I’m sharing an idea I’ve been working on that I felt would resonate with other community builders like you!
If you’re receiving this, you probably already know I run www.joinstartupvillage.com, an IRL/online community for founders in LA. While running my community, I noticed a problem:
People often join communities to meet others, but they miss out on meeting others who could excite them. Meeting everyone at events is impossible, and navigating member directories is difficult. Introductions are needed to help members find others they care about.
I tried using existing tools like Intros AI and Curated Connections, but they didn’t fit my needs. The main issue was that they lacked thoughtful matching. Valuable introduction opportunities wouldn’t be identified, people would be connected with little in common or things to discuss, and they wouldn't feel personalized.
Those tools also didn’t allow opt-ins or outs for introductions and didn’t use language in my voice. As a result, I noticed that ~80% of members would not reply to these introduction emails using these existing SAAS tools.
I decided to build something on my own. I worked with several brilliant machine-learning engineers and built an AI-powered tool that facilitates 3-5 introductions for all new members in Startup Village (About 20-50/week)
After a new member fills out information in onboarding, my software identifies 3-5 individuals in the community based on their interests, goals, and background and drafts tailored introductions directly to my inbox for me to read and approve.
See examples below (NOTE: All intros were prepared as a draft in my inbox and read/endorsed before we sent them out to the recipients)
Since using this tool: