over time, as a member’s commitment goes up, they make larger contributions to the community.

you, “…must always lower the barrier to entry with low barrier asks and gradually ramp people up the commitment curve with incrementally harder asks that get incrementally more commitment, and generate incrementally more reward.”

At Meetup, that meant not immediately asking a new member to host a meetup. First, ask them to read a blog post and then attend an event.

At Airbnb, that meant not asking a new member to immediately post a listing. First, ask them to watch a video about how Airbnb works and then try booking a stay.

people are more likely to say yes to your ask if they’ve already said yes to your smaller asks.

You need to start with people who are already highly committed.

Community-Member-Fit (which I’ll refer to as CMF) is the point at which members are consistently providing meaningful value to each other without being asked.

Don’t copy how an established community works today. Copy how it started.

Meetup and Airbnb started by focusing on actions at the top of the commitment curve and they started with the biggest believers in the world: themselves.

To find CMF, start with the people who need little convincing. Ideally, they’re already trying, unsuccessfully, to do the thing that your community offers. Your only hurdle should be convincing them to do it with you.

You don’t need 1,000 people to start a community. You need 10 true believers.

If you want people to self-organize events, find the people who are already trying to organize events in that space. Not the huge conference organizer who’s already successful. Find the small organizers who still need your help.

Find the people who have the motivation, but who haven’t been successful yet. They need your help.

The key, when starting a new community, is to focus on finding CMF for a small group of believers.