Learn, connect, engage: 3 things you should do as a first-time founder to grow your community
Being a start-up founder is more than pitching, marketing, sales or networking — it’s about creating a community that cares about you and your product.
All the way back in 2015 in his Harvard Bussines Review article, Henry Mintzberg famously wrote: “ If you want to understand the difference between a network and a community, ask your Facebook friends to help paint your house.”
While the word ‘corona’ still only referred to a brand of beer and masks were an unknown notion, a small group of Start-up Grind enthusiasts often organized conferences, educational workshops and gatherings for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sarajevo. At one of them in early 2018, I met Mirna, a product manager at MoP. We exchanged contacts back then, but as fate would have it we would not see each other again for a long time.
Do or do not… There is no try. — Yoda
During that time, I graduated, traveled the world and spent a semester on an exchange program that inspired me to found my own start-up. After a full year and a half of failed attempts to get things going during COVID-19, I was still pursuing every opportunity and iterating every idea I had because I whole-heartedly belived in the potential my product had.
At the same time, Mirna and I reconnected through Startup Grind organization. In one of our team meetings I mentioned the project I was developing and it caught her attention. We connected deeply on a shared interest for social entrepreneurship but even more on shared values and my vision for a more accessible and inclusive smart cities I wanted to create. On one occassion, she reached out about a national competition for a story on social entrepreneurship and proposed we wrote one together. To tell you I was over the moon when we found out we won the first place would be an understatement.
Always be prepared to pitch or talk about your start-up
At MoP, we nourish the culture of sharing good news, stories and celebrating small victories and this was one that she shared. The marketing team took interest in creating a video on the aforementioned topic and few weeks later it’s — lights… camera… action…
That day, I was also introduced to Rešad, a MOP founder himself. In a casual, impromptu meeting, we chatted about start-ups. He gave me advice for mine and offered a chance for a potential employment. I knew by heart all the ins and outs and engaged in a conversation with full confidence, talking even about a 3-year plan and scalability.
This goes to show that being prepared to always share your story and talk about your start-up is a must as over the course of the next couple of weeks, he continued to introduce me to few other members of the company, who extended their help and connected me with their networks. My connections just kept growing.
Three months later, I’m chatting with a member of my new MoP team — a tech lead who just happens to be an expert in mobile development and I was in the process of finding one — coincidence much? During our first ever coffee we talked about our start-up experiences, personal lives, carrer ups and downs, lessons learned along the way and how we ended up at the same company and team. With a slight fear of sounding too optimistic or cliche, he ended up becoming the first person to join the start-up.
Divide and conquer!
I gestalt-ly kept asking myself: “What is a common pattern in all these dispersed dots suddenly connecting for me and creating a pool of people and opportunities I’ve been needing to support my progress?”.
The first one being that I was taking action and making small, incremental decisions in the first year of solo start-up development that increased my knowledge. Within the larger context, the small advances added up to enable me to have credibility as a founder and attain the bussines objectives.
Sometimes those decisions meant learning the principles of design or product management, reading on Flutter vs. React Native, researching on B2B marketing strategies, pulling an all-nighter to prepare for an event, working without salary or just letting things go slower than you would prefer (it may be a bit of a generalization, but I don’t think that I’m out of line when I say that we entrepreneurs, on balance, are an impatient bunch).
One thing I’m sure of in this world is that nothing of value comes easily. In fact, anything of value takes time. But making small, effective and sustainable decisions that will increase your knowledge and consequently credibility and value, is a fundamental tool in accomplishing your objectives and goals.
The first step towards a goal is action
Jack Welch said that an organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage. I would argue the same for founders. You’ll speed up your progress if you keep taking action and focus on learning specific skills as you need them rather than learning all the things.
So with that guiding notion I thought about: ”What is the simplest thing I could do that will get me closest to my specific goal and that I will learn the most from?”.
My goal at that time was that I needed an app wireframe so I took a free 2-month long UX/UI course as I still had neither investment or budget to pay for the design service. Or when I attended a 3-day Zoom training on growth and traction strategies so I could draft a 5-year expansion plan and spark excitement in anyone with what the future could look like.
So, ponder about what skill is so simple that spending little time to gain it will in return help you reach an important goal.
Building software requires a wide range of talents. As a founder you need to wear a lot of hats especially in the early days, nevertheless be an expert in your role — whether it be a software developer, designer, etc — but also explore, learn the basics, maintain curiosity about things you don’t understand and take action. Tech never stops changing, so you can’t stop learning.
Networks connect, communities care
And lastly, I was creating meaningful relationships and community rather than just networking in the tech space. The moment I met Mirna, we just clicked. Our shared values were the most important buliding block in our synergy and by genuinely nurturing that relationship, it brought me a whole flood of new opportunites and people.
In some ways, communities and networks are complementary and mutually reinforcing. Your networks can be a source of community. Yet networking is just an activity whereas community is building long-lasting relationships. Relationships are based on conversations — about ideas, values, milestones, vision, impact and passion. Conversations pave the way to lasting friendships and business alliances.
Knowing one’s story is vital when setting off on building a startup. These stories and conversations will excite others to join your team, invest in your start-up and support your business. Every opportunity I had — whether it be at a conference, online workshop, co-worker, friend of a friend, at a party — I used to spark a conversation, connect with people, share my story and always follow up. My community today is my greatest resource and the people I know are invaluable connections, but more than anything they are my supporters, alliances, cheerleaders and friends.
Your community, at its essence, is a group of people who’ve you inspired by your story to come together and engage around shared purpose. That shared purpose could be your product, a company or a short-term project, it could be whatever but they’re all there intentionally around that thing to gather, talk, support and grow. In the context of business, community is a structure for creating value and growth happens when members start taking an active role. Just like Mirna sharing the competition story, Rešad sharing his wisdom and advice or the tech lead building the proof-of-concept.
All of this really led me to realize the power of sharing your story, vision, constant learning and creating genuine relationships. It has the ability to spark empathy, inspire action in others and build trust. It is through this approach that you can create strong community that cares about you as a founder and your product.
So, ready to start…up your community?
…
Ministry of Programming is a supercharged startup studio specialized in building startups and new products💡 We were voted in the top 1000 fastest growing companies in Europe by Financial Times. Twice.
We offer product management, design, development, and investment services to support entrepreneurs and startups towards product success.
Building your next startup? We would love to hear more. If you want to work with us on your startup feel free to reach out at — https://ministryofprogramming.com/contact/
