Circle Community

Behind the Build

Technology EN ↓ 6 episodes

Behind the Build is a candid conversation series with the people behind thriving communities. Most communities look polished from the outside — this show goes inside. Each episode, we sit down with one founder and dig into a specific win: the real numbers, the honest decisions, and the messy middle that made it happen. No theory. No highlight reel. Just the actual story. Hosted by Circle — the platform powering some of the world's most successful online communities. New episodes monthly.

Author

Circle Community

Episodes

The honest truth about building a six-figure community business 06.07.2026 44:06

Four years ago, Jessie Montague wrote one honest Instagram post to a couple hundred followers and half expected silence. Today, Honest Hounds has over 1,000 active members, 100 neutral walk locations across the UK, CPD-accredited courses running at near 100% completion, and six figures in recurring annual revenue. What makes this episode worth listening to isn't just what she built—it's...

The freemium pivot that unlocked 6K members 26.06.2026 33:10

Joana Rocha and her co-founder had 400,000 social followers and a paid community that wasn't getting traction. Nobody was joining. Nobody was engaging. The pivot to freemium changed everything—and the conversion system they built inside Circle to turn free members into paying subscribers is something most community builders haven't seen before. Today TechTalk UK has 6,500 members, a 20-m...

From courses nobody finished to a six-figure community business 19.06.2026 35:38

Ernie Svenson had courses lawyers were buying but not finishing. The problem wasn't the content—it was the isolation. When he built community around those courses, everything shifted. Members started showing up not just for lessons, but for each other. Today, The Inner Circle has 300 members generating six figures annually, with around 100 of them on a $239/month premium tier driven almost en...

How to run a 2,000 person summit entirely on Circle 12.06.2026 30:23

Rachel Starr didn't just host a virtual summit. She ran a three-day, 2,000-person event with 22 sessions, daily live panels, and a private podcast, all inside Circle, all without a single tech issue. Then she used it to launch her paid membership—converting over 200 attendees into members on the day they registered. In this episode, Rachel breaks down exactly how she pulled it off: the free-t...

From idea to six figures in one year—with zero churn 05.06.2026 35:27

Twelve months ago, Tom O'Reilly had an idea. Today he has a six-figure membership business with 950 members, a 100% renewal rate, and 10 to 20 active conversations happening every week—driven by members, not just Tom. He grew it using three marketing channels. One of them converts at 10%. This episode is proof that you don't need a complicated strategy. You need clarity, the right platfo...

How a free daily writing ritual became a $500K community business 29.05.2026 38:17

London Writers' Salon started as monthly meetups across London. Today it's a global community of 1,800 paying members generating half a million dollars annually—built around a deceptively simple ritual that happens four times every single day. Up to a thousand writers join across four time zones. Every day. Without fail. Matt Trinetti and his co-founder Parul didn't build a course l...