Consider the cost of joining a paid community vs. the "cost" of a free one.

If you& #39;re a founder, writer, engineer, angel, etc; time/attention is your scarcest asset.

The more you value your time, the more you should spend on things that give you leverage on it.

Simple, right?
Tech/startup communities are traditionally VERY under-resourced; "tacked on" to a VC strategy, or reliant on sponsors and volunteers.

Imagine if this weren& #39;t the case.

Imagine if:

• They could hire amazing people, pay them well to create/curate incredible experiences.
• members were their customers. No "selling out" to external interests (spoiler: a VC& #39;s "customer" is their LP; founders are the product).

• participants had skin in the game, were "bought in" to get the most from their investment. See: better engagement, behavior, outcomes.
Paid community customers are buying a premium product.

It& #39;s like comparing an iPhone to a public pay phone. Which do you expect will make you more productive?
Living this example: @beondeck "costs" more than all its competitors* in cash terms.

But our Fellows constantly say we should charge more.

Why?
(*Unless you& #39;re counting MBAs, they& #39;re 100x more https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht">) https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg/status/1253156038745833472">https://twitter.com/eriktoren...
We are building an impactful *business*, because we know that& #39;s how we can have maximum impact.

We went from $500k → $5M annualized revenue in the past 6 months.

The team grew 7 → 24 people in the same time, including world class engineering/product. https://twitter.com/btaleisnik/status/1312536386285699075">https://twitter.com/btaleisni...
This allows us to create an unrivaled experience. To move rapidly, and execute at a high level across several emerging product lines.

The On Deck team is the best I could imagine — top of their game, can& #39;t understate this.

Their work speaks for itself: https://twitter.com/coolnalu/status/1312496906229018625">https://twitter.com/coolnalu/...
In turn, this helps us build an even better business.

@pmarca (via @eladgil):

"The definition of a moat is the ability to charge more"

"companies that charge more can better fund their distribution, ongoing R&D"

"companies that charge more therefore tend to grow faster"
Which helps us hire more amazing people to develop new communities/products; seed new communities; compound the value of the network.

Distribution helps us kickstart new flywheels.

https://twitter.com/beondeck/status/1309171336011542547">https://twitter.com/beondeck/...
And if you& #39;re thinking: what about access?

We& #39;re solving for that too. https://twitter.com/beondeck/status/1309563121950838789">https://twitter.com/beondeck/...
If this resonates with you, let us know! We& #39;re hiring:

http://beondeck.com/careers ">https://beondeck.com/careers&q... https://twitter.com/david__booth/status/1277348588985520129">https://twitter.com/david__bo...
Check out the 50+ year vision here: https://twitter.com/beondeck/status/1299116481242824705">https://twitter.com/beondeck/...
You can follow @david__booth.
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