Today is a big day.

In short, I’m launching a paid subscription for Just Go Grind which will include a community for founders and operators!

The founder deep dives I’ve been publishing every Sunday for the last four months will continue, with all subscribers still being able to access them for free.

But the community, as well as additional content, events, deals and discounts, and other goodies in the future, will only be available to premium subscribers.

More about the community, who it’s for, what to expect, and the long journey to get here is below.

Quick Backstory

Just Go Grind started as a career blog in January 2018 and I launched a podcast in June of that year, growing it to more than 350 episodes, interviewing a variety of founders and investors.

In 2020, I first attempted to build a community. This was a free community for founders I had interviewed on the podcast. I had no idea what I was doing, engagement was low, and I ended up shutting it down.

My second attempt at my own community was in 2022, and it went great, but I was working full-time at VITALIZE Venture Capital, producing my own podcast, and couldn’t see a path forward with doing all of it. Even though I had grown the community to more than 80 founders and it was highly engaged, I decided to shut it down, refund everyone, and focus on the recently launched newsletter, this newsletter, at the end of 2022.

In between starting those communities, as the Director of Marketing and Community at VITALIZE Venture Capital, I helped build VITALIZE Angels from nothing, growing it to 450+ members and working with a great team before I decided to quit my job and go all-in on Just Go Grind in May of this year.

This brings us to now.

And I’ve thought about this question for weeks:

Why launch another community?

My simple answer: Impact.

Communities, when built right, can be incredibly impactful.

My slightly more complex answer?

I love helping people, especially founders, and building a community focused on helping founders succeed is where I have founder-market fit, blending my experience, abilities, and passion.

So here we are.

It’s just the beginning, but I’m excited to build this for, hopefully, a very long time.

But enough about me.

Let’s talk about you.

Is this community for me?

The community is open to everyone as part of the premium subscription to Just Go Grind, but, as the focus of the newsletter is on highlighting world-class founders each week, the community will be focused on founders and operators.

And when I say “Founders” I mean all types of founders - bootstrapped, venture-backed, and everything in between. This also includes creators, operators, and aspiring entrepreneurs who haven’t taken the leap just yet.

The community itself, built in Slack for now, has a variety of channels to suit the needs of different groups within the community and I’ll curate them accordingly as time goes on.

The shared quality?

Ambition.

And in putting a variety of ambitious people together in a supportive community, coming from different backgrounds and industries, I think good things will happen.

Why should I subscribe?

To become a better founder and operator.

Building a company is hard, make it just a little easier by not building it alone.

Imagine surrounding yourself with other ambitious founders, getting feedback on your ideas, having your pressing questions answered, receiving advice from other builders, and making connections to your next potential investors.

All that and more is possible through the Just Go Grind community.

In addition to the private Slack group, there will be:

• Expert-led workshops and AMAs

• Events to meet other members digitally and (eventually) in person

• Office hour sessions

• A curated resource library (building that out now)

• Deals and discounts (Again, building these out and adding more soon)

And, generally, you’ll have more access to me, as I limit most of my other outside engagements. Community members will be my main focus and I’ll be adding more benefits to paid subscribers as time goes on.

What does this cost?

$19/month or $199/year for early members.

The price will increase in the coming months.

Why should I join now?

Early members will not only get more 1 on 1 time with me, but they’ll help shape the community's future growth, determine some of the early guest speakers, and forever be in my good graces 😜 

But really, joining now gives you even more of a concierge-like service, with my full time and attention spent catering to your needs in the community.

Early members will also get 1 on 1 calls with me, and promotion in the newsletter if they’d like!

What if I have more questions?

Cool, send me an email, and I’ll try to answer the best I can.

Appreciate you reading this far and I’m excited to have you potentially join the community!

I’m also open to all ideas about how to make the community AMAZING and I know it’ll continue to get better and better as members are added.

Best,

Justin