Jenny Schatzle

Gina Bianchini

The Passion Economy: A Discussion About Building Business Through Community with the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks 

EPISODE: 36   |    DATE: April 1, 2021

I believe the future is this world of these rich and vibrant communities mastering something important together, which looks and feels like the best party you’ve ever been to.”

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Key Takeaways

  • Gina created Mighty Networks because she believes we all want to live in a world where there are millions of unique, vibrant and colorful communities mastering something interesting or important together led by brands and creators who have something to contribute. They want to build something they can be proud of.
  • Mighty Networks is a SaaS (Software as a Service) company whose goal is to serve The Passion Economy where brands and creators bring people together in communities that get more valuable to everyone with each new person who joins and contributes.
  • The software does the hard work for the creator (coding, etc.) so that all the creator has to do is show up as they are, ready to share their expertise.
  • You can charge for any piece of Mighty Networks that you create, whether it be a membership, courses, events, etc.
  • On social media, you’re building an audience. On Mighty Networks, you’re building a community.
  • Social media is limited because – with some exceptions – most people don’t actually connect with each other. They connect with the individual person behind the account. And an audience is I talk out at you, you talk back at me and no one is talking to each other.
  • On social media, everyone is competing for attention. You have to feed the beast and post incessantly. Even the people working at Instagram tell users that they must post consistently. And that can be exhausting, especially when you’re not getting much in return.
  • Content creation is exhausting and it’s time consuming.
  • Gina believes the future shouldn’t feel like that, but rather, the future should look more like a world of these rich and vibrant communities mastering something important to get together which looks and feels like the best party you’ve ever been to. That is what she is trying to create for everyone at Mighty Networks.
  • Mighty Networks serve those who have carved out their own little corner of the internet, a niche, where they can bring people together to learn and grow and share. The goal of the software at Mighty Networks is to compliment the work that you do and make members feel like they are at the best party they have ever been to.
  • The goal behind Mighty Networks is to help members feel a sense of connection and purpose.
  • Not every community or online course in Mighty Networks is paid. It’s up to the discretion of each host to decide what to charge for and how much to charge.
  • Mighty Networks isn’t really set up for discovery, so ideally you would funnel your followers from social media into your Mighty Network
  • Some of the most popular categories on Mighty Networks are in career and career development and health and wellness.
  • When starting a Mighty Networks, you want to ask 
  • No one has to be perfect or an expert to run a Mighty Network. It’s about your own journey, and you just have to be willing to show up and share it. Where did you start? Where are you today? And what did you learn along the way?
  • As the creator you don’t have to have perfect content. It’s not even about your content. It’s about: How do you create the conditions for someone to master something interesting or important to them?
  • The data shows that people pay attention to what they pay for, so while you can start a Mighty Network that is free, Gina recommends charging.
  • The best way to get started on Mighty Networks is to join Gina’s network, Mighty Host. There she hosts a design class to help members get the most out of their network.

About Gina

Gina Bianchini is the CEO & founder of Mighty Networks. Her mission at Mighty Networks is to usher in a new era of digital businesses built on the power of community. 

With a Mighty Network, a brand  or creator brings their content, community, online courses, and digital subscriptions together to build a network that gets more valuable to every member with each new person who joins. 

Before Mighty Networks, Gina was the first entrepreneur-in-residence at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to A16Z, she was the CEO and co-founder of Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks she started with Marc Andreessen in 2004. Under her leadership, Ning grew to ~100 million active users across 300,000 social networks led by brands and creators across subcultures, professional networks, entertainment, politics, and education. The company was sold for $150M in 2011. 

In addition to Mighty Networks, Gina serves as a board director of TEGNA (NYSE: TGNA), a $4.0 billion dollar broadcast and digital media company, and served as a board director of Scripps Networks (NASDAQ: SNI), a $14.6 billion dollar public company owner of HGTV, The Food Network, and The Travel Channel purchased by Discovery Communications in 2018.

Gina and Mighty Networks have been featured in Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, CNBC, and CNN. She grew up in Cupertino, California, graduated with honors from Stanford University, started her career in the nascent High Technology Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., and received her M.B.A from Stanford Business School.

CONTACT INFO:

Website: https://www.mightynetworks.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mightynetworks/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mightynetworks/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mightynetworks

Resources mentioned in this episode

Gina on the Girlboss Radio Podcast

Book: Untamed by Glennon Doyle

M5 Ranch School 

Gina’s Community Design class 

Find What Feels Good Kula/Yoga With Adrienne 

My cooking channel on YouTube

My Cookbook: The Accidental Paleo

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