vector research partners ( aka V4RP )
A Founder’s Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your First 1,000 Community Members
Pivots, MVPs, and Community: How Joseph Quan, Founder & CEO of Knoetic, turned his startup around by making community his wedge. Below, Quan lays out the playbook he used to build a thriving network like a product—and how V4RP can apply these lessons.
The Early Struggle
Every founder obsesses over traction. Quan was no different. His previous HR analytics startup was bleeding runway, key customers had left, and March 2020 hit like a brick: COVID wiped out demand overnight. “Prospects didn’t care about analytics anymore. They were just scrambling: layoffs? recession? existential threat?”
With sales tanking and runway disappearing, Quan pivoted. His weapon of choice? Community.
Early-stage community-building is misunderstood. Many founders treat it as fluff, an afterthought once PMF is nailed. Quan didn’t have that luxury. With six months of cash left, he launched a micro-community of 25 Chief People Officers to share best practices on pandemic response and remote work.
“Before I built a community, I thought a product was just data. But CPOs need to know what other companies are doing. That’s where community comes in.”
12 months later, that seed became CPOHQ, the largest network for hypergrowth People Ops execs, with members from Roblox, Glossier, and Figma. Quan credits this network with helping Knoetic raise Series A in under 2 weeks, onboard 100+ CPOs onto the cap table, and grow 400% in 2021.
Key takeaway: Community doesn’t just support your product—it is part of the product.
STEP 1: Run Cheap Tests, Do “Community Discovery,” Build a Wedge
1A. Email campaign = cheapest test ever.
Quan fired off outbound emails to gauge interest in three pivot ideas: layoffs tool, remote work suite, or exclusive CPO community. Result? The community email crushed it—40% of execs responded. Winner.
1B. Community discovery = customer discovery.
Quan interviewed a dozen CPOs to understand what existing networks were missing. The insights shaped CPOHQ’s differentiation:
- Define who’s in, who’s out. Only one People/HR leader per company. Keeps conversations strategic, candid, high-value.
- Make knowledge easy to find. Invest in search, tagging, indexing, and concierge-level content curation.
- Standalone app beats Slack/email. Low-friction to join is nice, low-friction to forget is fatal.
Mistake to avoid: Founder disengagement. If you’re not leading this, it’s dead on arrival.
STEP 2: Scrappy MVP & Earning the Right to Build
Quan built the first version in a weekend: static resource page, curated content, zero social features. Early users got real value without fancy features.
2A. Fill gaps manually. Daily content updates, manually curated resources, all “single-player” at first.
2B. Build hype. Regular emails, announce new members, signal credibility. Snowball effect begins.
Mistake to avoid: Expecting overnight traction. Cold start in community = cold start in marketplace. Three months is just the beginning.
STEP 3: Nail Onboarding, Identify Power Users, Scale
Quan personally onboarded the first 50 members. Calls included: “What would make this a 10/10? What’s missing?” Feedback drove roadmap features.
3A. Continuous learning engine. Use onboarding to gather insights, spot power users who will champion growth.
3B. Seed content, activate power users. Draft posts for them if needed. Habit formation is everything.
3C. Codify founding principles. Every member signs off on values: confidentiality, generosity, lifelong learning.
Mistake to avoid: Trying to be for everyone. High bar = high signal.
STEP 4: Expand Beyond MVP & Experiment
4A. Keep shipping. Build social features gradually: feed, polls, libraries. Nudges + emails reinforce usage.
4B. Co-create roadmap. Weekly feedback calls, small experiments like roundtables. Some ideas fail—but document, iterate, and relaunch at scale.
4C. Seven-star experience. Every question answered in 24h. Founder-led, proactive delight, not just waiting for members to tell you.
Mistake to avoid: Feature bloat. Balance discovery with your north-star vision.
STEP 5: Measure What Matters & Build the Team
5A. Track the right metrics.
- Validation: email open rate, response rate, application & activation.
- Growth: MoM growth, WAU % of total users.
- Engagement: DAU, WAU, DAU/WAU ratio, knowledge generated.
5B. Hire strategically. Start with founder-led community, expand to team focused on JTBD: content, social connectivity, operations, analytics.
Mistake to avoid: Counting only members. Track first-value metrics that predict long-term engagement.
STEP 6: Reap Rewards & Supercharge the Company
Community isn’t just for fun—it drives fundraising, product, and sales.
6A. Fundraising. Warm intros + credibility = faster raises. 100s of engaged members > hypothetical charts.
6B. Product insights. Community discussions reveal patterns, priorities, and features that matter more than interviews.
6C. Accelerate sales. Halo effect: members exploring community leads to product adoption organically.
6D. Create 10X value. Focus on giving first. Facilitate connections, share playbooks, make members feel elite—even if they pay nothing.
“Community isn’t a side hustle. It’s a force multiplier for your product, your fundraising, your sales, and your long-term brand.”
V4RP Takeaway: Start small, obsess over your members, founder-led until you can’t be, iterate relentlessly, and never compromise on quality. Build your community like a product—and it will repay you in ways your MVP alone never could.
