Investing in Community-Driven Companies with Lolita Taub & Jesse Middleton

Lolita Taub and Jesse Middleton from The Community Fund VC join us in this week’s Masters of Community Episode. They are early stage community investors searching for community-driven founders. Having the community embedded across the organization is crucial as it drives marketing growth, product decisions, customer service, and more. Lolita and Jesse discuss the business behind community, what metrics they look for when determining a community to invest in, and measuring the value of this community in the organization as a whole. They dive into where community should fit in an organization and the importance of having community as its own individual department. Lolita and Jesse continue to search for underestimated founders serving underserved markets, with the goal to tap into this potential and transform the business through community. Who is this episode for?: B2B, In person and online, Starting 3 key takeaways: - Community should be its own pillar in the business - separate from sales, marketing, R&D, etc. The goal is to have community be its own department one day. - The Community Return on Investment: (Value Gained - Cost) / Cost Lolita and Jesse search for founders who are community builders themselves. - Community needs to be embedded across the leadership of the company, so having a community-driven founder is crucial to the growth and success. Notable Quotes: “My personal preference, especially when we're looking at pre-seed seed companies, is that the founder be a community builder themselves. Similar to how, when we were looking at our investment partner team and putting it together, we were looking for those community builders, community leaders, because we want our founders to have that DNA of building community.” “Community builders spot community builders, community sees community. It's by design - great community leaders are amazing at that many-to-many interaction. And that is what we want our partners at The Community Fund to spot in the founders that they’re backing as well. Those that are great at many-to-many interactions.” Rapid fire question answers: 1. What’s your favorite book to recommend to others? Lolita - “Good night stories for rebel girls” Jesse - “Never Split the Difference” 2. Who’s an up and coming community builder you think is going to do big things? Lolita - Rei Wang and Anita @ The Grand Jesse - David Fano @ the Teal Community 3. What is a community building lesson that’s stuck with you? Lolita - ‘Authenticity and sense of belonging are two ingredients you must have in a community’. Jesse - ‘When a customer is not always right, the community is.’ 4. What’s the weirdest community that you’ve been a part of? Lolita - Indigenous area in Burkina Faso with the Peace Corps - stayed with a family in mud huts - and they spoke a dialect that taught her about community. Needed the community to survive, to eat, to move forward, etc. Jesse - Hacker Community, it’s a highly connected and diverse, crazy community 5. If you’re on your deathbed and you could only leave one piece of life advice behind for all the future generations, what would that advice be? Lolita - Face your fears. Do what you love. Live the life you want to live. Jesse - Do what you love. Work on things that you love. Helpful Links: The Community Playbook Cheat Sheet - https://medium.com/the-community-fund/the-community-playbook-cheat-sheet-31ae9ae77f3c Thread on community-driven companies - https://twitter.com/lolitataub/status/1298381835794182145?s=20 Dame products - https://twitter.com/DameProducts Root dolls - https://twitter.com/RootsDolls The Community Fund: How We Source, Select, and Support Startups https://medium.com/the-community-fund/the-community-fund-how-we-source-select-and-support-startups-74f48ada262a Community-Driven Companies: What They Are and Why We’re Investing in Them https://medium.com/the-community-fund/community-driven-companies-what-they-are-and-why-were-investing-in-them-f72629d11f86 Thecommunity.vc https://twitter.com/thecommunityvc Twitter.com/@lolitataub https://twitter.com/srcasm