Why do some online communities thrive, and the others fizzle out? What is the secret sauce? Our guest today is the awesome Courtland Allen, the founder of Indie Hackers. You'll learn how to start a community from scratch, choose the right format, handle the mechanics, make it safe, and much more.Podcast feed: subscribe to https://feeds.simplecast.com/4MvgQ73R in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.Show NotesIndie Hackers — the famous online community we're talking aboutThe 37 signals Manifesto — Basecamp's original site from 1999Acquired by Stripe! — a blog post from 2017 about IH acquired by StripeSlack, Telegram, WhatsApp — good platforms for starting a community as a chatroomDiscourse — popular forum softwareNomad List, Hacker News, DEV — popular communities that inspired IHThe Slow, Deliberate Process of Making a SaaS Business Work with Jane Portman of Userlist — Jane's interview on Indie HackersThe Indie Hackers PodcastStart Here — a guide for new users at Indie HackersFollow Courtland on Twitter: @csallenToday's SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Nusii — proposal software made easy for creatives. Do you get stressed every time a new lead hits your inbox? Nusii was built to help you create, send, track and manage your proposals in one easy-to-use app. Forget about searching for your best content, and following up with clients to sign on the dotted line. Visit nusii.com/uibreakfast for a 30% discount on your first 3 months.Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here. Leave a ReviewReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here's how.