connection creates success

I’ve been working on something big, and I’d love to know if it resonates with you.

I'm sure you'll agree that we all benefit from a sense of community. Be it a friendship circle, professional connections, Facebook group or the local sports club, we humans derive a sense of identity, purpose, connection and belonging from our communities.

I recently came across an article by social scientist Dee Marques on the importance of community. Dee posits that there are seven key benefits of belonging to a community

1. Support and safety

2. Connection and belonging

3. Influence

4. Sharing

5. Learning

6. Acceptance

7. More connections, more chances of success.

These all struck me as evident, but it was number 7 that caught my interest. In an economic environment where we are facing the headwinds of inflation and recession, how will we achieve success? And considering not everyone's heading to an office five days a week, how do we maintain or grow our connections? It seems both Success and Connection are under strain.

I think this is especially true for senior leaders in Scaleups.

Scaleup leaders are unique in that we live in a world of in-between. Too big to be startups, too small to be unicorns. Desperately trying to put in place people, processes and systems that enable sustainable scale whilst striking a balance between the freedom of a startup and the suffocation of a corporate.

To be successful, Dee Marques reckons we need #7 - more connection. But where do we find it?

There are dozens of Startup groups; some are grassroots, some are government initiatives, and others are corporate, university or VC-funded incubators. They're often amazing at achieving their purpose, and you've undoubtedly made many connections through those communities. But much like school, some perform better than others, and while you still like to hang out with your startup mates, you're in a different space now. Scaleups have different challenges, and leaping from startup to scaleup isn't easy.

If you're anything like the scaleup founders I've been speaking to recently, you're looking at so much potential, many opportunities, and many challenges, but you can't grab them all; it's overwhelming.

So, where do scaleup leaders hang out?

The Scaleup Leaders Network - a community of ambitious senior leaders in the Australian scaleup ecosystem who get together to network, share ideas and support each other through the challenges of scaling a business.

Scaleup Leaders Network is about three things:

1. Experience – everyone in the room has runs on the board and is willing to share.

2. Expertise – we connect with experts to facilitate deep conversations.

3. Essence – that special something that you can't get anywhere else.

Scaleup Leaders Network – a place for you if:

• You want to be successful and believe your time is best spent being strategic and not sucked into operational issues.

• You believe your ambition is an asset, and you crave the camaraderie of like-minded ambitious leaders.

• You're looking for the 'right' connections to help you get to the next stage.

• There's something you need to share or learn outside your organisation. You want to challenge your thinking with your peers without internal bias or politics.

• You want to meet regularly with like-minded people with similar problems and aspirations.

• You still dig the startup scene, but you need to be part of a group of peers facing the challenges and opportunities of scale that no startup group can provide.

• You want regular access to experts in relevant fields like leadership, tech strategy, funding, globalisation, and people strategy.

We came to life as a virtual community during the pandemic. We are a tribe of like-minded founders and senior leaders from established and successful businesses. Since 2020 we've met for 90 minutes every quarter (sometimes more) to discuss challenges and share ideas.

We are now bringing the community into the physical world to grow, network and support each other in a social setting. Our first meetup is in Melbourne in August (with Sydney slated for October), and we're privileged to have some fantastic thought leaders joining us to host our facilitated 'roundtable' discussions. And because we're in a social setting, we're able to add drinks, canapés and networking to create a deeper personal connection.

Join the community

If you're a senior leader in an Aussie scaleup keen to see what it's all about, then you're in luck, as we love new faces. However, to ensure the group remains valuable to the members, we're pretty picky about who can join (more on that on the website).