"accelerate the procedure". Looking at this as a product, I'm totally confused by the idea that you "apply" for membership, and you can "fast track" by donating $10. Why not just charge $10 for everyone, period? Or don't charge anything. Or charge it monthly if you want to make it self sustaining. but $10?
I found the whole concept so distracting I decided not to sign up.
@surfy we've experimented with it (and still are).
To make sure the peers in the community are committed, we have to screen them some way. We could just ask for an email address and google everyone which would take ages with the hundreds of applications we get, but it also wouldn't show us how committed someone is to contribute.
The way it is right now is that it is a little cumbersome to apply, but that drives down the amount of applications (which we check manually). If you're sure you want in though, you can skip that by donating 10,- which we can use to invest in the community someway (time, bloggers, meetups or building new initiatives).
Personally I found it a smart way to validate if some people would pay for this (they do) without excluding everyone that doesn't have a credit card.
Also, please keep in mind that this is not much more than a very well working MVP.
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FYI: about 10% of the unique visitors on hashtagstartup.co actually send in an application, and about 1% of the total amount of unique visitors pays a contribution.
Oh, man I love how Slack is turning into the IRC of the 21st century. #Startup wants to bridge the gap between founders across the globe, and build a support network at the same time. Join this global startup community and engage with select founders from across the globe. #Startup facilitates discussions, Q&A’s, AMA’s, feedback and braintrusts. #Startup is hosted on Slack, which enables cross platform communication in an elegant way. You can apply on the site to join the #Startup community, optionally you can give a contribution to accelerate the procedure.
Love this initiative by @leonpals, @jcvangent & Co!
Thanks @bramk for submitting! It's been an inspiring ride the last week with so many talent joining in and submitting their thoughts and experiences to everyone on the slack group!
If anyone got any questions around it, please give me a shout!
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