How to find the first members of your community

Find people already talking about the subject your community is built around, and give them a clear reason to join.

SalmanFounder, ReacherX

Sep 2, 20262 min readUpdated Sep 11, 2026

I want to meet people who are excited about the things I'm excited about. People I can ask questions, exchange ideas with, and build with. That's a big part of why I open-sourced ReacherX, and why I want a community around it.

So when I talk about finding community members, this is something I need myself. Getting a number next to the member count isn't the goal. I want people to actually talk to each other.

Who would you like to meet?

Be specific when you set up a community workspace in ReacherX. For example, you could be starting a group where solo developers try each other's apps. Tell △ Agent:

Find solo developers on X/Twitter and LinkedIn who are sharing early versions of their apps and asking for feedback. I want to bring them together for a weekly session where we try each other's projects.

That gives it an audience and a reason to look for them. “Find people for my Discord” doesn't tell it much.

Read the posts it finds. If someone is asking for feedback you can give, help them there. They shouldn't have to join your server first.

Invite a developer who has asked for a place to share their work.

What are you inviting them to?

I wouldn't know what to do with “join our amazing community” if I received it. What happens there? Is there something I'd want to be part of?

For the developer group, an invitation could be:

I saw you're looking for feedback on the onboarding. We're doing a small project feedback session this Friday. Would you like to bring your app?

Only say that if you've actually arranged the session. Include the time, where it happens, and any cost. A small group is fine. You don't need to make it sound bigger than it is.

You can ask ReacherX for plans for several people. Read each invitation. If it doesn't explain why you thought of that person, it needs work.

Be there when they arrive

Answer their question. Try their project. Introduce them to someone when there's a reason to. Those are the things I want from a community myself.

If this is the kind of thing you'd like to help build around ReacherX, come talk to me in Discord. You can also read why I open-sourced it for the longer story.