Building and Monetizing Communities for Startups

Celebrating one of the finalists in the Newcomer of the Year category at this year’s European VC Awards, this episode dives deep with Sarah Drinkwater, solo GP at Common Magic.

Common Magic is a pre-seed/seed solo GP fund investing in and supporting founders building products with community at their core across Europe and the US. As a small fund, they act like an angel:

• fast decisions
• operationally useful
• comfortable being the first commitment

Sarah Drinkwater has been building communities in tech for over 15 years and building communities for fun for much longer. From advising protocols for Filecoin and Gitcoin on their ecosystem building to growing Campus, Google’s East London space for startups, and growing an angel investing portfolio of 36 startups, she built playbooks and networks that can help founders build powerful communities right from the start.
Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview 👀

Chapters:

00:24 Diving into Community

00:53 Common Magic's Investment Focus
03:07 Sarah's Journey and Achievements
04:19 Understanding Community in Tech
10:58 Blockchain and Community
17:27 Community as an Investment Focus
22:19 Fund Structure and Geography
22:47 Investment Focus and Strategy
23:27 Community and Market Assumptions
27:30 Monetization Strategies
28:29 Challenges in Community Building
35:45 AI and Community Platforms
38:38 AI Investment Trends
42:29 Fund Status and Future Plans