What Is Your Entrepreneur Community or Tribe?

“Entrepreneurship is not only a mindset but a skillset.” —Michael Kapor

In a recent article entitled “8 Entrepreneurship Trends You Need to Know (2022-2024),” Josh Howarth notes the rise of entrepreneurial communities. One example he offers is the site Indie Hackers, which supports entrepreneurs building online projects to generate revenue. He notes that searches for the name Indie Hackers is up 150% since 2017.

Perhaps the increase in these entrepreneurial communities, or tribes, comes from people having more time during the pandemic to think about ways to make more income, have more control over their time, and potentially more control over where and how they want to live.

The Great Resignation, as the exodus from the workforce was called, was fueled partly by the desire of many workers to find something different to earn an income that offered more flexibility. Often, they turned to entrepreneurial tribes to find answers and support.

Examples of Entrepreneur Tribes

Entrepreneurial tribes, or communities, exist around the globe and in many forms. Here are a few of them:

• Think Realty members are interested in developing themselves in the real estate space. They want to network and grow with other like-minded entrepreneurs. The Think Realty community offers multiple ways for people to connect—through its print magazine, website, podcast, forums, conference, courses, etc. This tribes offers a great deal of value and, like most things, you get out of it what you put in.
• Contrarian Thinking is a free newsletter that offers weekly passive income ideas and entrepreneurial leadership. Topics include fractionalized investing in real estate or franchises, investing in tiny houses, digital real estate, ice vending machines, car washes, recreational vehicles and car sharing, RV parks, how to monetize a newsletter and more. The newsletter is published by Codie Sanchez and her excellent team. Sanchez comes from the private equity world and speaks the language of deal-making and acquisitions. They also host a Contrarian Thinking conference you can attend in person.
• Contrarian Cashflow is the paid part of the Contrarian Thinking community that provides detailed playbooks that help you find, analyze, and structure the passive cashflow deals discussed in the newsletter. There are also weekly live calls that go into detail about an asset class or entrepreneurial topic. One call recently covered how to evaluate a fund or syndication. It offered sample operator agreements and typical fee and revenue split structures. There is also a community forum where entrepreneurs can network and share with others interested in creating more passive income streams.
• Unconventional Acquisitions is a course and community on business buying offered by Sanchez and her partner Ryan Snow. It provides many free resources, including a weekly newsletter. Basically, their investment thesis is you should buy an existing profitable business instead of building one from scratch. These are what they call boring businesses like laundromats, car washes, plumbing, roofing, and other essential businesses.
  Many baby boomers are retiring every day, and quite a few own a small business or property their family wants no part of. They teach you how to find, analyze, conduct due diligence, work with the seller, and structure the financing along with the required documents to get you started. After you acquire the business, you add value with a good operator and technology. Then you can scale and repeat, if desired.

Value of an Entrepreneur Tribe

Having been a member of the Think Realty tribe for a while, I can tell you I get a great deal of value and professional development from being a part of this community. I have met other entrepreneurs and contributors to the community, and I learn from them in greater proportion to the value I try to bring. It has helped me grow and advance my real estate investing career.

The value I have received from joining Contrarian Thinking and Unconventional Acquisitions is similar to the knowledge and skills I’ve gained from the Think Realty community. I have been introduced to alternative passive income streams that will help me diversify my portfolio of investments.

One passive income stream was bitcoin mining. As a result of one of the calls on the topic, I have two bitcoin mining machines working for me 24 hours a day and hosted remotely in Texas. The mining machines basically are like little rentals to me. I get to depreciate the equipment to offset my gains from mining bitcoin. They manage the machines like my property managers manage my rentals, and I get a monthly statement and bitcoin sent to my private wallet. I hope to add more bitcoin miners and additional passive income streams through the education and skills I’ve gained from participating in these entrepreneur communities.

Maximizing Value

In business as in life, what you put in is often what you get out. I try to add value to the Think Realty community by writing articles. Because I know the value the other contributors are bringing to the community, I also try to reach out to them and support their work or business whenever possible. As a result of this engagement, I have received more from my participation than I can give back.

For Contrarian Thinking and Unconventional Acquisitions, I try to share my experiences and resources that complement their work and community and tell as many people as I can about it, because I find the value from both communities to be unique and powerful.

Finding Your Entrepreneur Community

They say to be careful who you associate with and that you are very likely to be influenced by your five closest friends. Although my closest friends may not be billionaires, I would not want to lose them. They are good people, and they challenge me to want to be better. I see my close friends and my entrepreneurial communities as a value-add to my network. I look for real mentors and teachers I can trust while being a mentor and teacher to others. So, choose your tribe well and try to give as much as you get to get the most out of the experience.