Create Community

Can Community Be Your Lifeline? A Conversation With the Co-Founders of Mesh

Jessica Moreno and Jess Zakira Wise are two of the Co-Founders of Mesh, the first platform designed by community experts to connect, moderate, and monetize communities. 

Jessica Moreno is the former Head of Community at Reddit and the co-founder of Imzy and RedditGifts. Jess Zakira Wise has worked as a community manager, film producer, progressive activist and storyteller. 

This episode is about creating sustainable online communities, community as a lifeline, and why it’s more important than ever to maintain democracy within communities.

Episode Notes: www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/mesh

Burnout, Growth and Community with Sarah Stockdale

Sarah Stockdale is the Founder and CEO of Growclass, an online course and community that teaches growth marketing. She’s also the author of We Need To Talk About This, a popular blog and newsletter for millennial women.

Previously, Sarah spent her career working on early stage technology startups. She grew the largest campus ambassador program in the world at a payments startup called Tilt which was later acquired by Airbnb. 

Sarah and Marsha chat about creating community in the online education space, how to apply growth marketing principles to grow a community, burnout and the dark side of tech.

Show Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/sarah-stockdale

When The Pandemic Forces You To Pause: A Conversation With Jodi Kovitz of #movethedial

Jodi Kovitz is the Founder and CEO of #movethedial, a global movement and community to advance the participation and leadership of all women in tech. #movethedial has touched over 60,000 people at events throughout the world. 

This episode is raw and vulnerable. Jodi and Marsha take the filter off, and talk about the devastating effect COVID had on Jodi's community and the painful decision to put a pause on operations. They talk about where the dial is now and how small actions can move the dial for those around us in profound ways.

Jodi’s journey as a community builder is inspiring and full of lessons and hope for the future.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/jodi-kovitz

How to Create a Social Movement with Shannon Farley of Fast Forward

Shannon Farley focuses on the intersection of tech for good, women’s rights, and human rights. She's the co-founder and Executive Director of Fast Forward, the accelerator for tech nonprofits.

Prior to Fast Forward, Shannon was the founding Executive Director of Spark, the world's largest network of Millennial philanthropists. She also helped start The W. Haywood Burns Institute, an award-winning juvenile justice reform organization.

Shannon shares how she's creating community among entrepreneurs building social impact tech startups, how people can apply their skills to social movements, and how we can leverage community in the social sector.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/shannon-farley

Can You Have Community Without Trust? A Conversation With Rosie Sherry

Rosie Sherry founded the Ministry of Testing, which is the largest community of software testing professionals. She grew this community from casual meetups to 9 yearly conferences earning $1.5 million in annual revenue.

Eventually, Rosie outgrew this community and handed over the day-to-day operations to her team. Today, Rosie is the Community Manager of Indie Hackers, a community that helps entrepreneurs become profitable while remaining independent.

Rosie and Marsha chat about the challenges and opportunities of growing her communities, when it’s time to move on and how to do it smoothly, and building vs buying community tools. They also chat about how Rosie homeschools her 5 kids and balances it all!

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/rosie-sherry

Is it Possible to Take Your Local Community Worldwide? A Conversation with Karlena Waugh

Karlena Waugh is the creator of The Biz Mixer, a community for creatives, entrepreneurs, and small business owners to connect with and learn from their peers.

Karlena is a young entrepreneur herself, as the Founder of an events company called Mini K Creations.

In this episode, Karlena and Marsha chat about creating localized communities, bringing your IRL community online, mental health and so much more! 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/karlena-waugh

Community in Prison with Emily O'Brien

Emily O'Brien is the Founder of Comeback Snacks, a gourmet popcorn company that she started in federal prison. Yes, you read that correctly.

After getting mixed up with the wrong crowd and the wrong substances, Emily made a colossal mistake and was sentenced to 4 years in prison. She started her company with the goal of creating a social enterprise that could provide reintegration opportunities for other ex-offenders.

As Emily shares her story, she reflects on the role community played in her journey before, during and after prison. 

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/emily-obrien

The Math of Community with Jacob Peters

Jacob Peters works at the intersection of technology, data and community, so in this episode we take a dive into the math of community.

Jacob is a serial community builder, starting at age 10 with a serious passion for Legos and a knack for bringing people together. He spent the past few years building a community of data scientists at an unlikely place – a big bank on Wall Street.

Today, Jacob is the Co-Founder of Commsor, a powerful new tool that helps organizations better understand and measure their communities.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/jacob-peters

How Techqueria Created the Largest Community of Latinx in Tech

Techqueria connects the largest community of Latinx people in tech, empowering them with the resources and support that they need to thrive.

This episode features two awesome leaders from the Techqueria team: David Silva (Co-Founder) and Kristal Garcia (Community Lead).

They chat with Marsha about the origin story of Techqueria, the nitty-gritty of growing it, micro-communities within the community, diversity and inclusion, and so much more.

Episode Notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/techqueria

Should You Co-Create with Your Community? A Conversation with VanHack’s Ilya Brotzky

Ilya is on mission to create a borderless world for tech talent. He’s the Founder and CEO of VanHack, one of Canada’s leading HR Tech startups.

VanHack has an incredible community of close to 176K candidates from over 100 countries who are ready to relocate or work remotely. Their Slack is probably one of the largest in the world, with close to 70K active community members connecting and learning with each other throughout their immigration journeys. 

Ilya chats with Marsha about his experience living in Brazil, finding community as an immigrant, building VanHack, and how to co-create your company with your community.

Episode notes: https://www.createcommunitypod.com/episodes/ilya-brotzky