How do you grow a community around the product?

This seems to be a frequently asked question. I'll share a few insights from my 15+ year journey of building large online communities. The first step, always, is to figure out the value your community will offer to your product users. This is simple. A lot of product startups build communities to offer support to their users and also build a natural growth machine, by leveraging SEO. The second step, is to recruit your first 50 users. Similar to YC's advice for building 'what people want', you need to talk to your community's 50 users. These would typically be the product users or potential product users. Always remember that your 50 users will define the long-term success of your community and your product. The third step; which runs in parallel with step 2, is to create useful content. These could be specific questions or discussions related to your product, something that users have asked frequently OR you think people should know about. Encourage users to participate and ask question. Answer and reply to each question, concern or feedback in a friendly way and make sure that everyone feels welcomed. The fourth step is to keep your active users engaged. Go beyond discussions. Organize small quizzes, polls, giveaways etc. around your product and keep it fun. In the initial stages - I strongly advise against gamifying your community. It looks cool; but it often isn't. Community is your flywheel. It takes time to set it in motion; but once it is growing; it's almost impossible to stop. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions.