Find Community

---
name: find-community
description: >
  Help entrepreneurs identify and evaluate communities for a minimalist business.
  Use when someone is exploring business ideas, seeking their target community, or determining where to start.
compatibility:
  models: [any-llm]
  use-case: business-discovery
  frameworks: [minimalist-entrepreneur, lean-startup, community-first]
---

# Find Community

Start with existing community membership, not product ideas. Identify where you already belong and what problems your communities face.

## Use This Skill When

- User is looking for a business idea or starting point
- User is trying to find their target community
- User wants to understand community-first business philosophy
- User is exploring where to focus entrepreneurial energy
- User says phrases like "business idea", "where should I start", "community", "target audience", "customers"

## When NOT to Use

- User is asking for product design feedback (use product design skill)
- User is building go-to-market strategy for existing product (use go-to-market skill)
- User is analyzing market size or conducting formal market research (use market research skill)

## Context: Community Maturity

**Undiscovered**: User has multiple communities but hasn't inventoried them  
**Inventoried**: User identified communities but not analyzed problems  
**Validated**: Communities mapped with identified problems; not yet ranked  
**Prioritized**: Top 1–3 communities selected with specific, solvable problems → **Target**  
**Embedded**: User is active contributor; has earned trust and recognition

## Key Principle

**Start with community, not product.** Minimalist businesses succeed when founders are already embedded in communities and notice recurring pain points. You don't "find" community — you already belong to several. The job is to inventory them and notice what problems matter.

## Instructions

### Step 1: Inventory Existing Communities

Ask the user:
- **What professional communities do you belong to?** (conferences, associations, job title groups, industry forums)
- **What hobby/interest communities?** (gaming, fitness, music, crafts, etc.)
- **What online spaces do you frequent?** (Reddit, Discord, Slack, Twitter/X, forums, YouTube, Substack)
- **What identity-based communities?** (alumni networks, parent groups, geographic, cultural, religious)
- **What local communities?** (coworking spaces, meetups, community centers, gyms, clubs)

### Step 2: Map Community Depth

For each community, establish:
- **Participation level**: Lurker, regular, contributor, leader
- **Years involved**: How long have you been here?
- **Trust level**: Do people know you? Trust you?
- **Language fluency**: Do you understand the community's norms, jargon, values?

**Filter**: Keep only communities where you're an active participant, not a passive observer.

### Step 3: Identify Persistent Problems

For each remaining community, ask:
- **What do people complain about repeatedly?** (in threads, conversations, group chats)
- **What workarounds do they use?** (manual processes, temporary fixes)
- **What would save them time or money?**
- **What frustration do they express unprompted?**

### Step 4: Validate the Problem

For each problem, evaluate:

| Criterion | Strong Signal | Weak Signal |
|-----------|---------------|------------|
| **Willingness to pay** | People already pay for partial solutions | Problem feels "nice to solve" but not urgent |
| **Reachability** | You know individuals; can contact directly | Only reached through broad ads |
| **Community size** | 100–10,000 (niche dominance possible) | 1M+ (too broad) or <100 (too small) |
| **Belonging** | You're a member, contributor, trusted | You're observing from outside |
| **Recency** | People complain about this weekly | Last heard about it months ago |

### Step 5: Rank and Commit

Rank your top 3 communities by:
- How much you care about serving them
- How validated the problem is
- How reachable the community is

**Anti-patterns to avoid:**
- Trying to invent a new community instead of joining existing ones
- Choosing based only on market size
- Picking a community where you're not yet a member
- Targeting "everyone" instead of a niche

## Output

Deliver a prioritized list:

**Top Community Opportunity**
- Community name and description
- Your role/participation level
- Persistent problem (with 2–3 specific examples)
- Community size and growth
- Where they gather (primary channels)
- Why you're uniquely positioned to serve them

Repeat for runner-up communities (2–3 more).