# The Business of Belonging

> A landscape look at the software companies turning belonging into a product. From Skool's flat ninety-nine-dollar creator groups and Circle's venture-backed membership platform, to Discourse's open-source forums, to the enterprise retention machinery of Gainsight and Salesforce, to Gravyty's engagement software for nonprofits and universities - six companies are all selling a place for people to gather. The quiet question underneath every plan is ownership: who holds the member list, the conversation history, and the exit.

## Achievements

- Skool popularized flat, size-independent pricing ($99/month per community) in the creator space.
- Circle raised over $30M and reached a reported $250M valuation building a creator community platform.
- Discourse became the default open-source forum, powering communities for major tech companies and open-source projects.
- Gainsight built the customer success category and was acquired by Vista Equity Partners at a $1.1B valuation in 2020.
- Salesforce Experience Cloud extended the world's largest CRM into branded customer and partner communities.
- Gravyty consolidated alumni, donor and member engagement into one platform for nonprofits and universities.

## Latest updates

- **2025-08** — Gainsight names Chuck Ganapathi CEO and reframes customer success around agentic AI and its CustomerOS platform.
- **2024-01** — Alex Hormozi publicly describes his stake in Skool as co-ownership, amplifying the platform among creators.

## Links

- Website: https://www.skool.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gainsight
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/salesforce
- GitHub: https://github.com/discourse/discourse

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/you-dont-own-the-community-you-built
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-09