How Creating a Community for Helping & Healing Health Issues Grew to 3M+ Members with Mike Porath

Mike Porath began The Mighty after being inspired by his daughter Annabel, who was diagnosed with Duplication Q15 syndrome – a rare disease that rapidly slows down development. He built this community to understand other families’ experiences with this syndrome, create a safe space for individuals to share their health challenge stories, and for individuals to help one another. Mike and his wife bought The Mighty URL and began recruiting individuals to write their health challenge stories and convert them to members of the community. As more and more individuals joined the community, Mike noticed how simple some solutions were and saw individuals in similar situations providing tips and solutions to issues that doctors couldn’t resolve. The Mighty focused on the storytelling side of community and real connections were built, more individuals spoke up about their struggles, and they grew to have over 15,000 writers in the community. Mike talks about the importance of listening to what community members want and how they used Bevy to create the events and interaction that the members desired. The Mighty now has over 3 million members and continues to support, uplift, and provide a safe space for anyone dealing with health challenges. Who is this episode for?: Non Profit, In person & Online, Starting 3 key takeaways: - The Mighty found success in recruiting individuals to share their health stories and write thank you letters to those who helped them on their health journey, eventually growing to 15,000+ writers. - Mike grew The Mighty to over 3 million members by focusing on listening and learning from community members to ensure the community evolved in the way they desired. - When The Mighty community members’ shared struggles, many solutions were found amongst other community members sharing insights and suggestions when doctors had no answers.