Being a part of a community is essential for all of us in order to feel a sense of belonging, a sense of support, and to share ideas and resources. In the past, we connected to the community predominantly through the area where we lived and the activities that we did. However, with the modern advances in technology, our access and options for the community have increased exponentially. In addition, with the world at our fingertips, community – or lack thereof – can be an influential factor in why we choose to support a business or not. More than ever before, consumers see the importance of choosing a product or service that aligns with their values, and a business’ community can be an excellent way to gauge their integrity.
Of course, building community is a skill that many business developers and founders do not possess. Thankfully they can turn to product experts like Sarath Kuruganty, who are passionate about building products through community, how to nurture a sense of belonging when building a community for their startups.
With a bachelor’s degree in information technology and a master’s degree in management information systems, Kuruganty has a very well-rounded education and vast expertise in product management, having helped to build various large-scale web and mobile applications, as well as building and launching over 12 of his own side projects. He is a founder, a product expert, a community builder, and a content creator who believes in giving value first before taking, building communities before building products, and doing things with an intention to serve other people. Throughout his career, Sarath was also fortunate enough to be mentored by some of the most renowned names of the industry, such as Naval Ravikant, Gagan Biyani, and James Beshara.
Kuruganty spent the early years of his career consulting a wide range of Fortune 500 companies as a Product Manager. Then, in 2017, he started working with Walgreens Digital as a contractor through Photon Infotech as a Product Owner. He was a key player in strengthening the omnichannel digital experience by providing a compelling experience on both iOS and Android platforms. He completed his work for Walgreens in 2020 and took on the interesting role of Product Evangelist at Draftbit.
Draftbit is a low-code tool that helps makers to build mobile apps from a web browser without writing a single line of code. Working at the intersection of product, growth, and community was a role perfectly suited to Kuruganty. During his time with the company, he was able to weave these three elements together to strengthen the brand. He developed product specs for new features and helped the product team succeed in building what people wanted. He collaborated with content creators on educational tools and tutorials, helped manage social media accounts, and identified online events where he could evangelize Draftbit by giving product demos. He helped to find potential partnership opportunities with no-code/maker communities and served the community by starting initiatives like weekly newsletters, AMAs, product walkthroughs, and content creation.
His community-building work was so powerful that he was offered a position with hyper-growth startup Product Hunt as a Community Programs Manager and joined the company in 2021. Product Hunt is a discovery channel that surfaces the best new tech products every day, and constantly supports a community of makers building the future. During his time with the company, Kuruganty helped founders succeed with their launch strategy and brought the community together by leading innovative community initiatives.
Kuruganty had first become familiarized with Product Hunt as a maker, as he had been nominated and even won awards for his products. His first nomination was as Product Hunt’s Community Member of the Year for 2019. He then went on to win the Maker Fest Award for one of his side projects, as well as the prestigious Maker Grant Award in 2021 – all before joining the company later that year.
His ability to bring the community together through awareness drives heightened engagement and retention, bringing attention to the fact that a strong community is essential for successful launches. Over time, Sarath Kuruganty has developed his own highly-effective approach to marketing products on a community level.
“A sustainable community is very much the foundation of a product or a service. You need to show people where they belong in order to create a sense of belonging and, essentially, a community,” the expert shares, “I have built large and small communities over the past five years, helping startups like Product Hunt, and teaching passionate founders how to create self-sustainable communities based around their startups.”
After leaving Product Hunt in the middle of 2022, Kuruganty worked briefly for On Deck – where top talent goes to accelerate their ideas and careers, surrounded by a world-class community – to spearhead community initiatives and programs around special projects. He worked cross-functionally with the On Deck team and relevant stakeholders to bring community initiatives to life, handling community strategy, ideation, execution, design, growth, launch, and marketing.
Most recently, Kuruganty was given the role of Head of Community at Threado, a community management platform that helps community builders get insights, automate tasks, and drive engagement. When asked about how he got to where he is today, Kuruganty credits his incredible mentors and peers in Silicon Valley – many of whom are at the pinnacle of the tech industry. He is eager to pay this forward by acting as an advisor to many venture-backed early-stage startups like Virtually, Cabal, Fathom, Alida School and many more.
“Marketing has changed, thanks to digitization,” Kuruganty explains, “We never had the kind of connectivity that we do today, which is why we need to change the way that we network, market, and launch our products. Building a strong community is instrumental in ensuring that your product not only receives the exposure it needs for a successful launch, but also the community it needs in order to continue building, developing, and improving.”