2 builders who never spoke to each other
Start the group before you have a room
A community does not need premises or software to begin. Gather the same people week after week in whatever bar, cafe or living room has wifi, or run the whole thing on a chat workspace and a signup form you already pay for, and only commit to infrastructure once people keep turning up.
The method
- 01
Start the community before you have anywhere to put it: gather the same people week after week in whatever bar, cafe or living room has wifi, and rent a room only once they keep turning up.
- 02
Assemble a community out of tools you already have, a chat workspace plus a form for signups, instead of building community software first.
What it returned
- 2007
In early summer 2007 Indy Hall had no premises at all and moved between bars, cafes, restaurants and living rooms, anywhere with wifi, chasing something better than working alone at home.
Slack and Typeform were used together as the community platform.
Sources
- Posts about #indyhall (Page 4 of 7)Alex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · Welcome to N3rd Street · undated
- @levelsio's blogPieter Levels · levels.io · How I hacked Slack into a community platform with Typeform · 2014-11-23
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in word of mouth
- Check word of mouth exists before you build8 unconnected · contested
- Turn buyers into fans instead of buying ads6 unconnected
- Show up in person where your readers are5 unconnected
- Make the second user arrive with the first5 unconnected
- Answer support as if it were the sales channel4 unconnected
- Give the hardest customers your hours4 unconnected