Online Community Business

2 Community Business Success Stories [2024]

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Updated: September 6th, 2024

An online community business involves developing and managing a digital platform for niche audiences to convene, discuss shared interests and access member resources.

As an entrepreneurial founder, you conceptualize, build, and moderate a custom community space using a tailored engagement model catering to target demographics.

With flexibility for subscription access or free public forums, building an online community provides scalable profit potential.

For tech-savvy founders seeking accessible startup costs, an online community made for niche groups presents an innovative way to monetize digital connections and specialized industry knowledge.

In this list, you'll find real-world online community business success stories and very profitable examples of starting a online community business that makes money.

1. GummySearch ($120K/year)

Fed, the founder of The Hive Index and GummySearch, originally built The Hive Index as a simple project to create a directory of online communities. Inspired by the supportive indie hacker and bootstrapper communities, Fed saw potential in helping people find online communities for their interests. This led to the creation of GummySearch, an audience research tool for startup founders, which generated $60k in revenue in its first year.

How much money it makes: $120K/year
How many people on the team: 0

I Built A Reddit Search Engine That Generated $60K In Its First Year

Bootstrapped founder Fed shares the success of his community-focused products, The Hive Index and GummySearch, which have helped over 10k people find online communities each month and generated $60k in revenue in its first year, respectively.

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2. Entrepreneur Power Hour ($12K/year)

Bobby Housel, founder of Entrepreneur Power Hour, came up with the idea for his business during his sophomore year at the University of Michigan. After realizing that the world of college entrepreneurship was fragmented and lacking in community, he started hosting meetups for student entrepreneurs, which quickly grew to over 300 founders. Through word of mouth and a successful appearance on a popular entrepreneurship podcast, the business launched organically and has since been focused on building a strong community for college founders.

How much money it makes: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 4

How We Are Changing The Way College Entrepreneurship Works Through Our Community

Learn about how Entrepreneur Power Hour grew to over 300 student founders across two college campus communities and their plan to expand nationwide and empower alumni to invest in the next generation of college founders through their syndicate fund, Founder's Cupid.

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Read by 1,444 founders