Introducing YourStory Communities: Exclusive networks of founders building in India

A community offers much more than a space for belonging. It brings together a fraternity of great minds wanting to make a great impact together.

In this spirit, YourStory is excited to announce Communities, an initiative to build and foster meaningful relationships between founders and also forge a closer association between YourStory and the startup ecosystem.

Under Communities, we are helping like-minded people come together through sector-specific groups, including a D2C founder group, an AI enthusiast group, a developer cohort, and more.

All participants can leverage peer and ecosystem support from these communities, and also interact directly with YourStory members for exclusive opportunities to get featured in our articles and events.

You can find more information on this dedicated Communities website: https://communities.yourstory.com/

Why should you join?

- Tell your story to the world by getting featured on our platform

Through our D2C community, we have featured stories of brands including Uni Seoul, Torque, SuperErgo, and TheCocoLove, giving them a platform to make their case to users and investors and in turn raise ecosystem support.

Join our communities now and stand a chance to get featured in YourStory articles, newsletters and videos, and showcase your founder journey, product and USP to our wide audience.

- Solve business problems through peer support

Our communities offer like-minded people a chance to get to know each other, meet together, and have meaningful discussions that tickle the entrepreneurial worm. Make lasting relationships, find mentors and talk to other founders who can help you solve your immediate business challenges. 

Our peer group of early-stage founders have been meeting behind closed doors to present their challenges, brainstorm solutions, and build connections.

- Become a thought leader by taking the stage at our events

YourStory Community members get exclusive opportunities to speak on stage at our meetups and events throughout the year. 

With TechSparks 2024 Bengaluru scheduled for September 26-28, key members of our community are preparing to go on stage to present their brands and share their insights on India’s startup ecosystem.

- Supercharge your network of powerful enablers

By being part of a specific community, members get direct access to enablers in that sector, helping supercharge their business journey. 

Our D2C community is already helping founders meet enablers to help grow their brand, increase sales, build publicity, and more.

Why are we building this?

For a modern content and multimedia organisation like YourStory, building online communities and symbiotic relationships means three things:

• Forging a closer bond with our readers or followers who consume and engage with stories and content published on YourStory’s website and social platforms

• Enabling individuals, sorted into smaller groups based on area of interest, to meet at events, conferences and other gatherings

• Facilitating startup founders, investors and stakeholders who share common areas of interest to share ideas on an online messaging platform

While we continue to engage with readers through the stories and content we publish, we realise the need for building close-knit communities of like-minded people who can leverage YourStory’s platform to grow their brands and achieve business outcomes.

These platforms serve as a way for us to directly engage with participants on a deeper level, tell their stories to the world, and support them in their startup journeys.

D2C: Our first community

The first community we are building is a D2C founder community for high-potential entrepreneurs who, we believe, can build the next generation of successful direct-to-consumer brands in India.

The community already comprises 30 founders who are getting their brand stories featured on our platform, meeting in peer groups to solve business problems, and speaking at our events.

Our D2C community is scaling up fast, and we invite all founders of Indian consumer brands to apply to join this vibrant community.

We have more communities in the pipeline and are excited to build curated groups for various cohorts such as AI founders, tech leaders, developers, and more. 

Watch out for these announcements in the coming months, and don’t miss the chance to find the right community for you!

Join now: https://communities.yourstory.com/