Hi SDCers, I’m cc’ing you because it’s SDC-adjacent, and it’s my new community building frame. And also, there’s an event at the Stoa about it tomorrow. (Link in footer!). —Joe
More Funnels? Or More Playgrounds? — A new kind of entrepreneurship community.
Two sorts of people get called "entrepreneurs": the funnel-makers, and the playground-makers:
Funnel-makers
In marketing, people flow through a "funnel" on their way to a transaction, like a purchase or account sign-up. At the start of a funnel there's some diversity (different demographics, landing pages, etc), but the funnel merges users into one mass. A good funnel reduces possibility, directing users towards the transaction. Users are alone in the funnel, and the transaction itself is a lonely relationship, where both parties stay atomized.
Funnel-makers "hustle"—that is, they treat themselves as a tool for their goals. Funnel-makers treat others as goal-fodder, too.
So: funnels make people less unique, more predictable, and more separate. What's the opposite?
Playground-makers
In playgrounds, people become more uniquely themselves, surprise each other, and come out with new routines, practices, and friends. The best universities, art-spaces, and festivals are playgrounds.
There are plenty of communities for entrepreneurs. I want a community for playground-builders, specifically.
I want this, because I want a world overflowing with playgrounds. I admit: this is a tall order. This seems to be the century of funnels! There's been an explosion of funnel-building, and big improvements in funnel-funding and funnel-analytics too. To match that, we'd need to 📈 playground builders, playground-funding, and playground-analytics by even more.
Might as well try.
We can start in our daily lives: a playground can happen when two people sit together and ask: "what shall we explore this week?" That playground can develop further, if they pay attention and tune things. Are they becoming more themselves? Forming new relationships and embeddings? Living expressively? Treating themselves as sources of surprise, rather than as goal-fodder?
When many do this—and host intimate gatherings inviting others to do this—I guess an identity around playground-making could form. And a community of playground-builders could grow, operating at many scales. Soon, community members would develop playground-making skills. They'd be surrounded by each others' playgrounds, involved in each others' explorations (not transactions), and embedded in new practices and scenes.
sgtm!
—Joe
Do you make playgrounds? Do you want to help build this community? I have an event on the topic tomorrow at the Stoa. Or let’s host something.
To keep up where I’m writing these days: I have a substack on building the meaning economy, and another one for the School for Social Design.
More Funnels? Or More Playgrounds?
I love this concept and as an aspiring entrepreneur it's something I've been struggling with. How to make money with playgrounds? It feels like there needs to be some element of "funnel-building". For example Universities and festivals both have a moment where a "customer" commits to the "purchase" within the funnel.
I suspect the answer lies somewhere in using the playground to create a collectively rewarding experience and inviting others. One example that's super hot right now is the "metaverse". Minecraft is a playground. Roblox is a playground. NFT projects like Nifty Island are building playgrounds for people to be a part of.
Another metaphor I like to compare to the playground is the "canvas strategy", i.e. "create canvasses for other people to paint on". Looking forward to your Stoa session tomorrow.