Thrive

In August, I was introduced to Giovanna Ventola through one of our Thrive members. She quickly became an invaluable part of our community, joining calls, meeting members, and leading webinar sessions focused on building community through trust, empathy, and real human connection. I wasn't the only one who recognized her talent. Our members (constantly) encouraged us to bring her on board, and I'm thrilled to announce that Giovanna has officially joined Thrive as our full-time Head of Member Experience! Giovanna's expertise will be crucial in creating a vibrant experience that attracts new members while retaining and engaging our existing community. She’s a serious community builder. And it’s time for us to get this right. I believe in her a lot. We're excited about everything she will bring to this mission. Let’s Thrive!

Most people, especially in Silicon Valley, use the term “lifestyle business” as a dirty term. I see it as a compliment. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked if I was building a “lifestyle business,” I’d have enough money to fund our product roadmap for the next few years. Building a company that is profitable and growing year over year is what we used to call a “business”. And it's never been easier (and cheaper) to build a bootstrapped business thanks to AWS, Generative AI, and offshoring. For some reason, the expectation is to raise a bunch of money, lose control over your company to people who have never run a business, waste time managing a big team, be unprofitable, focus on hyper-growth, and have a big exit. This week's RB2B webinar hosted by Adam Robinson and Nathan Latka provided all the facts that any founder would ever need to stay bootstrapped for as long as possible. Nathan laid out examples of venture-backed founders that, on paper, looked like they had a “big exit”. However, after dilution and paying back investors, the founders were left with only enough money to pay for a downpayment on a house in San Francisco. Hint hint: That’s not a lot of money. On top of that, venture-backed founders’ salaries are capped. In contrast, imagine being the founder who can bootstrap a profitable business to ~$2M ARR, pay themselves whatever they want, and have complete control over their business. Which path would you choose? If you're a bootstrapped founder, let's connect, support each other, and set an example of the change we want to see. Shout out to people like Eric Harrison for building Thrive, a community for bootstrapped entrepreneurs.

As I plan for 2025, I have to also reflect on a year of big decisions and lots of change. The scariest—and most rewarding— was leaving my 9-to-5 to start society unlocked. More recently, I made another rewarding decision: joining Thrive, Eric Harrison's community for service-based, bootstrapped entrepreneurs. The shared knowledge has already been game-changing as I continue building my dream. I’m honored to have my journey featured on Thrive’s blog and grateful for John Kennelly interviewing me to capture my story! Check it out below! And in case you missed it, check out Society Unlocked's features in USA Wire: https://lnkd.in/eceMwtH8 NY Weekly: https://lnkd.in/eTtt9fMh

Top-down communities don’t work. Not because they're inherently bad experiences...But because they put all the power and decision-making on the founder. Members start feeling like spectators, engagement dies, and folks end up churning. When people don’t feel ownership, they don’t invest their time or energy. I got this wrong for the first several months when I was building Thrive. I was building for me and not for them. I'm still working on getting it right. The future belongs to communities where members drive the growth and direction. John Kennelly and I will be on Zoom this Friday at 1 pm EST jamming on why member-led growth is the ONLY way to grow a community (and how we’re doing it at Thrive). Register here: https://lnkd.in/eAJY7xtw

This #SmallBusinessSaturday, let’s celebrate the incredible paid communities making a BIG impact and shaping people’s futures, one connection at a time. 💚 Paid membership communities aren’t just about access… They’re about belonging.  They’re where growth, learning, and meaningful connections happen. Building and leading them is no small feat, and the people behind them deserve major credit. It takes hard work, dedication, and passion to create (& maintain) a space where professionals get the empowerment and the support they need to *really* thrive. 🙌 Here are a few that folks have nominated this week: Thrive Arcadia Contrarian Thinking the old girls club mompark™ WOMEN IN TECH ® Global GenieFriends Operators Guild Exit Five Partnership Leaders MicroConf Luminary Founding Women Rhize  TACK Marketing for Founders Generalist World 🌀  Startup Empire Untap Your Sales Potential Marketing Ops Community Women And AI PORCH 💚 Pavilion Saleswomen Unite Women in Customer Success The Herd by Commsor 🦕  Wednesday Women (a “community” with a twist 😉) (ofc we couldn’t resist giving a shoutout to a couple of unpaid communities doing great things as well. 🤗) #community #communities #connectwithintention

"When you’re honest about what you need, someone will step forward to help." – Eric Harrison of Thrive How do you share your "asks" with your network?   📩 Email?  💬 DMs? Text?  ✏️ Broad LI post? It’s easy to say, “Everything’s good,” but sometimes a little vulnerability is what brings people closer—and leads to opportunities you might not expect. Our first episode of the Joy of Connecting show is jam-packed with tips like this one… So grab your notebook (you’re gonna want to grab notes 😉) and listen to the full episode. 👇 🎧 Apple: https://lnkd.in/deWkeE4q 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dj9jiTR2 👀 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dRM3CBQf #networking #growth #joyofconnecting #connectwithmatcha ________________ Get bi-weekly, actionable tips for building your #network and connecting with meaning at: https://lnkd.in/dfadrDnF Melissa Moody 🍵 Jelena Djordjevic 🍵

"I’ve seen firsthand how one conversation can turn into 25 new customers or a lifelong friendship.” Pause whatever you’re doing, grab a warm matcha latte and get cozy…. Because the first episode of the Joy of Connecting show is here. And it’s 🔥🔥🔥 Melissa Moody 🍵 sits down with Eric Harrison, founder of Thrive, to chat about how fostering meaningful connections in your community supports business growth and mental well-being. Eric shares: 💚 His journey of founding Thrive, a community tailored exclusively for bootstrapped entrepreneurs 💚 His experience with early struggles in business (& ways he overcame them) 💚 And the pivotal moments of connection that shaped his entrepreneurial path This episode is jam-packed and will inspire you to rethink your #networking strategy and the role of #connection in your success. Don’t wait - RUN to listen to it. 🎧 Apple: https://lnkd.in/deWkeE4q 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dj9jiTR2 👀 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dRM3CBQf #joyofconnecting #connectwithmatcha #community __________ Get bi-weekly, actionable tips for building your #network and connecting with meaning at: https://lnkd.in/dfadrDnF

I’m honored to be OG ambassador 13 at Thrive… Lucky number 13, baby. What’s Thrive? The place where bootstrapped founders find their footing, community and their freedom. Eric Harrison, the founder of Thrive, is a leader; front and center to the bootstrapping community. I’m lucky to know him. Thrive is the only community built for Bootstrappers, like me. Like you… I’ve been lucky to be in the Thrive network for this last year. I’m excited for the future. I’m honored to be one of their early members. If you’re a bootstrapper - you belong here.

Hosted Thrive's largest town hall to date this afternoon with John Kennelly. Broke down why making money is 10x more impressive than raising money. Heard from 3 incredible bootstrapped entrepreneurs: Stephen Cassano, Ally Quilty, and Maxime Doucet-Benoit. They run service-based businesses. None of them are building some one of a kind technology with a promise to change the world. They're building companies that solve real problems for real people—and they're printing money. Stories like theirs remind me why it means more to be bootstrapped. To the folks who shared their journeys on our conversation today: you inspire me. Thrive's community of bootstrappers is about to get a whole lot louder—we're just getting started. 🚀 🚀 🚀

It pisses me off that raising from VCs is seen as a massive achievement in startup land. Here are ways I see this showing up: 1️⃣ content that assumes the only respectable path is to become the next unicorn (even though the odds are seriously against founders, especially underestimated ones 🦄) 2️⃣ founders who explicitly tell me they are focusing on raising (OVER getting and keep customers 🤷♀️) 3️⃣ ignoring facts like revenue, profitability, how much a founder takes home, and the value they are creating in the world (just focus on money raised 💰) 4️⃣ founders mentioning their raise as an achievement (not only when it happens, but also after their startups fails and even if they made $0 💣 ) 5️⃣ consultants who only work with 'venture backed startups' (because they say bootstrapped founders are not willing to 'invest' money into 'long-term strategy' 🫠 ) 6️⃣ headlines that celebrate raising as the ultimate achievement (with 0 headlines about profitable businesses 📈 ) I'll die on the hill that VC backed or not, the most important metric that matters is a growing number of Happy Paying Customers ™. Obsessing about money raised is a vanity metric. And, no, it is not even a leading indicator of success. Majority of startups fail, whether they raise or not. Money made > money raised. Agree?