After building The Entrepreneurs Society to over 12,000 members across Indonesia, the most common question I get from founders isn't about marketing or fundraising. It's this: "How do I build a community around my brand?"
My answer always surprises them. I tell them they're probably already failing at it — and they don't know it yet.
The Audience Trap
Most founders confuse an audience with a community. They're not the same thing.
An audience is a group of people who consume your content. They follow you, watch your videos, read your posts. They are passive. A community is a group of people who have a shared identity, shared accountability, and a reason to keep showing up for each other — not just for you.
Instagram followers are an audience. TES members are a community.
The difference isn't just philosophical — it's commercial. An audience evaporates when you stop posting. A community self-sustains. An audience gives you reach. A community gives you leverage, trust, and recurring revenue.
The Three Pillars of Real Community
After running 400+ events and building six brand verticals inside the TES ecosystem, I've distilled what makes a community real down to three non-negotiables.
1. Shared Identity
People join communities because of who they want to become, not just because of what they'll get. TES members don't just come for the events or the business leads. They come because being a TES member means something. It signals a certain kind of ambition, a commitment to growth, and a belief that entrepreneurship is a force for national progress.
Ask yourself: what does it mean to be part of your community? If the answer is just "you get access to X" — you have a subscription, not a community.
2. Accountability Structures
Real community creates obligation. Not in a heavy way — but in a way that makes people show up even when it's inconvenient.
In TES, our ELITES Table Mastermind sessions run on this principle. Members commit to showing up, sharing real numbers, and holding each other accountable to monthly targets. No fluff. That accountability is what makes the community feel different from a WhatsApp group or a Facebook page.
If your community has no accountability mechanism, it will drift. Engagement will peak when you post something viral and crater when you go quiet.
3. A Reason to Stay (That Isn't You)
This is the hardest one for founders to accept: your community should not revolve around you.
If the only reason people stay is because of your content, your presence, your charisma — then the moment you scale, burn out, or move on, the community dies. The best communities are ones where the members themselves become the reason others stay.
Build peer-to-peer value. Create programs where your members mentor each other, do business with each other, and introduce each other to opportunities. You become the curator, not the center.
The TES Framework Applied
When I started TES in 2017, I had none of this figured out. The first events were small, chaotic, and underfunded. What I got right — almost by accident — was the identity piece. I believed deeply that Indonesian entrepreneurs deserved a serious, high-caliber community. That conviction attracted people who felt the same.
The accountability structures came later. The Table Mastermind format, the ELITES membership tier, the structured event formats — these evolved as the community grew and demanded more depth.
The "reason to stay beyond me" took the longest. But once TES members started doing RP billion deals with each other, hiring from each other's companies, and becoming each other's closest business advisors — I knew the flywheel was turning.
"Entrepreneurship is not just about building businesses — it's about building people."
Where to Start
You don't need 12,000 members to build a real community. You need ten people with a shared identity and a reason to show up regularly.
- Start with your most loyal customers or followers — not the largest number
- Create one recurring touchpoint: a monthly call, a private group, a quarterly gathering
- Build an accountability mechanism into it from day one
- Give members a way to create value for each other, not just receive value from you
The community you build will outlast any campaign, any algorithm change, any product launch. It becomes the moat around everything else you build.
Want to Build a Community Around Your Brand?
Klemens works with founders and companies on community strategy, ecosystem design, and brand positioning. If you're building something worth building around — let's talk.
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