The Propel Story, Part 2-- Communities Create Enormous Value But Carry the Weight Alone

Communities are some of the most valuable assets in the modern tech ecosystem.

The numbers already tell the story:

• 90% of community professionals say their communities help drive business outcomes
• 66%  of branded online communities directly influence purchasing decisions, according to the Demand Gen Report.
• $1 trillion+  is the estimated global value of creator and community economies by 2030, per Goldman Sachs research.
• 5.8x  more revenue growth is reported by companies that prioritise building community compared to those that do not.
• 72%  of businesses say their communities help with customer success and retention, making community one of the most cost-effective business tools available.
• 2.4 billion people globally belong to at least one online community, a number that continues to grow every year.

‍

This is infrastructure representing the ancient instinct to gather, to share knowledge, to lift each other. That instinct has migrated into the digital world, and it is more powerful there than it has ever been. Communities are influencing learning, innovation, hiring, product adoption, and even customer trust. 

However, despite the enormous value they create, data reveals that communities remain one of the most under-resourced engines in the entire tech ecosystem. The capital they need to grow is out of reach. The platforms and tools that would help them scale are too expensive. Traditional financial systems were also not built with communities in mind, and so, communities are left to operate on goodwill, improvisation, and whatever their members can contribute.

Propel was built on the simple conviction that communities are infrastructure. Picture a community of 40,000 developers, designers, and founders, that has become the connective tissue of an ecosystem. People find jobs there. Meet collaborators. Learn skills. Build careers. Companies recruit from it. Brands partner with them. Members credit the community for changing their professional trajectory. But when that same community wants to host a large event, launch a certification programme, improve its infrastructure…it hits a wall. 

And at the centre of it all is the admin — organising, moderating, mentoring, and supporting thousands of people, often without financial stability, institutional backing, or a sustainable way to earn from the value they create. So the community improvises, but growth slows. Momentum gets delayed, and opportunities are missed, because the ecosystem around it was never designed to support it.

That is the gap Propel was built to close.

‍