Most founder communities are either growing or dying. July was the month we knew which one we were. (Photo: Unsplash)
What you will take away: Why 25% growth after three years matters more than early viral spikes. How going all-in on one venture changes everything. The compounding effect of small operational bets stacking up. Why zero churn is the real headline, not the growth number. And what almost every founder gets wrong after their first real spike.
Three Years of Building Before the Breakthrough
Look, 25% growth in a single month is huge. But context matters. We have been in business since May of 2023. Over three years. And this was our first month hitting that number.
That is not a failure story. That is a reality story. Most founders expect hockey stick growth in month six. They see other companies posting wins on social media and wonder what they are doing wrong. What they do not see is the years of quiet compounding that precede those moments.
For us, the compounding looked like this: better targeting, a full website refresh, new product partnerships, and a community that was finally hitting its stride with 20 to 30 people showing up to every single event. None of those things happened overnight. Each one was a bet placed months ago that finally started paying off at the same time.
The quality of the people we have been bringing into the community is so top level. And that is the piece most people miss when they look at a growth number. It is not just about adding bodies. It is about adding the right founders who see the value, stick around, and make the community better for everyone else.
The Decision That Changed Everything
If there is one thing from the last 90 days that directly enabled this growth, it was going 100% on Gildre.
In June, I made the call to drop my other opportunity with Digital Mirror. It was taking up too much time and splitting my focus. The moment I went all in, everything shifted.
Daily standups replaced weekly check-ins
My co-founders and I used to meet three times a week. Now we meet every single day. That sounds intense, and it is. But the difference in our operations and processes has been night and day. When you are in the messy middle, you cannot afford to let three or four days pass between alignment conversations. Things move too fast. Decisions pile up. Small misalignments become big problems.
Meeting daily meant we caught issues faster, moved on opportunities quicker, and stayed locked in on what mattered.
Focus as a force multiplier
A lot of founders in the early stages try to hedge their bets by keeping multiple things going. I get it. I was doing it too. But there is a cost to split attention that does not show up on a spreadsheet. It shows up in the energy you bring to calls, the speed of your decisions, and the depth of your thinking about your product.
When I went full time on Gildre, I was not just adding hours. I was adding quality of thought. And that quality showed up everywhere.
Compounding does not look like progress until it suddenly does. (Photo: Unsplash)
The Four Bets That Compounded
This growth was not driven by one thing. It was three or four smaller bets finally compounding together. Here is what stacked up:
| Bet | What We Did | What It Unlocked |
|---|---|---|
| Targeting | Refined who we were going after | Higher quality members who stayed and engaged |
| Website Refresh | Rebuilt the site (vibe coded with Claude) | Better GEO and SEO optimization, easier content uploads |
| New Products | Launched Salvi partnership for AI COO capabilities | Better retention through progress tracking |
| Programming | Elevated event quality and consistency | 20-30 attendees per event, stronger community bonds |
The Salvi partnership is one I am especially excited about. It is basically going to be an AI chief operating officer for our members that tracks progress and replaces our old progress pulse system. Now we can actually see how successful our members are being in real time. That is huge for retention because founders can see their own growth, and we can see where to help them.
And the website update was not just cosmetic. I rebuilt the whole thing with Claude Code. It looks a lot more professional now, but more importantly it made it so much easier to upload content and it improved our search optimization. When you are running a community at $59 a month while competitors charge $7,000 or $8,000, you need your website doing heavy lifting on discovery.
No other community can compete with the quality and the price that we offer. I genuinely believe that. And July proved it.
Zero Churn Is the Real Story
Everyone wants to talk about the 25% growth number. I get it. It is flashy. But the number that actually matters more?
Zero churn.
Out of all 250 members, not a single person left in July.
That is the first time we have hit that. And it tells a fundamentally different story than growth alone.
Growth tells you people are interested. Zero churn tells you people are getting value. You can grow 25% and lose 20% and feel like you are winning when you are actually on a treadmill. We grew 25% and lost nobody. That is a snowball, not a treadmill.
It means the product is working. The community is working. The price point is right. The people are right. It means we finally have product-market fit.
When you grow and nobody leaves, you are not on a treadmill anymore. You are on a snowball. (Photo: Unsplash)
What Almost Every Founder Gets Wrong After a Spike
Here is what I would tell any founder in the messy middle who just hit their first real growth spike.
Do not take a break.
I know that sounds harsh. And look, celebrate the win. Have that beer. You earned it. But know that it is not the end of the journey. What happens to a lot of founders is predictable and painful:
The founders who win are the ones who take that spike and turn it into a snowball effect. You keep rolling and growing and growing. Because effectively, if you are not tripling every single year in those early stages, you are not going to succeed. That is not dramatic. That is what the math demands. Sustaining growth requires the same energy that created it. Maybe more.
What Has to Be True for This to Continue
If this growth rate held for the next 12 months, here is what would have to change: our operations need to get even tighter.
Right now, we are still a little loose on how we manage our community manager workflows, how we handle event follow-ups, and all the small operational details that compound into either efficiency or chaos. We want to make sure every process is dialed in because at scale, loose processes do not just slow you down. They break.
But I am optimistic. We have gone from meeting three times a week to every day. From split focus to all in. From hoping members stick around to watching zero churn at 250 members.
It is like finding a musical artist before they go platinum. The early believers, the ones who showed up when we were small and scrappy and figuring it out, they are going to look back on this time and know they were part of something special.
The messy middle does not last forever. Sometimes you look up and realize you are not in the middle anymore. You are building something real. And the only thing left to do is keep the momentum going.