. When I pitch the Club, people are often skeptical: our community program is free and this can give the impression of that it is more of a playground than a long term collaboration where, as was custom in the olden days, barter is the business model.
• Obviously, the global factor: a conversation with a Barcelona-based community is definitely not the same a sinteracting with a Japanese one. Culture, when a non-commercial collaboration is involved, plays a key role. I feel like there is a lot to be learned and gained from better cultural understanding- and it’s something that I’m still working on.

Some of our members from all around the globe (Africa and Australia still missing..any recommendation??)

1. A scalable community: I try to build a personal relationship with most of our members. And that’s the definition of an unscalable product! For the time being I want to continue with this approach: I see our current members as early users, I’m learning a lot from them, professionally and personally.
2. Effective(NO-SPAM!)communication with members: I feel like sending mass emails takes the personality out of the Club, but I need to have a channel to engage throughout the year with our members. So I wondered:(yetanother)Slack? Nope. A group chat?I have all of mine on mute, so that’s a hard no. Newsletter? You need consistency and coordination with other departments, and it’s a bit cold, right? But a member of the Club suggested a Linkedln Group: everyone uses Linkedln and it seems like a discreet and inclusive solution. I launched one a few days ago and I’ll let you how it goes!

A tough choice

How can we effectively engage with all these diverse and differently driven entities? How can we create a program that brings value to communities from LA to Shanghai? We are investing mainly our time and passionintothe Community Club and we ask the same of our members. That’s why, to engage and retain them, I choose to listen, to be flexible and to expect the Club to change constantly.

I believe this product needs to be spontaneous and to be created by empowering our members’ potential, talent and enthusiasm.

The consequence of this approach? Not scalable, the growth won’t be as fast as it could beand it might become a bit messy at times but also truly beautiful!

I’ll let you know in a couple of years ;)

Long story short

I dream about a community of communities that empowers and offers resources for entities and individuals to help entrepreneurs like I was.

I dream about enlightening conversations and crazy brainstorming.

I dream about an agenda-free environment where everyone feels comfortable being honest, straightforward (formalities are tiring right??) and respectful.

I dream about a Community Club that is not only 4YFN property, but that’s everyone’s and everywhere.

And… that’s it. Today I felt inspired as you see :D

Comments are welcome of course and if you are a community that wants to join us in this journey 👉 https://www.4yfn.com/community-club/