Skip to content

Menu

Memberships & Support
Opportunities
Venue + Boardroom Hire
Subscribe to the Burner
What’s On
News & Updates
About Us
Contact Us

Menu

Membership & Support

Venue Hire & Events

Opportunities

About Us

Login

Membership & Support

Supporting you
through every stage

Support

What We Offer
Online Founders Hub
Sydney Startup Hub
Memberships & Pricing
Fishburners Services Hub

What We Offer
Online Founders Hub
Sydney Startup Hub
Memberships & Pricing
Fishburners Services Hub

Resources

Free Founders Bootcamp
Events What’s On
Our Perks & Discounts
Fishburners Success Stories

Free Founders Bootcamp
Events What’s On
Our Perks & Discounts
Fishburners Success Stories

Venue Hire & Events

Get Connected

Subscribe to the Burner
Latest Events
News & Updates

Subscribe to the Burner
Latest Events
News & Updates

Host Your Next Event

Corporate Venue Hire
The Board Rooms
The Workshop Space
The Large Event Space

Corporate Venue Hire
The Board Rooms
The Workshop Space
The Large Event Space

What's Happening in Fishburners

Opportunities

Opportunities to grow with Fishburners

Get Involved

Partner with Fishburners
Promote Your Service
Apply to Pitch at our Pitch Nights
Contact Us

Partner with Fishburners
Promote Your Service
Apply to Pitch at our Pitch Nights
Contact Us

Programs

Free Founders Bootcamp
Events What’s On
Our Perks & Discounts
Fishburners Success Stories

Free Founders Bootcamp
Events What’s On
Our Perks & Discounts
Fishburners Success Stories

About Us

Login

Building Community: Why Trust is a Money Can’t Buy Proposition

December 5, 2019
Majella Campbell

By Nicole O’Brien, CEO Fishburners

Creating a strong community has become the holy grail of customer relationships.

It’s little wonder that companies from small to large are investing strongly in community building. The 2020 Global Community Index found that, as communities evolve and mature, they become critical to their company’s mission and have a positive impact on their business outcomes. Almost two thirds of global respondents to this study (65%) say their organization will increase their budget for community next year.

Yet even though organizations are investing in community, the study also found that the type of metrics community professionals track “are often vanity measures.” Fewer than half of those who cite customer retention as a primary goal for their communities, are even tracking this as a metric.

Long before the rush to cool corporate co-working spaces, the startup world was a vanguard of community-based work culture. With coworking becoming more mainstream, it raises important questions about the nature of community and ‘value-add’ in shared office spaces.

Can you buy your way into ‘community’ simply by cramming random teams into a trendy fit-out? Fishburners was one of the earliest brands in the startup community space in 2011 and we continue to house the largest community of startups in Australia. What we have learned over the past is there is no short-cut to building or scaling community.

Creating community – the playbook

Community spaces go well beyond a real-estate deal. What are the metrics we should and can measure? Here’s what we know about building community as a sustainable practice:

Your ‘why’ matters: Most successful startups begin with a passionate founder genuinely trying to solve a problem in their world – one which, if scaled, can have greater customer impact. Focusing purely on the metrics of world-domination is never a very sustainable strategy. Likewise, successful community spaces often form organically when like-minded people with shared objectives coming together to create bigger benefits for all. That is certainly how Fishburners began – with entrepreneurs Pete Davison and Mike Casey starting with that end in mind. Nine years on, that objective has not changed, we are stronger than ever and remain the largest community of startups in Australia.

(Truly) caring creates sharing: Authentic community spaces create a genuine sense of trust, respect and a relaxed atmosphere between colleagues. In that kind of atmosphere, people talk and share – and collaboration occurs. Collaboration can create innovation outcomes and greater commercial opportunities for everyone. That’s only possible when the people operating in that space feel, over time, that the operators and their co-habitants have their best-interests at heart. How do you judge that? A hundred different ways over time – trust builds from many small daily acts of contribution, honesty and transparency.

People first, profit second: Clearly it’s important to have a sustainable business model, however, when profit takes precedence over people that undermines trust and community. When members of a community start feeling like a number – specifically, just a number on a balance sheet – office space becomes purely a real estate transaction.

Value-adds over vanity-adds: Vanity measures are a recurring subject of debate within startup circles – for example, how much do bean-bags, table tennis tables and beer fridges really contribute to growth outcomes for startups. Does office design and interiors alone create community? There’s nothing wrong with any of these benefits, however I would consider these a mere baseline to an office space decision for a start-up – not the main attraction. True value-adds include more substantial things such as expert lunch-and-learns, member-run workshops, weekly pitch nights, sport groups, in-house movie nights, out-of-office weekend trips and access to an extensive network of mentors, investors, media contacts, funding sources, potential customer funnels and the best tools and knowledge

Trust is not transferable: Once trust is established, it can’t be sold. Taking over, selling or rapidly scaling out a business model requires patience and keen attention to the cultural values that people signed up for when they joined. Community spaces don’t work ‘on paper’ – they exist and work because of the people in them, and that’s something you earn, not something you can ‘sell.’

At Fishburners, community building is an ongoing craft – one we are deeply committed to. We are still learning, but these are the insights we have gathered along the way.

Previous

Next

Related Posts

Meet the Service Revolutionising Product Development for Early Stage Startups.

Welcome to Meet the Service, a newsletter by Fishburners, where we meet the expert operators and strategists who are scaling

Choosing a service provider or agency for your startup

The Ultimate Start-Up Checklist For Choosing a Service Provider.

On the lookout for a service provider to help you take your business to the next level? It can be

Join the Burner 🔥 to stay updated

Your name

Your email

Subscribe to the Burner

Full Name

Email

Facebook-f Linkedin Instagram

Quick Links

Startup Blog & News
Perks & Discounts
Add Additional Team Members
Success Stories
Contact Us

Join Us

Sydney Hub
Founders Hub
Service Hub
Promote Your Service
Venue Hire Sydney
Board Room Hire

Sydney Hub
Founders Hub
Service Hub
Promote Your Service
Venue Hire Sydney
Board Room Hire

Get In Touch

Level 2, 11-17 York Street,
Wynyard NSW 2000

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1800 959 351
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30AM - 5:00PM

Terms
Founders Hub Terms
Privacy Policy
WHS Policy
Whistle Blower Policy
Code of Conduct
© 2023 All Rights Reserved.

20% Off Board Room Hire - Offer Ends 30th September!

Book Now

X