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Ask HN: Need help with growing our community of founders
From researching about communities to building and taking it live, I have given my focus to every aspect, all the way from the start.
Yet, there's a struggle with getting it off the ground.
It's really hard get founders to see us, deliver the value and get them join us. After they join us it's hard to have them talk. I think we're at catch 22. We focus on building relationships over just networking and I personally want to help members 1-on-1 with their goals and struggles. For an offer as compelling as this, we're still not getting signups. I believe in this idea, but it's like I'm selling something that nobody wants.
It's a community of founders at join.coulf.com and I'm a founder myself, so I built something that I wish existed. But after getting harsh feedback from other founders, i.e. "who cares about relationships or your support" "we need something to sell to others, a distribution channel. Not this" among other ones, I'm thinking of pivoting to focus on networks rather than relationships, and generic community stuff rather than 1-on-1 help with projects and accountability.
Is it bad to pivot into this networking and generic community concept?
I don't believe in that, but that's what people want. I just don't want the work I've put in get wasted so I'm in a dilemma to choose networking aspect or stick to what I believe and try to grow it.
- gus_massa 6y agoI went to http://www.join.coulf.com http://www.join.coulf.com It has some information. > What you do in Coulf stays in Coulf. That's a noble goal, but it is very difficult to enforce. > Get up to $1000 to fund your projects. How do you prevent scammers to get the money and run away? In https://www.coulf.com/ https://www.coulf.com/ it is very weird that "Start here" is a paid feature. I think you should copy there the info in the join page (at least for logged out users).
- DinakarS 6y agoWow, thanks for the feedback! It's a personal initiative to fund fellow makers. I'll definitely be working closely with them before offering financial help. Yeah, the start here part makes sense. After a successful payment, Stripe redirects there, maybe I can name it "welcome" to be clear. Do you think the focus on relationships and 1-on-1 help is worth paying for? I mean, when you visited for example, what actually stops you from paying. And again, I really appreciate you for taking a minute to visit us.
- gus_massa 6y ago> when you visited for example, what actually stops you from paying. I have a full time position in the university, so I'm not looking for something like this. I took a look just in case I can give some feedback. Anyway, I guess one important reason not to pay is because I don't know who you are. Who are you??? Patio11 used to run a consulting business and he said that it was important to makes some good post with some small good technical advices, so people know you and can test the small tweaks for free and then thrust your opinion and hire you. I don't remember the original quote, but probably these post are relevant: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/17/ramit-sethi-and-patrick-mckenzie-on-getting-your-first-consulting-client/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/17/ramit-sethi-and-patrick... https://www.kalzumeus.com/2008/02/06/blogging-as-personal-marketing/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2008/02/06/blogging-as-personal-ma...
- DinakarS 6y agoOh sorry. My previous iteration had a block about me. It still does but only after your comment I realized that's in the draft, forgot to publish it. I might have thought that it'll increase the page length. The landing page is quite length already. Anyways, thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate that though you're not into this, you took your time to help out! Enjoy the rest of your day.