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Welcome back to the Collective. Last week was our first full week of our winter content season. The capability to present the thoughts of leaders like Pace University President Marvin Krislov and former CEO and Founder of Halo Cars (acquired by Lyft) Kenan Saleh is not one that we take lightly. This week we continue by releasing interviews that revolve around community in technology and entrepreneurship. On Tuesday we will be releasing our interview with Anand Deshpande, Strategic Partnerships at Mercury, and on Thursday we will release our interview with Ruben A. Austin, Founder of the all in all community. Both of these interviews focus on building community in the field of innovation.

So, this newsletter will serve as a primer on why building community is so, so important for entrepreneurs these days. It used to be that a startup's success was a function of its product multiplied by its branding. Now, these two prongs are not enough: enter community as a third prong. Here we go!

— By Antonio DiMeglio and Leon Li

This Week’s Highlights

• Understanding why the Community Engagement Ladder has become the blueprint for modern community building, replacing traditional top-down engagement models

• Exploring how Stripe transforms casual developers into community leaders through a carefully structured progression system

• Learning from Replit's educational approach that turns learners into teachers through collaborative coding experiences

• Previewing fresh perspectives on community building from our upcoming interviews with Anand Deshpande (Mercury) and Ruben A. Austin (all in all), both releasing this week on our @CoeusCollective YouTube channel

The Community Engagement Ladder: a Framework

Think of community building like a ladder. Each rung represents a deeper level of engagement, and your job as a community builder is to help members climb. The key is understanding that everyone starts at different places, but everyone needs a clear path upward. Let's explore how two of tech's most successful companies design their engagement ladders for different audiences.

Case Study #1: Stripe

Stripe's engagement ladder is masterfully crafted for developers, with each level building upon the last: