The deeper I go into the creator economy and crypto, the more I realize the power of community. Community is what will drive creators long-term growth and them turn into a scalable business. In web2 (the current state of the internet), community is mostly transactional and a nice to have. In web3 successful companies only exist because of their community. In web 2.5 the on-ramp to web 3, the community will be the key to unlocking the importance of ownership. Community is the future for both creators and companies and to better understand what makes a community successful, I plan to study successful communities and build one myself.

Understanding a successful community

When I first started studying communities and aimed to understand what made them so successful, I always looked at the number of members that were in a community. Why? Because surely a great community correlated with its size. To those not familiar with building communities the size of a community is great indicator that you've got something good. For those that have actually built communities (especially on the large side) they know a large community doesn't always mean it's successful.

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A successful community isn't based on its size. A successful community can have 10 members or 10,000, but most communities meet a point of diminishing returns where more members can ruin the community experience.

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Think about the times where you've been in a community with 5k+ members and feel like you're drowning in the abyss.

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Instead a successful community is based on value generated for members. The only way to improve value generated for members is to ensure the members of the community are aligned around a common goal or set of values. The more people unified around a common goal or set of values, the better you're able to ensure you're designing a community that delivers upon that.
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Admiration + creation

I'm fascinated by communities. One because it's interesting to see how successful communities operate but also because of how much it ties to what it means to be human. We often look at ways to separate ourselves from others (especially in Western culture); however, in that need to be unique, we desperately crave to belong. Communities provide that need to belong while also allowing us to maintain our individualism.
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In order to better understand communities and what makes a community successful it's not enough to just study them. You have to build a successful community in order to bridge the gap from theory to operational. So, during my studies and learnings of community, I aim to build one. Will it be successful? I have no idea. Will it be hard? Absolutely. Will it be insightful? You can bet on it.

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The exact design and purpose of the community is a work in a progress but it will be an extension of Creator Crew in some form. By building a community and sharing insights along the way, I hope to better learn and understand the power that drives to successful communities. Especially when those communities evolve into businesses and products.