5 Community Business Success Stories [2024]

Pat Walls

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Updated: December 9th, 2023

Start An Online Community Business

An online community business involves developing and managing a digital platform for niche audiences to convene, discuss shared interests and access member resources.

As an entrepreneurial founder, you conceptualize, build, and moderate a custom community space using a tailored engagement model catering to target demographics.

With flexibility for subscription access or free public forums, building an online community provides scalable profit potential.

For tech-savvy founders seeking accessible startup costs, an online community made for niche groups presents an innovative way to monetize digital connections and specialized industry knowledge.

Here are some real life success stories of starting a online community business:

1. Socialistics ($500K/year)

How much they make: $500K/year
Current team size: 8

How to Start an Advertising Agency (and Make $500K/Year)

Socialistics founder Jason Yormark turned a side project into an advertising agency managing social media campaigns ranging from $2K to $5K for 15 clients, providing content marketing, social media marketing, Facebook advertising and more.

About

They started Socialistics over 6 years ago

Revenue

They grew the business to $41.7K/month

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Read by 837 founders

Learn more about starting an online community business:

Where to start?

-> How much does it cost to start an online community business?
-> Pros and cons of an online community business

Need inspiration?

-> Examples of established online community business
-> Marketing ideas for an online community business

Other resources

Part of

Starting An Online Community Business: Everything You Need To Know

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2. GummySearch ($12K/year)

Fed, the founder of The Hive Index and GummySearch, originally built The Hive Index as a simple project to create a directory of online communities. Inspired by the supportive indie hacker and bootstrapper communities, Fed saw potential in helping people find online communities for their interests. This led to the creation of GummySearch, an audience research tool for startup founders, which generated $60k in revenue in its first year.

How much they make: $12K/year
Current team size: 0

I Built A Reddit Search Engine That Generated $60K In Its First Year

Bootstrapped founder Fed shares the success of his community-focused products, The Hive Index and GummySearch, which have helped over 10k people find online communities each month and generated $60k in revenue in its first year, respectively.

About

Folio started GummySearch almost 3 years ago

Revenue

Folio grew the business to $1K/month

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Read by 6,222 founders

3. Entrepreneur Power Hour ($12K/year)

Bobby Housel, founder of Entrepreneur Power Hour, came up with the idea for his business during his sophomore year at the University of Michigan. After realizing that the world of college entrepreneurship was fragmented and lacking in community, he started hosting meetups for student entrepreneurs, which quickly grew to over 300 founders. Through word of mouth and a successful appearance on a popular entrepreneurship podcast, the business launched organically and has since been focused on building a strong community for college founders.

How much they make: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
Current team size: 4

How We Are Changing The Way College Entrepreneurship Works Through Our Community

Learn about how Entrepreneur Power Hour grew to over 300 student founders across two college campus communities and their plan to expand nationwide and empower alumni to invest in the next generation of college founders through their syndicate fund, Founder's Cupid.

About

Bobby started Entrepreneur Power Hour over 2 years ago

Revenue

Bobby grew the business to $1K/month

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Read by 1,077 founders