Who Run the World? Community.
I am constantly truly fascinated by human beings.
As I reflect on the past five years of my career, I’ve realized that the prevailing theme is my consistent focus on people. From my time as a Project Manager at a startup in ATX, to my side hustle on the business end of Draft Design, to managing actors at Lauren Singer Talent, and now in my current role leading Community and Communications at Work-Bench, I’m intensely intrigued by and passionate about serving and empowering people, as well as building and fostering constructive organizational cultures. Community, culture, as well as understanding and serving people thoughtfully and inclusively is my personal and professional passion.
Prior to my current role in venture capital, I represented young actors at Lauren Singer Talent Management. I am so lucky to have worked with the amazing team and clients Lauren has created with LST, and I personally continue to follow and invest in their careers. A few weeks ago, I was catching up with folks at my former supervisor’s birthday party. Most of my former clients are incredibly intelligent and curious children, so they had lots of questions about my job and what I’m working on now. Since my typical answer, usually along the lines of: “I lead community and comms at an enterprise technology venture fund,” was not going to fly with this crowd, I got creative with my explanation.
You know how I used to help you grow your career as an actor? Now I do the same thing, but for companies and the people who work for those companies! I help them grow, just like I used to help you grow your career.
This very simple statement is a succinct way of explaining not only community/platform work in VC, but my community philosophy altogether, which I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately. The term “community” often comes across as abstract, hard to quantify, and sentimental, rather than as the crucial and fundamental business value that it is. Personally, I define community as: a true understanding, respect for, and commitment to serve, connect, and empower people. By this definition, community is core to culture-building, and ultimately a make-or-break for businesses.
Apply my definition of community to a wide-range of examples, from the success of GitHub to the Beyhive; although vastly different industries and very distinct case studies, in both examples, they have been successful because the “brand communities exist to serve the people in [them],” rather than the businesses. The teams behind both of these initiatives understand the impact of genuine, people-focused community, and continue to invest in authentically serving these people first and foremost.
On the other hand, when this notion of community is applied to an organization internally, CB Insights cites “not the right team” as the number three reason a startup fails. “Not the right team” topped a multitude of other seemingly obvious, immediate reasons for startup failure, including price/cost issues, lack of a business model, unfriendly UI, poor marketing, and even ignoring customers. In other words: a constructive and thoughtful team culture and community philosophy is core to a business’ success, both internally and externally. The true value of community is immeasurable. This reaffirms and strengthens a fact: businesses ultimately exist to serve people. When community is neglected, the very foundation of the business is in jeopardy.
In short, even though community is “probably the most underrated and misunderstood [buzzword] in enterprise software,” and I would argue that encompasses all people-focused work as well, it is an absolutely fundamental element of strategy. The effects of neglecting community and culture will have you swimming in infinite community debt. The power of community is immeasurable, universal, industry-agnostic, and a foundational necessity.
TL;DR? Community makes the world go ‘round.
Connect with me on twitter & linkedin ✨
www.kelleyelizabeth.net
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