Power of Community: If you're a VC or Investment Fund, drive growth and collaboration among your portfolio companies

The importance of communities in the fast-paced business environment of today cannot be emphasized. Businesses of all shapes and sizes are realizing how powerful it is to establish their own communities in order to promote development, cooperation, and mutual success. This is especially true for venture capital (VC) firms, as they are in a unique position to leverage the combined strength of the businesses in their portfolio.

Venture capitalists (VCs) can foster the exchange of best practices, stimulate commercial opportunities, and ultimately propel the success of their investments by establishing a community experience that brings together promising entrepreneurs.

We had a meeting with Antler's VC Associate, Karan Prasad, to better understand how investors might interact with the venture capital ecosystem.

The Rise of Community Building

Community building is a fast-growing idea that centers on bringing people together who have similar beliefs and interests. A variety of communities, including clients, partners, associates, and workers, have embraced this strategy. VC-created communities of enterprises, however, are among the most intriguing uses of community building.

The primary goal of investment funds like as Antler is no longer to finance hundreds of businesses. They understand that the businesses in their portfolio have similar objectives, experiences, and difficulties. The secret is to unite these businesses into a close-knit community that promotes cooperation and group development. Antler provides residency programs where aspiring startup entrepreneurs come together to create the next generation of billion-dollar companies, in addition to investing in a small number of companies that become its portfolio company. 

"Our residency programs and portfolio are more than just a list of businesses. Above all, it is a genuine community with more than 500 startups! We pledge to invest in and support the businesses that we bring to town. However, our knowledge is limited. So, creating a community has enabled us to connect startups, to encourage best practice sharing and collective learning... A truly virtuous circle for everyone," explains Karan Prasad.

Through the creation of a PortCo community, VCs can:

Organize meetings and provide feedback using both online resources and live events. Antler, for instance, hosts frequent in-person events, has its own community platform, and uses Slack for more direct communication.

Promote the exchange of pertinent materials, including papers, videos, and articles. Highly relevant information created by the administrator or members themselves powers communities. Resources on market rules, innovation, or company strategy, for instance, can be offered in a variety of formats, such as articles, films that can be viewed on demand, or documents that can be downloaded.

Encourage ongoing development by gathering comments and facilitating immediate contact. This presents VC firms with a rare chance to learn about the problems, difficulties, requirements, and other aspects of portfolio startups. Members of the community can also learn from one another. It's a virtuous circle of learning and continuous improvement!

Promote mutual support and collective solidarity among members.

Boost individual growth and drive community-led growth for both the PortCos and the VC firm itself. The best example of this is YC and its portfolio companies which find their first 100 customers within YC itself.

Engaging and Growing Your VC Community:

Establishing a community among portfolio firms is an excellent beginning, but maintaining that community's commitment and engagement over time is the true challenge. In order to expand and involve a venture capital ecosystem, Karan Prasad identifies three essential levers:

1. Make the onboarding process unforgettable: Antler has transitioned from individual to group onboarding, integrating new cohorts via online interviews and in-person residence every few months. 
2. Through this group onboarding process, participants are immediately enmeshed in the community dynamic. Strong ties are forged by this activity from the very beginning of the community.
3. Encourage immediate and asynchronous communication: Members can exchange the right content at the right time with the right person at the right location by using chat systems like Slack and specialized knowledge sharing and community platforms like Stacks, which offer a seamless experience.
4. Plan recurring events: Building strong and enduring ties requires face-to-face gatherings, such as monthly after-work get-togethers, breakfasts in the park in the morning, and annual celebrations.

The end objective is straightforward: provide an accessible tool that lets each member communicate freely and simply away from the noise and anonymity of social networks. In a world where 100 million Instagram photographs are posted every day and 10,000 tweets are made every second... Using the resources available to your community via a dedicated platform is a must!

Some Advice for Developing Your VC Community Successfully

Three last pointers for venture capitalists who are thinking about transforming their portfolio of firms into a vibrant community are as follows:

1. Don't listen to conventional wisdom: Each community has its own unique codes and goals. Be willing to test different strategies without being swayed by the opinions of others in your sector. Every Community-led Growth approach ought to be put to the test, disregarding the advice of other participants in the same industry. It is true that what functions well in one community may not be in another. You get the idea—test, refine, and restart—in order to federate, animate, and engage!
2. Ask for continuous feedback: Community-led growth is a collaborative project. Seek feedback from your members on a regular basis to jointly develop a valuable and customized experience. Regardless of the purpose of your community (product creation, lead conversion, support call deflection, etc.), meeting the demands of your members is the first step in ensuring that it will yield a positive ROI (return on investment).
3. Find the right people and tools: To successfully establish, enliven, and engage your community, spend money on community builders with experience and make use of specialized platforms like Stacks. Social networks are getting more and more congested, less and less tailored to community initiatives, and frequently fail to live up to the expectations of both businesses and users. Using technologies that are appropriate for your community is highly suggested in order to provide relevant experiences.
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VCs can help their portfolio firms reach their full potential by embracing the power of community. These communities have the capacity to spur creativity, hasten success, and leave a lasting impression on the startup ecosystem via cooperation, knowledge exchange, and group development.