by: Marty Foy, Head of Growth & Strategy|
March 6, 2024
|In loving memory of Slack, as we bid farewell to this dormant platform, let’s cherish it for our initial aspirations and the connections it fostered. Born in the chaos of modern life, Slack brought together members of our networks at a special point in time. Through COVID and the growth of our networks, it proved valuable time and time again to members across time zones and regions.
As we say goodbye to this dormant platform, let’s cherish the memories of countless notifications, unanswered messages, and the struggle of keeping up with channels. Rest in peace, notifications are turned off, now and forever.
The initial team that set up our Slack workspaces and channels did an outstanding job of reflecting the priorities of our membership base during the era of our legacy networks (GAN and GSSN). The Slack channels served the needs of our members, promoting important events, facilitating talent requests, and providing special channels for managing directors. Today, our Slack channels see minimal activity from our members, with many messages last posted in 2023. Our members have moved on, and so have we.
Recognizing this, Morrow secured a master license with Mighty Networks, the clear leader in the next generation of community management platforms. We affectionately named our branded instance the Morrow Access Platform (MAP).
Through our discovery process, we discovered how Mighty Network can support us in running boot camps, and workshops, and managing our membership base. It also enables us to better manage our venture growth members' networks of founders, mentors, investors, and supporters. Our team can swiftly provision access to any venture growth organization member and their teams, empowering them to deliver their own programming and the Morrow Startup Support Program to founders.
Platforms can become a burden on any team; Slack started to be a nuisance for us rather than a valued tool. It became one more thing to manage, and candidly, we allowed our other priorities to take precedence, letting the platform run itself, which is a poor management practice.
Like any organization, we must prioritize what we value and give our attention to. While many companies value Slack, particularly in enterprises with large, dispersed teams, it wasn’t the ideal tool for managing our membership base.
Out of the box, the platform equips us with a better toolset to manage our community effectively. Morrow’s Global Network oscillates between small to medium in size. Historically, GAN & GSSN had one membership with an annual start date and forthcoming renewal. While a well-organized Google Sheet could give us an indication of our membership base, Morrow now delivers five flagship products, some of which are not contained in any of our Access Memberships. The evolution of our business necessitated a change in our toolset.
It’s almost as if LinkedIn (the parts you like) and Reddit (engaging threads of discussion) had a baby! Every member and founder can come to the MAP and engage with each other with curiosity, share their opinions (loosely held), and come back often to leverage the benefits and courses that we’re creating for our venture growth members.
While the promotion of founders, their startups, and events is especially encouraged, unwanted solicitations and harassment will result in a ban from the platform.
At Morrow, we highly value the feedback from our members. It’s your insights that guide the development of our roadmap. Initiatives such as the founder wellness initiative and the establishment of the Morrow Capital Collective were born out of member initiatives. These initiatives stemmed from a recognition among our members of the need for a network of entrepreneurial-minded individuals to address gaps within our ecosystem.
We’re constantly seeking ways to enhance the offerings for our members. So, we’d love to hear from you: What specific courses or workshops would benefit your team and other members? Or what new benefits would you like to see in the Startup Support Program?
Are you a current member or a Startup Support Program Administrator? We conduct a rolling onboarding and you can use the Morrow Member Center to request one today!
Complete the form to start a workstream for our team to onboard your team.
It's straightforward; request an onboarding today for a program or service included in your membership. If you're uncertain about what is included in your membership agreement, our team will do a preliminary check and connect with you.
The best onboarding includes your core team members and you!