Consider the cost of joining a paid community vs. the "cost" of a free one.

If you're a founder, writer, engineer, angel, etc; time/attention is your scarcest asset.

The more you value your time, the more you should spend on things that give you leverage on it.

Simple, right?
Tech/startup communities are traditionally VERY under-resourced; "tacked on" to a VC strategy, or reliant on sponsors and volunteers.

Imagine if this weren't the case.

Imagine if:

• They could hire amazing people, pay them well to create/curate incredible experiences.
• members were their customers. No "selling out" to external interests (spoiler: a VC's "customer" is their LP; founders are the product).

• participants had skin in the game, were "bought in" to get the most from their investment. See: better engagement, behavior, outcomes.
Paid community customers are buying a premium product.

It's like comparing an iPhone to a public pay phone. Which do you expect will make you more productive?
Living this example: @beondeck "costs" more than all its competitors* in cash terms.

But our Fellows constantly say we should charge more.

Why?
(*Unless you're counting MBAs, they're 100x more 😬)

We are building an impactful *business*, because we know that's how we can have maximum impact.

We went from $500k → $5M annualized revenue in the past 6 months.

The team grew 7 → 24 people in the same time, including world class engineering/product.

This allows us to create an unrivaled experience. To move rapidly, and execute at a high level across several emerging product lines.

The On Deck team is the best I could imagine — top of their game, can't understate this.

Their work speaks for itself:

In turn, this helps us build an even better business.

@pmarca (via @eladgil):

"The definition of a moat is the ability to charge more"

"companies that charge more can better fund their distribution, ongoing R&D"

"companies that charge more therefore tend to grow faster"
Which helps us hire more amazing people to develop new communities/products; seed new communities; compound the value of the network.

Distribution helps us kickstart new flywheels.

And if you're thinking: what about access?

We're solving for that too.

If this resonates with you, let us know! We're hiring:

beondeck.com/careers

Check out the 50+ year vision here:

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More from @david__booth

28 Jun
We aspire for @beondeck (the *company*) to be somewhere the most ambitious future founders want to work

We’re looking to hire at least four of them in the next few months.

Is this you? Here’s a thread👇

2/ On Deck is building a modern university.

We want to 10x the number of founders building world changing companies.

We're starting by helping cohorts of talented, ambitious people refresh their networks and skills and navigate "what's next" via ODF

3/ ODF = an intensive 10-week program bringing together a community of experienced engineers, designers, operators, and repeat founders. Includes extensive expert-led curriculum, co-founder dating, and more.

Cohort #4 is underway, and it's our best yet!

Read 9 tweets
22 May
We've had questions like:

"I may not be starting a startup just yet — i'm taking some time out to explore, advise, angel invest, and think about what I want to do next. Is @beondeck for me?"

Answer: yes!

👇
We use “on deck” as a verb to describe the state of being between things or thinking of moving on — being "open to opportunity."

To be clear: most in ODF are/are planning to be founders.

But tenured "explorers" contribute immensely to the community, and get a lot of value too.
While this group have been *incredibly* generous with their time, it's not all about "giving"

Joining On Deck is a powerful way to refresh your network, get inspired and boost your entrepreneurial energy, learn some new skills or test some ideas.

Read 9 tweets
21 May
We think a lot about how to "unlock" talent at @beondeck.

For everyone founding or working on a startup today, there are hundreds more who should be but can't.

We're developing something we hope will help them.

Excited to share more about "Runway" and the "Convertible ISA"

👇
10k+ people applied to On Deck in the past few years.

Many could be great founders but don't have the personal runway to leave their job and go full time.

Some have to fundraise prematurely.

Others hack "on the side" for years, or never start at all.

Still others come into the Fellowship intending to work on their own idea, but end up hopping aboard another rocketship as founding team/early hires.

We love when this happens. This "fluidity" of opportunity is what makes the Fellowship so powerful.

Read 11 tweets
1 May
Founders: what are your plans for hiring interns/apprentice roles this summer?

@beondeck is seeing a LOT of inbound from incredible young talent.

Mostly too junior for the Fellowship, so we're considering something new:

If ODF were grad school, this = "undergrad"

More 🤔👇
2/ What could On Deck "summer school" look like? maybe:

— 1 month learning "startup skills", building community, project based collaboration, access to On Deck knowledge base (~200 hours of recorded workshops), mentorship;

— 2+ months of work experience with top startups;
3/ Questions for founders/startups:

• What stage are you? seed/series A/B?

• What skills/roles do you need — mostly engineering? design? operators?

• Does this still work if everyone is 100% remote?
Read 4 tweets
20 Feb
Two things happened this week to give me extreme confidence in @LambdaSchool

1). @MaxKajiwara joined our team at @beondeck, and he's killing it. His only engineering training was Lambda. In less than 3 days on the job, he's running at full speed & invaluable.

2). this 👇
@LambdaSchool @MaxKajiwara @beondeck I've always had concerns about the supposed "alignment of interests" that comes with ISAs.

Aligned, sure. So long as the "issuer" remains the "holder."

But holding ISAs is totally inefficient for a startup with a small balance sheet + super high cost of capital (i.e. VC)
@LambdaSchool @MaxKajiwara @beondeck Most end up just selling ISAs into the capital markets. But then their "customers" wind up beholden to investors via a debt-like instrument, and we're all back where we started.

The new Lambda ISA model is a big step forward. 👀'ing this space with interest.
Read 4 tweets
6 Feb
1/ We aspire for @beondeck (the *company*) to be somewhere the most ambitious future founders want to work

We don't want to hire people who just want to be engineers, operators, or product managers

We want to hire people who will start and run their own companies in the future
2/ If you're with us 6 months or 6 years, your time at On Deck should be less "career ladder" and more a series of learning curves — accelerating your growth

The faster you can run up a curve, the harder we'll work to make sure there's another one waiting for you to jump to
3/ When you feel there's nothing left to learn at On Deck, we'll help you take the next step, and back you all the way.

We have the world's best talent asset on our doorstep: a pool of potential co-founders and collaborators — and you get a birds-eye view.
Read 7 tweets

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