If you had a chance to join our Future of MicroConf livestream, you may have heard some exciting news about a few initiatives we’re rolling out across our community of misfits.
One of the bigger changes coming down the pipeline is that we are moving from a completely free version of MicroConf Connect and instead are launching a three-tiered membership program meant to help B2B SaaS founders come together in a meaningful, valuable way.
You can find information about the new version of MicroConf Connect here, but we wanted to get a few questions out in the open about why we are making this change, and hopefully, you’ll be there to join us for the ride as we launch into the next decade of helping you build, launch, and grow your businesses!
Background
Two of the major pieces of feedback we’ve consistently received are that message history and understanding who is inside the MicroConf community are challenging for members.
You may know that Slack limits message history to the most recent 10,000 messages for free plans and limits API access to some specific categories on their free tiers. MicroConf Connect has over 300,000 messages in its archives.
We considered changing platforms - an idea that allowed us to reduce the cost of facilitating the community while allowing us to retain more of the history of the conversations in the space.
This was a no-go - we consistently heard that the Slack ecosystem for MicroConf Connect made it easier to engage in the community without disrupting your already busy schedules and crowded screens. We leaned into “meeting founders where they spend their time.”
We looked at what it would take to solve for message history and retention, but without access to private messages, where many great conversations are happening, we decided that any solution that didn’t allow you to see your full personal DM history just felt weird.
So, we decided to pull the trigger and subscribe to MicroConf Connect into a Buisiness+ model with Slack, allowing us to navigate some of the bigger challenges of running a Slack community while also enabling us to use some of the more sophisticated solutions unavailable in the free and Pro plans.
Slack’s pricing model is, in a word, rough. To be fair, it is not built to run a multi-thousand-member community. It’s best suited for businesses that can easily fit into its pricing tiers, where it is just another element of the business stack - a line item on the budget.
If MicroConf Connect were to buy access off the shelf, we’d be paying nearly $150,000 annually… and that is for the community as it currently stands. We haven’t invited new members into the Community for nearly 6 months, but that is about to change…
MicroConf Connect is about to start growing again.
We shut down access to new members in March, pushing them to a waitlist. That waitlist currently has nearly 2,000 people clamoring to join Connect, but we have not been ready to welcome them.
We’ve spent the last six months revamping our processes, improving our data, and having daily conversations among our team and our members, about what matters most to you and why you have chosen to join MicroConf Connect.
We’re going to be welcoming new, qualified applicants into MicroConf Connect in cohorts, with applications being approved every two weeks for Connect Gold members, monthly for Connect Basic members., and monthly; we’ll add up the total new invitation we send, subtract that from a cap of 200/month, and issue the remainder in Free Memberships to qualified applicants.
Looking forward…
We've loved being your go-to resource for all things SaaS, and this change will help us continue that work. While it's a change, we must sustain and expand our mission to support more bootstrappers like you.
Now, for the good news…
MicroConf Connect applications are live and now's your time to act.
New around these parts? Apply here.
Current Connect member? Upgrade now.
For all the details, head to microconfconnect.com.
Can't wait for you to see what we've got!