The notion of community has always been an important one for startups. The reasons are obvious. Building companies from scratch is a lonely business to say the least, rife with uncertainty and often devoid of positive feedback. So, the startup world has created several constructs that help those trying to fight the good fight. Meetups, co-working spaces, LinkedIn groups and various networking events all serve to bring cohesion to our disparate efforts to build the next unicorn.
Sometimes massive but latent communities remain fragmented until a social construct, cause or effective application of technology can unite them. For those who really invest in the concept, community can play an ongoing and vital role in the entire lifecycle of a business and is often the single bulwark protecting the founder from failure while supporting long-term success.
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