Beyond the Group Chat: The Technology Required to Build Scalable Founder and Entrepreneur Networks

The "Group Chat" Ceiling

It is extremely easy to create a community through starting a group chat via WhatsApp or Telegram. Just five seconds and all people have the apps already. For five founders of a local mastermind, it works great.

However, what about 50 founders? And 500?

There will be the "Group Chat Ceiling." And it is inevitable. The platform will immediately degrade into chaos.

• Knowledge Black Hole: A smart idea of the way how to comply with regional taxes is being discussed on Tuesday. But by Thursday, it was buried under 400 other irrelevant messages. Members do not get access to knowledge from the past. Searching for the archives is a nightmare.

• Notification Chaos: In order to survive the never-ending bombardment of pings, the executives are muting the chat. When the chat is muted, participation falls dramatically and the community dies.

• No Structure: It is impossible to distinguish networking from more technical discussions. Everyone is supposed to shout in the same virtual room.

Chatting software supports real-time conversations while community requires structured and asynchronous cooperation.

> Three Architectural Pillars for a True Community

In order to build a scalable network with high-quality members, you have to move from chatting to developing an advanced web application.

As we design digital communities at Isaii Technologies, there are three technical pillars that are non-negotiable:

• 1. The Dynamic Member Directory
     While in a chat application, the member is a name and a phone number only. The Member Directory in our customized Isaii web application is a fully searchable database. The members may sort the network by the industry, company size, particular expertise ("Looking for someone with Series A fundraising experience"), geographical region.
• 1. Categorized Knowledge Repositories
     In addition to a scrolling feed with posts, the system should be designed in such a way that it enables categorical forums and resources library. Each time a member uploads the document, whether it is a legal template or a market analysis report, it becomes indexed and stored forever in a searchable database. Thus, the community transforms into a knowledge library with proprietary business intelligence.
• 1. Integrated Event Management
     The key driver of any B2B community is its events—be it webinars or meetups. Third-party links (Eventbrite) may create additional hassle. The custom platform allows managing the events natively. The members may RSVP, get the attendee list and access event recordings through the community portal.

> Engage by Engineering

When you give the business leaders a well-engineered, elegant, and intuitively designed digital platform, they get engaged. They get involved and help create real value.

Such high-end infrastructure needs well-engineered web development, security and data management through databases, and elegant and impeccable UI/UX. Such infrastructure cannot be built using any generic plugins.

Upgrade your network. Your professional community needs more than just the group chat if it has evolved beyond that. Find out how custom Web Application Development can help in achieving that at isaii.in.