It’s been about two and half years since I joined TheRodinhoods.com as a member. I remember getting my welcome email from Alok and feeling super happy on seeing it. At the time I thought to myself – ‘Wow, he sends a welcome email to everyone? that’s a lot of effort”.
Like most of us here, I came across Alok’s posts on his blog Rodinhood.com, which led me to his fb page and the community he helps to nurture called ‘TheRodinhoods’.
I wasn’t very active in my initial days as a member, was more of a silent spectator. I frankly don’t think I am as active as I should be even now. But, I make it a point to logon to TRHS at least once day on most days.
So, I was wondering what it is about TRHS that makes me want to logon nearly every single day? Here’s what I came up with:
1) Membership is open to everyone – Anyone can become a member of TRHS. I know some of you reading this might question this point but think about it. Has anyone from TRHS ever told you that you can only join if you are an entrepreneur? Anyone and everyone can become a member, it doesn’t matter if you are starting up or not, if you are an MBA or a doctor or an engineer or if you have dropped out of college, if you are a VC or own an established company. I believe the only prerequisite to getting your membership active is having a verifiable Facebook/LinkedIn profile or any social media link, even your company’s ‘About Us’ page will do. This I believe is what makes the community extremely diverse and a treasure trove of experiences which no one person can ever provide to you as a mentor. Any person from any walk of life can instantly relate to some or the other post on TRHS and can take away something which will help him or her.
2) Instant feedback mechanism – Do you need feedback on your life, career or business idea? TRHS is your one-stop feedback system. This is the one thing that amazes me. A member (new or old) just needs to pen his thoughts down in the form of a post on TRHS. It could be about wanting to find a solution for bad customer service received, it could be about an experience with a particular vendor or even about wanting to reach out to the right person. In most cases, TRHS allows you to post on any topic under the sun. Members from the community are extremely helpful in providing suggestions, feedback and even constructive criticism. So, if you need feedback on anything at all, whether it is dealing with family opposition to your career decisions or registering a domain name or even complicated VC funding terms, don’t hesitate: just ASK.
3) Continuously evolving content – I’ve seen TRHS evolve from being a community which primarily discussed entrepreneurship to everything under the sun which makes for a far more well rounded resource base. I love reading posts which can be as diverse as what inspired a person to start up to a person’s obsession with cleanliness and customer service to SEO strategies and how to generate traffic for your website. This depth in content is one of the biggest strengths of TRHS.
4) Online explodes Offline – What started out as a weekly (every Friday) meeting of 7-8 individuals in Alok’s G2W office in Mumbai has metamorphosed into an event attended by more than 200 Rodinhooders at the most recent Mumbai OH in Sep 2013.
As I write this, the Delhi and Bangalore Rodinhooders are all pumped up for the upcoming OHs in their respective cities in Nov 2013. Alok’s initiative to meet people in person is probably one of the biggest strengths of not just Alok as an individual but also TRHS as a community. TRHS was no longer just an online community for entrepreneurs, it become an offline network of Rodinhooders across the world. Today, we have Rodinhooders actively meeting both formally and informally within cities and when they travel. Wherever you are, I can bet a Rodinhooder isn’t very far away 🙂
5) Alok, Asha and each and every Rodinhooder – I don’t need to say much here. The team including every Rodinhooder is the biggest reason I keep coming back. It’s not just about Alok and his insightful yet pointed posts or Asha and her effort for managing everything, it’s more about the Rodinhooders who share their unique experiences (good and bad) and want to make an effort to make not just their lives better but everyone else’s as well. I salute all of them for wanting to make a difference.
What is it about TheRodinhoods that keeps you hooked? I would really appreciate everyone sharing their own viewpoint in the comments. In fact, It would be great if we can come up with suggestions and feedback on what we like and what we don’t like as well.
Vinay Chhoda
Vipul Dutt
A lot of valid points. I agree with your post above.
Himanshu Mody
sense of belonging, energy, and the frankness with which people share their experiences. Zero vested interest of people managing it. Absolute no nonsense platform for entrepreneurs.
Mayur Sanjeev
Agree with you vinay,I am a new member but a regular visitor,I have been reading each post from past couple of months,something drives me to TRHS each day,sometimes i read previous post,its kind of motivating site for all of us,i just wanted to thank alok for creating rodinhoods for all of us,God bless you with lots of happiness:-)
Pawan Deokule
The word: Asha!
Anamika Joshi
So aptly put!