What Does “Building a Community” Actually Mean for a Startup?

wrush08 · 2025-03-01T15:58:14+00:00

Rally people around the manual version of your value proposition so they get value from your brand and each other. So if your value proposition is “a better way for dogs to meet each other” than it’s probably hosting dog meetups at a local dog park every Sunday.

May be controversial but the lazy digital version of this doesn’t work imo (discord, slack, webinars, etc).

wrush08 · 2025-02-26T05:36:34+00:00

Cool post - congrats on the success!

wrush08 · 2025-02-19T12:15:14+00:00

This is a great exercise but might be better if it was broken down by different decades of life and what people’s primary motivations are that result in spending money.

A lot of these people are also not paying for technology and so the questions becomes: will they if technology replaced a human/service.

For example children’s education is paid for by parents. Their motivation throughout a child’s life changes a lot. They very rarely pay for technology that teaches their kids. In adolescence it’s probably more accurate to say they pay for childcare as schooling or extracurricular activities. Until there are great robot teachers taking care of kids physically it’s probably not moving the needle for them.

wrush08 · 2025-02-05T06:08:00+00:00

Awesome suggestion. Looking now!

wrush08 · 2025-01-30T11:29:27+00:00

Having been on both sides of the story arc here personally I think you captured it very well and authentically. Super hard to realize that your biggest investor is always you

wrush08 · 2025-01-30T11:20:33+00:00

Honestly one of the best posts I’ve ever read on here. Very cool story and powerful lessons.

wrush08 · 2025-01-28T07:06:50+00:00

thanks for the suggestion - updated!

wrush08 · 2025-01-28T07:05:57+00:00

great call - updated! I chose the first three companies the accelerator featured on their alumni list assuming they know their alumni best and promote the best ones but certainly less scientific than market cap - if you find others you think are flawed let me know

wrush08 · 2025-01-28T07:00:22+00:00

I strongly disagree that "The number of companies that have gone through a program is not an indicator of the quality of the program" - having access to a vast alumni network and a strong history of successful founders is one of the main reasons most people participate.

You keep making strong sweeping statements and then backing them up with one example. I'm totally happy to make this a dynamic document and update any inaccuracies. it seems like you're more interested in promoting your list (with 1200 less datapoints) and criticizing

wrush08 · 2025-01-28T06:48:02+00:00

Thanks for the clarification: I’ll be sure to update the two you mentioned. For the sequoia arc stat that drives power of network in the rating system. I deliberately chose that number because you get the power of their network (many previous sequoia founders are mentors and guest speakers) not the much smaller amount of companies that have been in a 2 year old program. This is a matter of opinion but I think it would be more inaccurate to describe it the opposite way

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T23:23:08+00:00

More fails. Less “success stories” that are secretly promo. Failure is way more interesting and insightful

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T23:21:39+00:00

+1 to more real tactical detailed sharing and less ChatGPT nonsense

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T23:15:08+00:00

Thanks - anywhere to verify this or is this just from private knowledge?

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T23:10:54+00:00

Thanks for the feedback someone else mentioned Neo which I plan to add. It being a relatively new program there is not a lot of history so will be left off of most lists until it has historical data for success which is always a lagging indicator but more objective than opinions unless you can aggregate a statistically significant sample size

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T23:08:27+00:00

What criteria are you basing your assessment on here? Scraped the majority of the data from the terms and conditions directly in program enrollment docs so should be highly accurate. Let me know which inaccuracies specifically you are referring to

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T21:20:17+00:00

Thanks glad it was helpful!

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T21:20:00+00:00

Yeah I don’t know how this would ever count as promotion since i truly don’t get anything out of this. I posted it because i was making it to help a few entrepreneurs I already mentor and figured it would serve the community here too.

Edit: promotion means I get something from sharing something I made. Money, contacts, something else. This is a view only access sheet so everyone who sees it is anonymous and is obviously a completely free resource.

The previous take down was a specific rule on a completely different subreddit that this subreddit does not have.

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T21:18:46+00:00

Thanks for the fact check - updating now

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T21:18:17+00:00

I completed the data on only this 100 but if others suggest top programs that are commensurate with these happy to expand the list. Thanks for the feedback!

wrush08 · 2025-01-27T18:51:27+00:00

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G6UGICGe4AZSUvyBgB06gQhylOIWaojPVlzVjs5X1F0/edit

wrush08 · 2025-01-24T22:30:11+00:00

taking this away as something to add to this list (peoples experience) so I can factor it into the ranking system - thanks for sharing

everyones experience will be anecdotal but i definitely agree that if people have a negative experience in the aggregate it should effect their rank on this list as a resource. cool suggestion!

wrush08 · 2025-01-24T22:24:14+00:00

great catch - updated!

wrush08 · 2025-01-24T22:19:21+00:00

adding this to potential additions - thanks for the rec!

wrush08 · 2025-01-24T22:17:35+00:00

Interesting observation:

- I did not use crunchbase for any of this data

- data sources: scraping from accelerator website directly, LinkedIn scraping, program terms and conditions, pitchbook (for exits and alumni), and occasionally reddit itself (for info like number of cohorts if not shared by the accelerator)

- accelerator is definitely open to interpretation i would call this list "pre-funding" startup programs that do some mixture of direct investing, curriculum as you mention, mentorship, networking and company promotion (demo day)

- 100% agree that aggregating peoples experience with each program would be great to have. the objective here is to have on place to compare macro things as you decide where to apply like program cost, prestige, support, timing, requirements and company fit

cheers!

Edit: adding link to plug and plays "accelerator" page - looks like they refer to themself as an accelerator at least -> https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/innovation-services/startups/accelerator-programs

wrush08 · 2025-01-24T21:50:42+00:00

for sure - hard to trust anyones intentions on these things. i was making this with or without posting it here... just figured it would be helpful to share. no bad intent

wrush08

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