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Hacking Communities: Cracking the Code to Vibrant Communities
The world needs a new approach to building communities—one based on relationships, trust, and belonging. Community building must be “hacked.” In Hacking Communities, Laís de Oliveira examines how we can renew our shared sense of belonging. Drawing on her own personal struggle with loneliness, as well as academic research and her professional experience in building communities with nonprofits, startups, and public organizations, she provides frameworks and methodologies to build stronger and more diverse communities. Hacking Communities aims to empower anyone to start and grow a community, making the case that everyone is a potential community builder.
- GenresBusiness
322 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 15, 2020
32 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Laís de Oliveira
3 books11 followersAn entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in community building, Laís de Oliveira has participated in the development of entrepreneurial communities around the world.
From Minas Gerais, Brazil, she moved to Mauritius in 2010 to work as a volunteer with a nonprofit organization. From there, she went on to manage eighteen chapters and almost two thousand volunteers at the same organization, across Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Later, Laís joined one of Latin America's first startup accelerators. She also joined Startup Grind as their Buenos Aires Director. In 2014, she moved to Malaysia and created Startup Grind in Kuala Lumpur. She also joined the headquarters of the Startup Grind community as Africa and APAC Community Director, contributing to the its global growth from dozens to over a hundred chapters. At the same time, she joined an initiative by the Malaysian Government as a community ambassador, with an aim to develop the country's startup ecosystem. From there, she helped develop Malaysia's largest educational initiative for entrepreneurship, MaGIC Academy, and served both as a community consultant and as a Mentor in Residence at Southeast Asia's largest startup accelerator, the Global Accelerator Program.
During her time in Malaysia, Laís also started her first business, 8spaces.co, a marketplace for flexible commercial real estate, its clients included Heineken, GSK, Google, Swarovski, and Etsy. In 2016, it was acquired by Flyspaces.com, Southeast Asia's largest marketplace for workspaces. After acquisition, Laís served as Malaysia Country Manager and Chief Community Officer.
She then moved to San Francisco, where she joined Startup Genome as the organization's Community Development Director. There, she developed evidence-based strategies to accelerate economic growth through startup communities and worked for governments and innovation agencies in more than seventy-five ecosystems as part of the executive team.
In 2020, Laís moved back to Brazil, where she is exploring the future of education at a rural office in Serra do Cipó national park.
From Minas Gerais, Brazil, she moved to Mauritius in 2010 to work as a volunteer with a nonprofit organization. From there, she went on to manage eighteen chapters and almost two thousand volunteers at the same organization, across Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Later, Laís joined one of Latin America's first startup accelerators. She also joined Startup Grind as their Buenos Aires Director. In 2014, she moved to Malaysia and created Startup Grind in Kuala Lumpur. She also joined the headquarters of the Startup Grind community as Africa and APAC Community Director, contributing to the its global growth from dozens to over a hundred chapters. At the same time, she joined an initiative by the Malaysian Government as a community ambassador, with an aim to develop the country's startup ecosystem. From there, she helped develop Malaysia's largest educational initiative for entrepreneurship, MaGIC Academy, and served both as a community consultant and as a Mentor in Residence at Southeast Asia's largest startup accelerator, the Global Accelerator Program.
During her time in Malaysia, Laís also started her first business, 8spaces.co, a marketplace for flexible commercial real estate, its clients included Heineken, GSK, Google, Swarovski, and Etsy. In 2016, it was acquired by Flyspaces.com, Southeast Asia's largest marketplace for workspaces. After acquisition, Laís served as Malaysia Country Manager and Chief Community Officer.
She then moved to San Francisco, where she joined Startup Genome as the organization's Community Development Director. There, she developed evidence-based strategies to accelerate economic growth through startup communities and worked for governments and innovation agencies in more than seventy-five ecosystems as part of the executive team.
In 2020, Laís moved back to Brazil, where she is exploring the future of education at a rural office in Serra do Cipó national park.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 22, 2021
I won a copy of this book through Goodreads Giveaways and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a seemingly good roadmap toward building authentic communities. The second half is exercises that I’ll need to come back to in order to fully experience, but the foundation seems sound and like these would work. My only real complaint about this is that it feels very business-y, like the only reason someone would want to build communities is to sell a good, service or idea to people. That wasn’t quite my intention in getting this book—I wanted some tips on how to authentically build community in spaces—and though I got some good tips it still felt a little too money-driven to me.
All in all, though, I would recommend this, at least as a good starting point.
This is a seemingly good roadmap toward building authentic communities. The second half is exercises that I’ll need to come back to in order to fully experience, but the foundation seems sound and like these would work. My only real complaint about this is that it feels very business-y, like the only reason someone would want to build communities is to sell a good, service or idea to people. That wasn’t quite my intention in getting this book—I wanted some tips on how to authentically build community in spaces—and though I got some good tips it still felt a little too money-driven to me.
All in all, though, I would recommend this, at least as a good starting point.
March 8, 2022
Good information
I am part of a school community and we are trying to build the community of families. This gave me some great inspiration on how to go about building up the community.
I am part of a school community and we are trying to build the community of families. This gave me some great inspiration on how to go about building up the community.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews