Invest in Building Community: Relationships > Networking

Being customer-focused is key to success in your startup or business. Creating and maintaining a connection to your current customers by building a community can benefit your business and deepen your relationship with your customer. Communities provide opportunities for customers to interact with your brand or business as well as provide real-time feedback on how to improve your services or products. Leverage one-on-one network connections to generate more ways that you can you serve the needs of your customer instead of just creating new leads and sales. This month, we talk to four community builders who all build and maintain communities in different ways!

Meet our Panel:

Holly Firestone, Head of Community (Venafi)

Holly Firestone has dedicated her career to building thriving professional communities. She is currently the head of community at Venafi, a Machine Identity Protection (security) startup. Before Venafi, she spent five years at Salesforce running the multi-million member customer community along with their industry-leading Salesforce MVP Program and Salesforce User Group Program

Maghan Morin & Jeanine Suah, Founders (Thynk Global)

Located in Miami’s burgeoning Little River district, Thynk Global is a welcoming space where makers, creators and founders can “thynk” beyond limits and produce their best work. The Miami coworking space invites people of color and their allies, male and female entrepreneurs of all ethnicities, to network, get organized, collaborate, and build a sustainable business, all for a fraction of the cost of most coworking spaces. 

Danny Thompson, Founder (GDG Memphis Chapter)

From frying chicken to software engineer, Danny Thompson learned to code and it changed his life. With his mission to help change the community for the better, he started his meetup group GDG Memphis which helps individuals that want to learn about tech, provides mentorship and learning resources.

Learn how to build more authentic relationships with your internal and external audience by providing a space where people can connect with others and have a shared sense of belonging.  

When: July 31, 2020

Time: 6:30 PM (CST)

Where: Zoom online meeting 

Cost: $5 for Zoom Meeting (Interact with speakers, network with other attendees and participate in Q&A).

Every month we invite you to better understand and to embrace Startup Grind’s Values:

Give First (before you ask)

Make Friends (not just contacts)

Help Others (before you help yourself)

And to broadcast Startup Grind’s Mission:

To Educate, Inspire, and Connect Entrepreneurs

Our global community of 600+ chapters in 110 countries worldwide is here for you. Let us know... How may we best assist you? (I.e. - Can we help facilitate warm introductions to businesses, mentors, and/or investors to grow your startup here or elsewhere?)

Ways You Can Participate this Month:

Become an Event Ambassador- Do you like to meet new people? Are you outgoing? Do you like to meet founders and engage with startups? Apply to be an event ambassador at our events. As an ambassador you can get a complimentary ticket to the event and a discount code to share with your network. Interested? Submit your application here.

Knock Knock! Who's there?! - Every month we invite startups within our local ecosystem to kick off the event. Use this opportunity to get that answer specific to your idea or product as an entrepreneur partner. Our community also enjoys hearing about your accomplishments, values or needs. Quickfire pitches allow you to get real feedback from our chat guests as well as increase the visibility of your startup. This opportunity is available for a limited number of businesses, Contact us to learn how to sign up (lakeisha@startupgrind.com)

Listen & Learn - Are you a member of our local entrepreneurial ecosystem? Are you looking for inspiration on how to start your startup? Are you wondering how to combine your passion with giving back to the community? We encourage you to come meet (virtually), learn from and have the chance to ask questions of our featured speakers and guests.

Spread the Word - Startup Grind Memphis' monthly events are an effective and valuable opportunity to share your brand and message with our local entrepreneurial community. Startup Grind’s events regularly attract many influential Founders, Professionals, and Investors. We have several options available, starting at only $55. Contact us about sharing your brand with our entrepreneurs!