How do you build a customer community from scratch?

Hello 🙂 I'm Carrie, and I run community and events at Traction Complete (Vancouver-based but we run events throughout North America) *Where I'm starting:* zero. 🌱 We're building a customer community from scratch. No existing members, no traditions, no inside jokes yet. A blank channel and a lot of ambition. What I want to figure out: 1️⃣ The cold start. How did you get your first 10-20 people to actually post? Did you seed conversations, hand-pick founding members, or just bribe people with swag? (No judgment.) 2️⃣ Small vs. quiet. Starting small feels right, but small can easily turn into crickets. 🦗 How do you keep a tiny community alive until it reaches critical mass? 3️⃣ Real growth vs. vanity growth. Member count is the easy number to celebrate. What told you your community was healthy before the numbers looked impressive? 4️⃣ Host-led vs. member-led. When did it stop being you posting and start being members talking to each other? Was there a moment you could point to? My hunch is that tools and tactics only help once people have a real reason to be there, so I'm trying to nail the "why would anyone show up" part first. I'm also new to Tightknit 👀 and I want to learn how to get the most out of it. If you use it, which features made the biggest difference early on? Onboarding flows, events, awards, something else? And what would you set up on day one versus leave for later? Outside work, I love hiking. Most recently I hiked Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala, and thankfully I was off the mountain before it started erupting. 🌋 If you've built something from the ground up, I'd love to hear what you'd do differently. Lessons from what went wrong are especially welcome. 🙏 Let's connect! www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-chan-