I’m stealing this from my distilled interview:
If you come to someone with an idea for an online community, they might say no. There’s no budget for it. It’s too risky. Or “Why can’t we advertise to our own community”?
Just to do it anyway. If you want to build an online community for someone, just go ahead and do it. They can’t stop you. You don’t even have to be directly involved, just enthuse a few great customers with the idea and support them.
If you come to someone a few months later with a community of 3,000 people are they going to turn you (and their loyal customers) away? Are they going to pass up on the free-advertising and word-of-mouth marketing for life? Are they going to turn down the free market research?
I bet they wont. In fact, I suspect they’re willing to pay a good price to keep you and your community right where it is.
