Here’s How We Use Slack to Support Our Growing Portfolio of Student Entrepreneurs
As many startup communities begin to explore mechanisms for engaging founders to learn and share experiences from one another, I view the Rough Draft Ventures slack team as a growing ecosystem that has only just begun to reach its potential. We’ve been using Slack since the Fall of 2013, starting with just 5 student team members, and a few portfolio founders. Importantly, this online community has grown slowly, organically, and with the simultaneous rise of a now widely adopted team communication platform — Slack.
Today, with over 85 founders and student team members and 10,000 messages sent, we continue to experiment with ways to empower each member to utilize the platform to its fullest. Here’s a few examples of how we’ve used Slack to date:
- Share general informating with the community such as new additions to our Starter Kit, Handbook, and upcoming events. The Giphy integration adds a fun, attention-grabbing touch to any announcement.
2. Getting advice from one another on a whole spectrum of areas — product launches, design, consultants, hiring advice, and more.
3. Sharing resources and best practices from great resources available such as those from our friends at NextView Ventures.
4. Supporting one another, such as with an upvote on Product Hunt.
5. Welcoming new teams to the community through our blog post announcements on Medium.
6. Asking one another questions about funding or accelerators such as Techstars or YC.
As we continue to grow our portfolio, and our founders grow simultaneously, we’re excited to explore all of the possibilities that a true platform like Slack can make possible when the right people can connect in new and creative ways.
If you’re a venture firm, accelerator, or community using slack, reach out and let us know what you’ve found has worked and what hasn’t: team@roughdraft.vc
